By ChibiQuatre (6/22/00)
Yet another GW disclaimer: well, do you all REALLY want me to write a disclaimer?! We all know that I don't own GW (though God KNOWS I wish I did!). The GW boyz r'nt mine, never were, never will b. They are owned by their respective creators; Sunrise, There...happy!!! ((oh, and any trouble translating the japanese, I'll b happy to help!))
*NOTE: this is another one of those yaoi fics, so yaoi haters better leave now! i don't want flames plaguing my reviews or my e-mail inbox. it's a 3x4 (since i think they're the kewtest yaoi couple, and besides, who else would go with them? Trowa and Quatre r da perfect team! ^_^) it's done in Trowa's POV. oh ya, if u read my other ficcie, "Mother," u'll c that this is a little sidestory that happens alongside "Mother." i have 2 other fics, "Duo no Hero" and also "Final Farewell," that also go alongside this story.
* * *
"Ne, Trowa, how about coming down to earth with me? Just for a little while of
course," Quatre prodded me again.
"Well..." I really did want to go with the little one. He tried so persistently to get
me to go, it was hard not to laugh--although I controlled my laughter quite easily.
In fact, Duo laughed everytime Quatre begged me.
But Duo's a baka.
It was apparent how Quatre felt. He desperately wanted me to go with him to
earth. I knew he loved me...I loved him too. We had never confessed it to
anyone; well, I haven't anyways. But it's obvious. And I think everyone in the
room right now can see it.
"It would be good to see Katherine again," I mumbled quietly. Quatre looked a
little hurt, but didn't say anything.
Relena looked at me sadly. "So, you two will be leaving?"
I hated it when she got all weepy-eyed. She looked as if she was going to cry
when Wufei left for L5, although I couldn't guess why. She had the rest of us
here. And it wasn't as if I was going to live at Quatre's base forever, just a little
while, until I had enough of a vacation to relax me a little. Quatre really needed a
break. He was starting to look worn down and haggard. Maybe I'd even go back
to the carnival, for old times sake.
"Hai," I answered Relena. She looked even more depressed, but covered it up
with a well-practiced diplomat's smile.
"Well," she said. "What will you do?"
I told her of my plans. "Visit Katherine. Maybe join up with the circus again. Get
a few knife-throwing acts in." Although to any ordinary person, having knives
thrown at one isn't exactly one's idea of relaxing.
Relena smiled at me, and turned to Quatre. "What about you?"
He looked up in surprise. The whole time, he had been toying with his hands,
twisting his fingers and wrapping one hand in the other. "Oh, uh, I don't plan on
doing much. It's just that my father has a lot of unfinished work, and the earth is
so beautiful..." his tiny voice faded away.
The Arabian always had such romantic thoughts on his mind. It was admirable,
and well, I thought it was cute.
"I see. Well, have fun you two." At Relena's comment, Duo winked at Quatre and
me. Heero frowned at the braided boy's antics in disgust.
Quatre, ignoring his own weariness, noticed the gloom in Relena's voice and
tried to cheer her up. He attempted to brighten his voice. "Ne, don't worry minna.
We'll be back soon enough. We just need a little break, that's all."
I nodded in agreement. After all, how often was it that we had a vacation? We'd
been fighting so very long already. Everyone looked exhaused. It was time to
relax.
* * *
Laugh if you will...I never knew how pleasant tea time could be.
It was a daily event. Around 4 o'clock, Quatre would appear from the kitchen,
carrying biscuits or crackers on a silver tray.
And he made the most delicious tea.
I don't know what kind it was, but it was pure and untainted, much like the little
one himself. And it was made by Quatre, so I didn't much care about what type
of tea I was drinking.
Late at night, when I'm alone in my room, I can almost laugh sometimes. Me,
Trowa Barton, drinking tea with the renowned heir of the entire Winner fortune.
It's a pretty tall tale, but true.
Now, it's almost tea time. I'm glad I decided to leave the Peacecraft mansion with
Quatre. This was even better than having knives thrown at me. I mean, don't get
me wrong; I don't mind it. I like helping Katherine out. I think I'm the only one in
the entire carnival brave enough to be in the knife-throwing act.
But so far, I hadn't so much as called Katherine. Oh well. The others will never
know.
Ah, just in time. Here comes Quatre with that silver tray. Smells wonderful, as
usual.
I frowned slightly. Quatre's hands were shaking. A week at the base and he was
still tired. He really needed to rest. Especially after last night.
Last night, Duo had called. And in the middle of the night, imagine that! He had
woken both me and the blond up, and I can't say I liked it.
I was standing next to Quatre's bed, admiring him in his sleep. It looked like he
was having a good dream. He was deep in sleep, and I would have like to stroke
his feathery-light hair.
Except the phone had rung.
I had backed away in sheer panic. What if he had caught me in his room? I
remember running out into the hall and back into my own room. After several
rings, I was tempted to get the phone myself, but heard Quatre's voice through
the thin walls that divided our rooms. Pretending I had just been woken up, I
stumbled blindly into his room, as if I was still fuzzed by sleep.
I can't believe that Duo had called, just because he was bored! I had yelled at
him, partly because I was annoyed at his stupidity, partly because I was angry at
the interruption.
Quatre had trouble getting back to sleep after that. He told me once he woke up,
it was hard to fall asleep again. I pitied the boy, and stayed up with him. Not that
I minded. I had warmed a glass of warm milk for him. Warm milk always helped
me get back to bed.
Quatre had slept beautifully after that. I guess warm milk was the solution to all.
But I dismissed it for later.
Just as I was about to take a sip of my tea, the phone rang. Quatre almost
dropped his biscuit. I don't remember him being so jumpy. "I'll get it," he said.
I shrugged and waited patiently for him to finish the call. He returned minutes
later, a worried look on his face. I hated it when he was worried. He fussed even
more than usual. Besides, I liked him better when he was smiling.
"What's wrong?" I asked, taking a sip of tea. It had cooled down while I waited
for Quatre to return.
"That was Relena. She said Heero left this morning on a mission."
"So? We always get missions. Nothing to get worried about."
Quatre shook his blond head. "No, she says it's an extrememly important
mission. Very important, and very very dangerous. There are incredible odds
against him. It's almost impossible to win."
Now I was getting a little nervous. "And?"
"And Relena wants us to help. She requested that we protect him. You know,
make sure Heero doesn't do anything rash." I knew what he meant. He meant,
'Make sure Heero didn't self-destruct, in case something should go wrong.'
We just sat there in silence. Quatre's tea was untouched. "Okay," I finally said.
He looked up at me with fatigue. I could tell that he really did not look forward to
fighting again. "Really? You want to help?"
"Hai," I replied. I didn't like the idea of Quatre wearing himself out more, but he
insisted on helping too.
So we were on our way.
* * *
We arrived at the battlefield just in time.
Relena was right. Heero was a baka...how could he face all these OZ soldiers by
himself? Perfect Soldier, ha! I think we'd still have trouble, even with me and
Quatre helping.
"Trowa, get out of here!" Heero yelled at me through the open channels.
"Not on your life. We have a mission too...to protect you."
Stubborn. Heero was so stubborn. He was determined to face his mission alone.
I saw Quatre's Gundam beside mine. "Heero," Quatre said, "We were sent to
protect you. This is an incredibly dangerous mission."
Heero silently relented. 'Suit yourself,' he seemed to say. He couldn't get us to
leave, and he knew it.
I smiled. I could be just as stubborn.
Not a minute into the battle, it was over for me and Quatre. Relena had been
right; it was an incredibly tough mission. The battle was amazingly intense. I had
to cover his back since he had revealed a weakness in his attack-strategy, which
was strange since he was usually such a brilliant tactics officer and would never
let such a slip occur.
'We really needed that break,' I thought.
Even with all my skills, I couldn't protect Sandrock. I realized it was too late, and
tried to save us both...to no avail. OZ's mobile suits had ganged up on us. Heero
had it much easier. He was taking on less than a third of the suits that Quatre
and I had to deal with.
Too late, I realized. We're too late.
Sorry Relena. Sorry we couldn't help. We failed to protect your love, and I failed
to protect mine.
We only managed to get captured ourselves.
I looked at the monitor. Quatre was unconscious. He was hit pretty hard.
No, not my Quatre.
I struggled against the suits, but OZ was much stronger. Dozens of them were
surrounding my partner, inspecting the damage. Seconds later, they decided
Sandrock was out of action and headed to HeavyArms. They declared the same
verdict.
We were being towed in. The enemy had us.
* * *
"Get in there."
The OZ soldiers shoved me roughly from behind. With my hands chained, I
almost fell on my face.
I righted myself just as they threw Quatre in. His hands were confined as well,
although he wasn't yet awake.
He had been checked over for injuries. Thankfully and to my vast relief, there
had been nothing serious. Scratches, cuts, bruises, but nothing unusual. Just all
that stress and tension...it had proved too much for the blond Arabian.
I had received similar injuries, but my mentality was stronger, I supposed. After
all, I used to make a living as a 'human pin-cushion.'
As soon as OZ was sure they had two live Gundam pilots, they deposited us in
the crude prison cells to await further instructions.
I made my way over to Quatre still body and held his head in my lap, providing a
sort of pillow for the other pilot.
My poor boy.
I sighed. I wonder how Heero was doing.
In the meantime, I had more important matters to attend to. After a few minutes
of Quatre sleeping and me listening to the soothing sound of his breathing, I
gently lifted his head and placed it on the ground. I admired him for a minute. He
had the face of a cherub, especially when sleeping.
Snapping myself out of my daydream, I stood up and made my way through the
dark cell. Finally, I found the door. It was bolted shut from the outside, and no
doubt there was at least one guard waiting out in the hall.
I sighed and leaned my forehead on the door. I hated OZ with a vengeance.
I heard sounds of movement behind me and turned around. The blond was
stirring, uttering sounds of pain. I rushed to his side. "Are you okay?"
He mumbled as I held him to my shoulder. He wasn't completely awake yet.
This felt good...hugging Quatre. It made me feel safe, and I hoped the shorter
pilot felt secure also.
By the time I had found a comfortable sitting position on the ground, Quatre had
woken up. I was still holding him; at first, he struggled against my hold...delayed
reactions. He must've been thinking still about the battle, because he looked at
me, finally realizing who I was.
"Trowa," he said. I blinked, letting him know I was listening. "What happened?"
I sat him against the wall. "You passed out during the battle. Then OZ got us."
Quatre looked around. "Ne, where's Heero?"
"I don't know. He was still fighting when OZ towed us in."
Worry flickered across his face before the fatigue returned. "I hope he's okay."
I smiled down at Quatre, trying to comfort him. "Me too," I said, running my
fingers through his bangs.
* * *
I accidentally woke Quatre in my attempt to get back to sleep.
It wasn't comfortable sleeping on stone floors. My back and neck hurt. I guess I
was getting soft. I had spent a full week in my soft bed at the Winner residence.
And here there were no pillows, no sheets, no quilts. I wondered how Quatre,
who had lived in that huge house all his life, had no complaints. He just settled
down easily and eventually fell asleep.
I, however, was having a much harder time. At first, I had drifted off into an
unpleasant sleep. But the cell had gotten colder during the night. Eventually, that
was what had woken me.
I turned around to check on the blond. He was curled in a fetal position, huddled
against the wall to preserve warmth. Good idea. I curled towards the wall, but it
was ice cold as well. I withdrew. How could Quatre stand that?
Making my way closer to the sleeping form, I touched his cheek hesitantly...and
pulled back involuntarily. He was freezing! Although not as cold as the wall,
Quatre was icy-cold nonetheless.
I have to do something. If I don't, we'll both freeze to death, or something.
And I wouldn't let that happen to my darling Quatre.
I reached an arm around and gently drew Quatre away from the wall. He was
surprisingly light.
Must've lost weight.
Now I was really concerned for his health. He, among us pilots, really needed to
relax. This war was killing his constitution.
And that was one of Quatre's best qualities. Constitution. It was important to his
personality and behavior. I couldn't let sickness and disease affect the sunny
angel's kind-natured soul.
I lay down and put an arm around Quatre. Unfortunately, he woke up; it wasn't
my intention to wake him. Through sleep-blurred eyes, he looked at me in
confusion.
I answered his unspoken question. "You were cold, little one."
"Oh," he said, and promptly snuggled closer.
"Better?"
"Hai," he muttered happily, and fell asleep again.
At least he was warmer now. I was too, right through to my heart. I sighed
through my smile. I wish I could fall asleep like that.
Quatre was out like a light. Good. He needed the rest. The blond needed to
regain his health.
Because constitution was what made Quatre who he was...who I loved.
In his sleep, Quatre smiled, as if reading my thoughts.
~OWARI~
how was it minna? doumo arigatou for reading my ficcie. hope ya liked it, cuz i'll b writin more! lol. well, rate n review pleez! ja!!! ^-^
ChibiQuatre @ tigerlily6c@aol.com
