Songfic
"Beautiful Day" lyrics by Bono
music by U2
fanfiction by: Icicle Raindream
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Gundam Wing and make no profit off these fics.
Notes: Hoo-boy…if I had a buck every time I had this song running through my head! Anyway, I totally love this song and had been down in the dumps as of late, feeling as if I needed to write but had nothing to write about. Soooo…what's a little Endless Waltz inspiration? A life-saver! Now, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure this fic makes any sense, but…I tried. I pulled this out of the air, okay? Oh, and keep in mind that the lyrics are incorporated into the story…especially at the end. I hope you enjoy…this is for all you sappy people out there who love our favorite "are we or aren't we" couple! "^-~"
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"Oh, freedom at last!"
My voice bounced off my bedroom walls as I walked inside and flung the door shut behind me. Surprisingly, I wasn't tired. In fact, I felt just the opposite. I was charged, I was hyped up, I was ready to go. I just needed to get out of this horribly constricting outfit first.
Last night, as I'd laid in bed around eight o'clock, I'd been dreading the morning. I mean, whoever decided to hold a peace conference at six-thirty a.m. the next day? Ridiculous. But yet here I was afterward, wide awake and ready to jam. I just needed something to get me going even more.
I spied my inspiration, and before I knew it, rock music was blaring out into my bedroom, filling my chest with the beat as the floor shook beneath me. I walked over to my mirror and ripped the hair tie from my hair, flinging it wildly to the side and not caring where at landed at the moment. I just opened my mouth, ran my fingers madly through my hair, and sung at the top of my lungs. The light brown locks cascaded over my head and fell messily onto my shoulders as I began dancing like a madman while trying to simultaneously strip, my singing louder as I began to tear at my clothes, trying to unbutton as fast as I could. My pants were tossed unceremoniously over my head to land hopefully somewhere near the bed, and half my blouse was undone as I stopped to sing at my own reflection. The guitar was blaring itself through my room, ruffling the curtains with its pumping tempo, and I held my fist to my mouth, mocking a microphone. After sitting for three hours in a stiff position wearing an equally stiff suit giving everyone stiff nods of agreement, I needed to let go. I needed my body to act on its own and just let go. I sang even louder at myself, dressed only in thin stockings and a half-open blouse that hung to my mid-thighs. I grabbed up my air guitar and finished the song a minute later with a huge flourish, throwing my arms out to the side and my head back. I let the laughter roll off my tongue then, my chest heaving with giggles as I struggled to breathe. Man, I needed that!
I finally demolished the last of my laughs and stared in the mirror for a second, taking in the horrific sight I'd created of myself. My blouse hung off one shoulder, my stockings were sagging--making me look like I had the skin of an eighty-year-old as it bunched by my knees--and my hair was a tangled mess of knots and kinks, thanks to my wandering hands. I stood and just laughed again, shaking my head at myself. Whoever knew that music could have such an effect on me?
I turned around, intending to go over to my dresser to find some more comfortable clothes, when something stopped me. I let out with a curt screech, then slapped my own hand over my mouth when I recognized the figure standing behind me.
"Heero!" My tone was a mixture of shock, pleasure, and embarrassment.
It was silent for a moment, and the only thing I could hear was the sound of my own heavy breathing, which I still hadn't caught yet. Then,
"Do I get an encore performance?"
My cheeks flushed crimson as the heat mounted on my face, and I stood where I was before him, nervously shifting my weight and trying to tuck my hair neatly behind my ears.
"Um…how long have you been standing there?" I asked him.
"Long enough," was the response. Heero sounded as if he witnessed this every day.
"Oh, well…" I glanced down at myself and noticed I'd put a huge run in the left foot of my pantyhose. Mentally, my hand slapped my head and I clucked my tongue in annoyance.
Heero must have thought it had been directed at him. "If you want me to leave, I'll--"
"No!" I said, a little too forcefully. I reached my hand out to him and waved it frantically, looking back up at him. "Don't go."
"You're sure," he stated, folding his arms.
"Yeah…I, uh…" I, uh, found myself quite speechless at the moment actually.
"You…uh…" Heero pointed to me, making fun of my stuttering. "You might want to finish getting dressed."
I blushed to the roots of my hair. "Oh, yeah," I replied intelligently. "That's a good idea." I tugged my fallen blouse shoulder back up to cover my bra strap.
"Or you could finish getting undressed."
I swear, if they hadn't been attached, my eyes would have rolled right out of my head and landed on the floor in front of us. I didn't just hear Heero say that! (Well, you know how teenage boys are…) But still! This was Heero here!
I walked stiffly past him, keeping the back of my shirt down over my rear, and quickly yanked open my dresser drawers and pulled clothes out to change into. I bundled them all together and high-tailed it into my bathroom where I closed the door behind me in relief. I finished removing my work clothes and proceeded to slip into my T-shirt and jeans. The more I thought about what Heero had just seen of me, the more I thought it was hilarious, and so I spent five minutes in the bathroom hiding my face in a thick towel, muffling my noises of laughter. The tears flooded down my face and soaked the material, and I ended up having to wash my face with cold water to lessen the redness across my cheeks. I added a bit of makeup then, smoothing on some cool lipgloss that tingled with a strawberry tinge. It occurred to me that Heero might have gotten impatient with waiting for me, and so I left my work clothes on the bathroom floor and opened the door again, my heart leaping into my throat. I looked out into my bedroom and couldn't see him anywhere.
I stepped out and sighed heavily, disappointed. I'd accidentally driven him away from me and there was no one left to blame. I walked over to my curtains and flung them apart, allowing the glorious sunlight to cast itself into my bedroom, caressing my face with its heated fingers. I stood with my eyes closed, just feeling the daytime radiance as it bathed me in its golden glow.
"Your conferences are over for the day, am I right?"
My eyes snapped open and I looked over my shoulder, staring at Heero as he came up next to me and gazed out the window. My eyes trailed over his dark, mussed hair, down over his blue shirt and onto his jeans, and slowly, I nodded.
"Yes," I affirmed. "Today's a free day for me."
"What are you planning to do with it?"
I noted somewhere in the back of my mind that we were dressed similarly and smiled, then replied, "It's a beautiful day, Heero."
I turned to him and spontaneously snagged his hand, then began to pull him towards the doorway. I saw his eyes widen at my sudden movements, but he didn't resist. He just followed me wordlessly out through the house and onto the street.
*
The sun was high in the sky by now, raining its rays down onto our shoulders as the wind blew warmly through my hair. Heero and I walked along the stony road together, listening to the birds chirping in the trees and watching squirrels dart back and forth in front of us. Abruptly, Heero stooped down to ground level and I halted in my tracks, watching him.
He ran his hand up the length of the flower, then grabbed directly underneath the petals and swiftly pulled, uprooting it from the stony ground. He turned to me and held the colorful flower out in his palm, beckoning for me to take it from him. I grinned and obliged, my fingers trailing against his skin as I took the flower and stuck it into my hair, over my ear. He began walking again, and I kept pace by his side. He seemed so serene that I dared not say anything, just kept walking to my preplanned destination.
The heart is a bloom, shoots up from the stony ground
But there's no room, no space to rent in this town
You're out of luck and the reason you had to care,
The traffic is stuck and you're not going anywhere.
You thought you'd found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace
*
Heero and I walked side by side through the sand, our bare feet being washed by the beach water as its waves crashed laughingly against the shore, lapping at our ankles. I began to hum, casting glances and smiles over my shoulder at him as the sun illuminated his face and made his eyes shine the pure blue of innocence, the breeze ruffling our clothes. Heero walked with his hands in his pockets, occasionally taking deep breaths, contentedly filling his lungs with the salty sea air.
And then suddenly, I brought my hands up, flattened my palms, and shoved him. Heero, who had the fastest reaction time and reflex ability of anyone I knew, was caught offguard and went tumbling into the water, splashing it all around his form. I watched his feet fly into the air and descended into uncontrollable laughter, my hand covering my mouth but not doing any good as droplets of water landed on my clothes. I couldn't stand upright at the moment and fell into the water next to him, the water washing over my body and face. It didn't stifle my giggling, and I glanced over at him, praying with all I was worth that he wasn't angry. I laughed harder at his appearance and reached over to remove the seaweed from his hair.
Heero, for the most part, didn't have anything to say. He just lay next to me (perhaps in shock at what I'd done to him) with the water washing all around him, a sort of half-blank yet pleasant look on his face. After a few seconds, he took my incentive and spread his arms out to the sides, tilting his head up to the sky. The sun beat through the cool liquid of the sea and warmed our faces as we floated into the deeper end of the ocean.
There we treaded water, the two of us, and I began to fill him in on what was going on the peace conference world. He seemed genuinely interested, and so we spent a good portion of the morning out there in the water, me babbling my head off but enjoying myself immensely, watching Heero as the water dripped from his hair to his face, running over those seductive, almost pouty lips of his. He nodded a lot and agreed with me on some of my ideas, and I felt myself beaming at him proudly.
A little while later, my breath became nonexistent as he pulled me to him and proceeded to give me a piggyback ride, taking us both back to the shore. I can't be positive on what I'd said to him then, seeing as my attention was distracted by his hair against my mouth and my hands around his shoulders and my legs…wrapped tightly around his slim waist. Oh, hell…I don't think I said anything. He had temporarily demolished my voice from my throat, and all I could smell was that musty scent that was not only teenage boy, but also distinctly Heero. He swam as agile as a fish, and I was disappointed that the ride came to such a quick end as he stood up and carried me back to the dry sand on his back. There I slid wetly off him and we jammed our feet back into our shoes. I watched Heero tug one corner of his shirt into a twist and begin ringing out water. I tried to do the same with my shirt after he'd finished, but I was barely strong enough to get rid of all the water and my breath caught again as Heero stepped up to me and did it himself. I watched the muscles in his arms flex as he squeezed my shirt tightly around me and rung the twist out, the liquid running over his wrists to plop onto the hot sand. He moved his head then, looking into my eyes, and I found his mouth way too close to mine. Unfortunately, he stepped back then, letting go, and I busied myself with smoothing my shirt down.
You're on the road but you've got no destination
You're in the mud, in the maze of her imagination
You love this town even if it doesn't ring true
You've been all over and it's been all over you
*
Then we were back on the street again, walking side by side with the breeze still blowing warmly through my hair. Only this time, I'd pulled it back and braided it, and stuck the flower back into its original place over my ear. Somehow, the petals had survived the sea and clung for dear life onto my messy tresses, and I wasn't about to let it go. It was too beautiful a day for that.
Unfortunately, I'd forgotten one thing along the course of this morning: I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast. I couldn't fathom eating a full meal at six a.m. this morning, and so I'd skipped Pagan's offer to cook me something and just went without. Halfway through the conference my stomach rumbled like crazy, but by the time I had made it home it had settled down and I'd completely dismissed it. Especially when Heero had surprised me in my own room--I'd just completely erased my mind and acted on my emotions. I hadn't wanted Heero to leave, and so I'd only focused on him and not anything hardly important like my hunger.
But still, I was incredibly lucky anyway. As Heero and I turned a corner together, we continued down a street that was lined with trees on both sides, standing with thick trunks next to each other, the leaves rustling in the wind. I noticed that round, cherry red, green leafed apples were hanging invitingly from the branches of some of the trees. My mouth watered at the sight of them, a whole ripe batch hung in a tree, ready to be claimed for eating and I raced away from Heero and stood in front of a trunk. Heero came up behind me, an inquisitive look on his face as he watched me pat the thick bark and crinkle my brow in thought.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Help me," I said, turning around and reaching for him. "I need to climb up there."
"Why?" Heero asked, wrinkling his brows in return.
I pointed an outstretched finger over my head, towards the clump of apples that hung a few feet above us, and explained, "Lunch."
Heero glanced up, then back down at me, and then clasped his fingers together, palms up. He stood by my side and offered his hands to me. I held onto the tree trunk and slipped my foot into his hands, then held for dear life as he hefted me up. I grabbed onto a branch and lifted myself onto it, then waited for Heero to make his way up next to me. I tried to get the apples myself, but all I proceeded in doing was making my whole body wobble and threatening myself with falling roughly to the ground. Heero's arms around my waist steadied me and he plucked the apples instead, helping me sit next to him in the tree on the branch. He buffed a crimson red apple on his recently dried shirt, then handed it to me. I smiled at him and crunched into the apple, my teeth sinking into the delicious juice and firm inside. My stomach thanked me the minute I swallowed and continued to ravage the apple with my mouth.
So Heero and I stayed there for a while, listening as the birds above us sang and flapped into and out of the tree, the wind still breezing past us, the sun still shining. We finished two apples each and decided it was enough to last for at least a few more hours, and Heero swung himself out of the tree and down to land on his feet with graceful movements. He looked up at me and spread his arms up, and I trusted him with my life as he helped me down, my fingers gouging into his arms, afraid I would topple either out of his hold or just fall completely over him. He held tightly to me, though, and his grip didn't waver, even as my feet planted themselves onto the ground. I held his forearms, looking into those Prussian blue eyes, and he blinked at me, a look of…blankness on his face. No, wait…it wasn't blankness, it was…too hard to describe. He just looked at me, I guess. But he seemed to enjoy what he was looking at.
Touch me, take me to that other place
Teach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case
I don't know how long we stood just staring at each other, but I shook my head a bit and then pulled back from him, a small grin sliding across my face. I took Heero's hand and led him back out onto the street, and we continued to walk silently. If it sounds boring, it really wasn't. For some reason, it seemed like there was no need for any words to be exchanged between us. And why bother risking ruining a beautiful day like this by saying something stupid when everything was perfect the way it was? I didn't want to take that chance, and so I kept my mouth shut.
Heero however, didn't share my reasoning. He spoke up after a few minutes.
"Relena?"
"Hmm?" I glanced at him over my shoulder, raising my eyebrows.
"Why did you bring me out here with you?"
At first, I thought he was annoyed. But then I realized that Heero was merely asking, and if I hadn't known him better, I would have said that he sounded a bit confused.
I thought for a second, then said, "Well, a day like this just couldn't be wasted alone."
Heero looked at me. "What kind of day is this?"
I smiled brightly. "A beautiful one. I wanted you to see."
"See what?"
I squeezed his hand harder in mine. "Everything."
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light and
See the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours came out
*
We walked all day, just along the road path, until we came upon a small meadow, dotted here and there with brightly colored flowers, violets and sky-blues and hunter greens and apple reds mixed in with each other as the wind continued to blow by. Heero and I took a break from walking then, and we lay on our backs in the middle of the field, watching as the sun went down and the stars began peeking out of the sky. It was truly a sight to behold, what with the orange glow fading and the blackness spreading, glittering with the tiny eyes of the universe, and I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather share it with than Heero. I flopped over onto my belly and observed him, watching how his eyes searched the sky, seeking out something only he knew inside his head.
"What's it like?" I asked then, pulling at some blades of grass.
"What's what like?" he responded, still staring up at the night sky.
"Space."
He took a deep breath in. "It's cold," he replied. "It reeks of battle and it's very cold." He paused. "But that was then. This is now." He shifted his head and looked at me. "I suppose it's very different now that the war is finally over. Perhaps it's changed and isn't so cold anymore, but I don't know. I haven't been there since my last battle."
I nodded, accepting his explanation. Then I ventured, "Will you take me someday?"
"To space?" Heero's eyes gleamed into mine, the now fully visible moon reflecting in them as he locked his gaze upon my face.
I nodded again, fiddling with the uprooted grass strands in my hands. "To space."
"Why?"
I chose my answer carefully, although I knew it was the utter truth anyway. "I want to see if it's cold when you have someone you care for with you."
Heero didn't reply, just kept looking at me, his arms folded beneath his head as a makeshift pillow. I scooted a bit closer to him and dropped the grass in my right hand, instead taking it and smoothing my fingers across his chest, then cupping his side to me as I leaned my face over his. He didn't pull or tilt his head away, instead he kissed me back wholeheartedly, pushing his lips against mine, warm and oh, so heavenly I thought I would melt into his heat as my heavily lidded eyes sunk shut. I could only feel, at that particular moment, Heero's warm mouth on mine and Heero's warm body half-underneath me, both of us still as we broke the friendship barrier and crossed into something more intimate. What it was exactly, I couldn't say…other than it was an absolutely beautiful moment in time on an absolutely beautiful day. I don't suppose I could have asked for a better ending to an evening with Heero.
Touch me, take me to that other place
Reach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case
After the kiss broke, Heero and I stood up and he walked me home, my fingers intertwined with his. The small touch we had between us was enough to keep me warm as the night cooled down drastically, the wind chilly, and he walked me up to my front porch. I moved around in front of him onto the first step, still clutching his hand. He lifted our hands before us and stared at them, and I followed suit, knowing there was something he wanted to say by his single motion. I watched as his fingers squeezed mine and then he looked up at me, standing a step below. The yellow beam of the porch light didn't hinder the gleam in his eyes.
"Thank you." His voice was soft and he rubbed his fingers against mine.
I was momentarily confused. "For what?" I asked him.
He flattened his palm against my hand, each of his fingers pressed up against one of mine. "I understand now."
I smiled at him. "Good-night, Heero."
"Good-night, Relena."
He dropped his hand then and waited until I turned around to the door and twisted the knob, stepping inside my house. I glanced back at him before shutting the door behind me, then raced up to my bedroom and stood by the window. I watched as he walked down the street, his hands in his pockets, his face turned towards the stars once again. The look of contentment on his features shone brighter than the moon that night, and I moved to lay on my bed with the most satisfied feeling in my heart. He understood now, and that was all that mattered.
What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
You don't need it now, you don't need it now…
Beautiful Day…
Don't let it get away
It's a Beautiful Day…