Raining Since You Left
by: Tiasha
The sun had been bright when she had left the house and when she had left the store but somewhere on her way home, it had begun to rain. Earth was unpredictable in that way. Mother Nature liked to keep her children on their toes, Hilde noticed.
"Oh damn, the bag is going to rip," Hilde cursed as the paper bag began to slowly stretch from wetness.
Nearly losing all of the groceries she had bought, Hilde made it to the house with minor complications. She quickly placed what was left of the bag on the counter, shucked off her wet coat, and threw it into the laundry room.
She groaned, seeing that the clothes had not been washed and stormed off to the office. She slammed the door shut and glared at the braided young man that had somehow stolen her heart. She watched him jump as she'd slammed the door and slowly turn to look at her.
"Uh...hi Hilde. What's up?" he said cheerfully. She sighed and shook her head. Leave it to Duo Maxwell to forget the laundry, and all his other chores for that matter.
"You didn't do the laundry," she explained, frowning as he shrugged his shoulders. "You said you'd do it when I left earlier. It's still there," she continued.
"No I didn't, you told me to do the laundry, I never said I would," he answered, sorting through papers on the large, cluttered, cherry-stained desk.
She stared at him in shock for a few moments but then frowned. She rarely asked him to do household chores, rarely, almost never! Of course the one time she really needed him to, he didn't.
"Duo, how often do I ask you to do something for me?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest. He looked at her for a moment before he went back to the paperwork, throwing a few papers into a wastebasket.
"All the time, you always ask me to get something off of a shelf," he answered, signing some document for a shipment.
"I'm too short Duo," she stated bluntly, causing him to look up again. "I meant a chore of some sort."
"Never," he said simply. "Look Hilde, you told me to go through these papers today and I am. Now you're upset because I did what you asked?"
"No, I asked you to do the laundry before the office! Duo, you never listen! It's like I'm not here! I know the house is my responsibility and that the office is yours but I rarely need you to help me! When I do, you always let me down!"
"Hey! I have never let you down the whole time I've known you! I've saved your life countless of times and you've never shown me any gratitude!"
"I have too and you know it! I gave you a place to stay and come back to during the war!"
"And in return I've saved your life!"
"That's it, isn't it! If you don't get anything in return it's a no-go! Isn't it?!"
"Look, calm down, I'm sorry okay?" he asked, sighing as he massaged his temples, frowning at the papers in front of him.
Hilde shook her head, "You know what? You can keep the office and the house as my gratitude."
He looked at her suspiciously and frowned even more. She turned away and headed down the hall towards her room; she threw open the doors to her closet and grabbed a duffel bag. She packed a change of clothes, a book, money, and a few other essentials.
"What are you doing?" she heard Duo ask from behind her, disbelieve evident in his voice. She choked back tears as she zipped her bag shut.
"Exactly what it looks like, I'm leaving," she answered with finality, shouldering her duffel and turning to walk out of her room.
"You can't go," he said, blocking the doorway.
"Try to stop me...it won't work," she hissed, shoving past him and into the hall.
"It's raining and it's getting dark! You'll catch a cold!" Duo reasoned, chasing her down the hallway.
"A cold's better than not being appreciated..." she muttered.
He grabbed her arm and roughly turned her around to face him. "You are not leaving," he again said forcefully. He suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his cheek.
Hilde ignored the pain in her hand as she continued to glare at him. He looked at her and she saw anger flash in his violet-blue eyes. She felt her head twist to the side of its own accord and an extreme amount of pain in her jaw. She looked up at him in shock and fear as his hand once again hit her.
She twisted away from him frantically as she saw him pale. She raced for the door and left the safety of the house. She debated about going back in, sitting on the curb of the sidewalk; she waited in the rain for what seemed like forever. Finally, she stood and walked down the street, away from her home and away from the man that held her heart.
She had been walking for what had to have been an hour with no place to go. She did not have enough money credits to buy a shuttle ticket and leave the colony, but she had no desire to leave anyway.
Duo had never laid a harmful hand on her in the whole time she had known him, never had he been violent enough to hit her. She loved him and he knew it, he knew because she had told him so. They had only recently decided to seriously become a couple but for some reason; today had not been a good day for Hilde.
She stopped at a crosswalk and stepped out, seeing no cars around. She abruptly stopped when she heard her name being called. Slowly, she turned around to find only a cat dashing across the walkway behind her.
"You're getting paranoid," she told herself but continued to stare at the path she had just come from. She suddenly could see a form in the distance with something swinging behind it.
"Duo," she whispered, almost in fear. As he grew closer, she could see him wearing a long trench coat and a baseball cap. She hesitantly took a step backwards and stopped, unsure of what to do. She was barely aware of the fact that she was still in the middle of the road.
The sudden sound of tires screeching on pavement caused her to turn her head. Fear...true terror, gripped her heart and throat; she watched as a car swerved from side to side on the wet pavement, out of control and she stood frozen in the middle of the road.
She was thrown backwards as the tons of metal hit her and was slammed roughly onto the pavement, a searing, white pain radiating through her entire body. Her legs she could no longer feel, her arms ached deeply and her head continued to throb with a tremendous migraine. She could barely recognize her name being cried out in anguish over the throbbing. The last thing she was aware of was the rain pounding on her face, "mother earth" crying for her harmed child...and then darkness.
~~~~^~~~~~@
Duo stood frozen in shock as he realized what had just happened. He had struck the one girl he would have moved heaven and earth for, the one woman he had never wanted to harm. He had hit her, twice, out of anger...and love as well.
He had wanted her to stay and listen to his reasoning, to tell her he was sorry and that he loved her. He had wanted to tell her go dress in her best because he had reserved a seat at one of the best restaurants...he had wanted to surprise her. He surprised her all right; he had surprised her damn well.
Why? Why was it that she was the one who had gotten hurt? He was the one at fault but when she had said that she was leaving him, he'd wanted to knock some sense into her...and he had. He'd done that and chased her away.
"What have I done?" he asked himself out loud, shaking his head in disgust. He stared at the open door and the heavy rain soaking the carpeted floor.
"Hilde! Hilde wait!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. He ran to the closet and grabbed his dark blue trench coat, his black baseball cap, and an umbrella, which he placed into his coat pocket.
"Hilde!" he practically screamed as he raced out into the pounding rain. He'd be damned if he just let her leave without a kiss; he grinned at his humor, the most inopportune times!
He ran through the wet streets, a destination being the least of his worries. He ran and ran, only stopping once at the spaceport, asking if Hilde had been there. His heart sank slightly when the ticketer shook his head, but it immediately rose when realization struck him. She was still on the colony; she had not left him yet. He knew that she'd had enough time to buy a ticket had she really wanted to leave him and this colony.
He silently continued searching the streets and an hour passed. He stopped as he saw and elderly couple huddling together under an umbrella.
"Excuse me...sir, ma'am," he said, catching their attention and causing them to stop. They looked at him expectantly and he swallowed his suddenly dry throat.
"Did you by chance see a woman about 5 foot 5 go by? She has short blue-black hair, uh pixie cut I believe and blue eyes. She had no jacket or umbrella?" he asked looking hopeful. How many people would be outside with no jacket or umbrella when it was raining cats and dogs? Not many.
The man looked at his wife who in turn looked at him. "Actually, we did, just five minutes ago," the man said, shaking his head. "Poor thing was soaked to the bone."
Duo once again felt his heart leap as the words left the old man's mouth. He nodded his thanks and took off, praying that he would catch up to her in time. He saw a form begin to cross a street and stop.
"Hilde!" he shouted, seeing the form. He grew closer and saw her take a step backwards and stop again.
No! Please, don't run from me; let me explain PLEASE! Least try to explain, he prayed silently.
He then heard something that made his heart and chest constrict painfully. He could see her clearly now with the headlights of the oncoming car shinning on her. He watched as she stood frozen in fear, unable to move out of the way.
The car hit her, causing her to fly about five feet backwards and land roughly on the ground. She did not move.
"Hilde!" he screamed in anguish at the top of his lungs, running towards her lifeless body. She was covered in red, her red blood creating a river as the heavy rain-washed it away. Duo heard the driver exit his car and begin to sputter.
"My God! I didn't mean to, I didn't know...I tried to stop! Honestly I did!" the driver stated in a near hysteria.
Duo just cradled her body to his, tears streaming down his face, mixing with the raindrops that continued to fall. "Hilde," he whispered, "everything's going to be all right. Just hang in there with me, please."
He turned to the driver and glared at him, causing him to back away slowly. "Go call for help!" Duo snapped, causing the driver to stumble backwards again. He growled at the driver and yelled again for someone to help him.
Duo's attention went back to the body he held in his arms, the limp-almost dead body. He stared past her pale face and at the pool of blood and water he found himself sitting in. Her blood, it was her blood and she was losing more and more as the time drew on...all because of him.
"Please, don't leave me...Hilde."
~~~~^~~~~~@
It was raining again, like it had been that night, and the day of her funeral. It was raining and it was cold; that was all he knew, the weather and time of day. It had been two months since she had left him, two months since that fatal accident, two months of rain it seemed.
His hand spasmodically clenched the roses he had brought with him. Two red roses for his namesake, red to represent his love for her, one rose for her and one for himself, always together. No matter what. The other roses he had brought her numerous times before were still there; however, the older ones had long turned brown while the fresher ones had hints of brown marring their beautiful red petals. The rain still fell; it fell onto his face, mingling with his tears, the same way it had that fatal night.
Duo stared at her tombstone, the same way he had done so many times before; he visited her grave every other day, having nothing better to do during the week. He had long since let the business die, it reminded him too much of her. She had loved that business and without her, he had lost all interest in it. He remembered hearing the accident reported on the news, and he remembered having to write her obituary, and her funeral...those were the hardest days of his life. Nothing in the war had compared to those days.
He swallowed the lump in his throat, attempting to control his emotions for a little while longer. He had to, he did not know why but he knew he had to; he owed her that much and more.
"Hey Hilde," he began, smiling tenderly, imagining that it was she standing in front of him and not her tombstone. "Well, Relena and Heero are gonna get hitched, no surprise there, huh?"
Silence.
"I know that they'll be happy together. Quatre's business is doing well, no great. It's hitting the top of the charts in stock. Trowa's happy staying at the circus with his sister, Catherine."
More silence...distant thunder.
Duo fell to his knees, no longer able to imagine her in front of him. He sobbed like a lost child as he placed his head against the cold, wet marble of her tombstone. His fingers began to slowly trace the inscription, the inscription that was already etched into his memory. He knew it by heart.
Hilde Schbieker
A.C. 180 - A.C. 200
Soldier in battle;
Friend when needed
and courageous
to the end.
In our hearts always.
"I'm--I'm sorry Hilde," he sobbed, "I can't do this, I can't do it without you. I need you..."
Silence. More thunder.
"Why?! Why couldn't you have held on? I'm not able to do anything without you! I can't--! I'm not sure who I am anymore," he whispered, continuing to cry.
He stared at her tombstone as he slipped one of his hands into his trench coat pocket, the same trench coat he had worn that night. He fingered the cool metal he found in that pocket; the cool, dangerous metal that could end all of his misery.
Duo pulled the revolver out of his pocket and stared at it emotionlessly, watching the rain bounce and trickle off the metal. The rain caused the metal to shimmer in what small amount of light there was. His gaze drifted to Hilde's tombstone; should he? Would she be angry?
"I can't do anything without you anymore. I-I just can't! I'm...sorry Hilde, so very sorry," he whispered, slowly standing up, his gaze still on her tombstone. He took a few steps backwards, the raining continuing to pound heavily against him.
He slowly raised the gun, placing the cold nose against his temple, and his eyes dully looking at the landscape in front of him. This section of the cemetery was to those who had fought during the Eve Wars, and even those had not died during the battles, were still honored and had soil reserved for their burial. Hell, if he tried hard enough, he could see the area that was meant for the five gundam pilots and Vice Foreign Minister, himself, Heero, Trowa, Wufei, Quatre, and Relena.
He looked one last time at his beloved's grave, smiling wistfully.
"Sorry Hilde-babe, I tried, honestly I did," he said, cocking the revolver. "It just didn't work out. I'm so very sorry. I love you. I'll be joining you soon."
He closed his eyes, pulling the trigger and seeing Hilde's beautiful, smiling face.
A gunshot could be heard echoing through the cemetery, but the thunder of the oncoming storm quickly conquered it.
The rain fell harder; Mother Nature wept.
Owari (The End)
disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS!!!! Do not sue me for anything but my imagination, which will probably not get you very far in the court room anyway.
Questions? Comments? Flames? E-mail me at korin012@yahoo.com
I enjoy feedback, really I do! I was disappointed at the amount of e-mails I received....or lack there of. Authoress really does enjoy feedback! My other works are I Am Series, Operation Phoenix, A Place For My Head and For Eternity. Check 'em out if you like and please review! Thanks! Ja na minna-san!