Chapter 2
Relena paced frantically in her brothers office. /This isn't happening! This can't possibly be happening!/ she screamed mentally, fisting her hands in her hair and pulling.
Pagan had deposited her in Zechs office, and left to get her some tea. Because tea was definitely going to make all her problems go away.
She inhaled deep breaths, trying to sooth her thundering broken heart, her racing pulse, and clear her distraught mind. But nothing was working. Relena was experiencing a full blown break down. Everything just overwhelmed her sense all at once. Her laborious job, which demanded every waking hour of her days. She hadn't taken a vacation in over a year. It required her to fly all over Earth and space. She was never home, never a moments rest, and her rock just up and left her for another man.
Heero gave her the reason she needed to continue her work. She had to make sure no people suffered from the kind of life he had. No more children of war, that was her mission. How could she continue without him?
Relena came to the conclusion that she couldn't let him go. She was going to get him back, at all costs.
Violently pulling out drawers from Zech's desk, she searched for something, but wasn't sure what. The bottom drawer revealed an answer to her problems. Her hands shook as she lifted it, clutching the cold metal in her grasp.
Duo swallowed the rest of his beer, and leaned heavily against the kitchen counter. /What a fuckin mess./ He had never anticipated Relena to react that way, but in all honesty, he couldn't blame her. Duo sympathized with her, he had loved Heero for a long time, from a distance.
Over the last year, it became clear that Heero had feelings for him as well. And after many months of subtle flirting, passing glances, and lingering touches, he gave Heero an ultimatum. Either he leave Relena, or they put some distance between themselves until their affection was a thing of the past. Heero was given one month to figure out what he really wanted, and it turned out to be Duo.
A knock sounded at the door. "Jesus Christ, Quatre," he mumbled as he walked to the door. They had only gotten back to his apartment maybe, forty-five minutes ago. The drama could wait until tomorrow.
Without looking through the peephole, Duo swung the door wide open, expecting his over concerned blonde friend. But a different, distressed blonde was on standing before him.
"Relena..." He whispered, as he stared down the barrel of a gun.
Zech opened his office doors, fully expecting to find his heart broken sibling there, but she was nowhere in sight. Walking towards his ransacked desk, he gasp. Two boxes of bullets were dumped on the carpet, littering the floor with ammo.
"Oh, shit," he muttered and ran from his office.
Raising both hands, Duo pleaded, "Think about what you're doing, Relena." He took a few steps backwards, allowing her room to come in.
The gun shook in her hands as she kept it pointed at her enemy's heart. "This is my only option," she whispered, tears creating rivers down her face.
Heero exited the bedroom to find a terrifying scene. Relena holding a gun aimed for Duo's chest. Everything happened in slow motion.
Relena spied Heero from her peripheral vision, but kept her eyes locked on Duo's. Pulling the trigger, Relena fell back from the force of the weapon discharging in her clutch. Duo sank to the floor. Heero screamed.
/What have I done?/ She asked herself as her body meet the ground.
Zechs raced frantically to Duo apartment. He had to stop his sister from destroying everything she'd created. His heart pounded as he got closer and closer.
Heero collapsed by Duo's side and searched his body for where the bullet hit. Dou's violet eyes blinked rapidly, shocked and dazed, he couldn't feel any pain. Relena sat on the ground, resting on her hands, legs sprawled, as she watched the two men in front of her.
Pushing up his shirt, Heero grazed his hands over Duo's skin. He paused. There was nothing. No blood, no wound. Looking around the room Heero couldn't find a bullet hole anywhere, but the gun had fired, it still rang in his ears. "You're not hurt," he whispered to Duo.
Sitting up, Duo checked himself over, stunned. "What the fuck just happened?"
Still immersed in a panic, Heero's eyes landed on Relena's proned terrified form. Quickly crawling over, he swiped the gun away. She whimpered, thinking he just might hit her, because god knows he wanted to.
Zechs came sprinting through the doorway and almost fell on top of his sister. "What's going on?" He demanded.
"You're psychotic bitch of a sister tried to shoot me!" Duo screamed from the floor. Heero helped Duo stand up, gun still in hand. "Get that away from me," he seethed. That was one of the closest he had ever come to dying.
Zechs picked up Relena. "I'm taking her home."
"No you're not!" Heero bellowed.
"Yes I am!"
"No, she's not going anywhere! I need to talk to her once I can get my fucking head on straight!"
Dumping out the remaining ammo from the guns cylinder, Heero found out what had gone wrong and started laughing. "Half of these are blanks," he laughed, maniacally. "You tried to kill him with blanks, this is...this is just...fuck." His mania ended as relief soared through his bones.
Duo held his head in his hands while leaning on his elbows on the counter. "Get her out of here, Heero," he warned.
Grabbing Relena by the arm, Heero pointed a finger at Zech. "You stay here," he ordered. He pulled Relena out of the apartment, down to the ground floor, and to the curb. "Sit!" He barked at her. She planted her butt on the curb and watched as the man she loved paced back and forth, flexing and relaxing his hands.
Facing away from her, he asked, "Just what in the hell were you thinking?" His voice calm, but sad.
"I-I...I don't kn-know," she stammered. "I just thou-"
"You thought what?" He roared as he spun on his heel to face her. "That if you killed him, I would just come back?"
"I don't know," she whispered staring at her hands folded in her lap. "I just lost it...I-I don't even remember how I got here. All I could think about was you leaving, and I had to do something to stop you." They were silent for a few moments before she spoke again. "I think I lost my mind there."
"Really, you think?" He exacerbated. "The next bullet wasn't a blank, Relena. What would you have done if you did kill him? Were you going to shoot me too?"
"No!"
"Then what?"
"I don't know!"
Heero resumed pacing with his hands fisted on his hips. "You would have ruined our lives, and destroyed your career, you realize that right?" She nodded her head. "For fucks sake, you could have ended the peace we fought for! What would the people do if their pacifist leader murdered someone!"
They were quiet again for a while. Relena wiped tears from her eyes. "Why are you doing this? Weren't we happy?" She asked searching his deep blue eyes for answers.
"No," he shook his head. "I haven't been happy for a long time, and I think if you really think about it, you'll see you weren't either."
More tears formed as she gazed up at the night sky. She wanted to argue, make him see that she had been happy, but had she really? Even though he lived in her home and slept in her bed, the distance between them was as large as the Grand Canyon. They hardly had time to spend with each other, and when it came down to it, they really didn't have much in common anymore. They rarely spoke to one another, and there was no laughter in their relationship. They'd been in a rut, living in a routine, numbly.
Heero sat beside her, and took her hand. "There's always going to be a place for you in my heart, Relena. Even after tonight, but we were over long before all this."
She nodded her head sadly, tears falling on their hands. "He makes you happy?"
"Yes," Heero admitted quietly. "And I'm sorry I'm leaving you for someone else. We should have ended this before I ever realized I had feelings for him."
"I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I don't know what I was thinking!"
He pulled her into his strong arms. "I think...I think you broke down. I think you work too hard and put too much pressure on yourself. You need to take some time off and regroup, maybe some therapy would be good." She chuckled into his shoulder through her tears. "You need to fix yourself."
"I know," she whispered. "I guess it's obvious we can't be friends, huh?"
"Maybe in a few years...like five or ten. I'll forgive you eventually, but I don't know about Duo."
"I don't expect anyone's forgiveness."
He patted her shoulder. "Come on, it's time to go."
They walked back up to the second story of the apartment building. Heero went into the apartment, and Relena waited outside the door for her brother.
"No ones going to find out about this, right?" Zech asked the Japanese man.
Heero sighed, "No. No one will ever know. Take her home, and take care of her."
Zech walked out and lead Relena with a hand at the small of her back. Heero and Relena made eye contact as he began to close the door, a silent goodbye passed between them.
Heero rested his head against the door for a moment before going to seek out Duo. He found him laying on the bed, on his side facing away from him.
"I'm sorry," Heero murmured.
"It's not your fault."
"I think in some respects, it is," he theorized. Duo remained silent, worrying Heero. "Do you want me to leave?"
Rolling over Duo looked at Heero. He grabbed the standing mans wrist and pulled him down, they embraced as they laid together.
"No," Duo whispered into Heero's hair. "But, do you think you'd move with me if I wanted to leave for a while?"
Heero squeezed the braided man. "Yes, I think I'd like to get away for a while."
"Who knew we'd run into so much shit and almost die, just trying to start a life together," Duo sighed heavily.
"The hard parts over, lets just focus on the future," Heero murmured as his lips grazed over Duo's. "I love you," he whispered and kissed the violet eyed man softly.
"I love you, too," Duo breathed and returned the kiss.
