Memory Glitch
Summary: Heero awakens to discover he is 45 years old and has recently received a concussion that temporarily causes him to forget the last 30 years. A woman who is not Relena is there to help him remember. 1xR, 2xH, 3xOC, 4xD, 5xS, ZxN
Disclaimer: I am a poor graduate student. I do not own Gundam Wing. Don't sue me.
Heero ran his palms across the satin bedspread, "Real? yes. True? hn."
He slipped into Sakura's locked guest room. He found her briefcase on the floor beside a redwood desk. It contained several uninteresting legal documents, a notebook written in a code he didn't have time to decipher, and a laptop.
He booted the laptop and hacked past the log-in, using safe-mode as a back door. Perfectly professional, he found a well organized file system containing letters to political delegates, copies of legal documents, and detailed meeting schedules for the next six months. Nothing of her private life was stored on the hard drive. However, the wallpaper for her desktop, a photograph of a Japanese garden, caused a memory to leap forward—his mother with long black hair and stoic black eyes, sitting and reading haikus by Yosa Buson (1).
'Have I tracked down my home colony after all these years?' he wondered.
He shut down the laptop and returned Sakura's belongings to their places. With a final scan of the room, he spotted a worn teddy bear sitting on top of Sakura's luggage. He stood over it, feeling the edges of his sanity wrinkle. There were three reasons this stuffed animal was familiar, but he was only certain of two (2). Resisting the desire to pick it up, he left the room and descended downstairs, feeling even less certain than he had at the hospital.
On the first floor, the sliding doors that connected the elegant drawing room to the outside patio were ajar, letting in a faux breeze and the hearty laughter of a kind voice, which was two octaves too low to be whom Heero assumed.
Walking through the doors, Heero found himself looking up at a man who was once a soft spoken boy. Somewhere in the past, Quatre Winner had gained nine inches and a beard. His platinum hair had aged to a shimmering dirty blond, but his sense of fashion was unchanged. On this evening, he wore a fitted iridescent purple shirt with a black vest; a gold watch chain led from his mid-button to his vest pocket.
"Od—Heero!" the Arabian exclaimed with a smile that put the sun to shame. "When I asked for a visit, this wasn't what I had in mind."
"Hn."
Quatre poured tea into two china cups and handed one to Heero. Heero looked down into the amber liquid, knowing it was Assam tea and knowing he disliked it, but unable to recall ever tasting it. They sat down. Quatre gazed out at the curved view of ascending buildings and artificial atmosphere. The climate control shifted, and the interior of the colony cooled and darkened, attempting to simulate evening on Earth sans sunset.
Heero held the tea on his lap but did not drink. He recalled few awkward moments in his life—the first time he held a bazooka, the day Odin Sr. explained the birds and the bees, the party when Relena and he danced together. This was the worst one yet. He wanted a Gundam, an enemy, a mission, a purpose.
He sensed Sakura standing behind him by her calm, confident mental presence and the scent of her flowery perfume. "Good evening, gentlemen," she said.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Quatre asked her.
"Not the same brand, but it will do," she replied and sat down on the stone bench against the patio railing, sipping from a large blue mug in her left hand and texting on a cell phone in her right hand. "They never understand how to edit my speeches."
"Try having them translate them, horrifying—" Quatre said.
Heero wished he'd stayed in his guest room; 'elitist' small talk was not his forte. Fortunately, neither Quatre nor Sakura attempted to bring Heero into the conversation or steer the conversation towards his memory loss. Quatre was too polite a man to touch sensitive subjects late in the day.
"I must retire," Quatre finally said, standing up and pulling his vest straight, "I promised to spend all of tomorrow with the boys." Placing his hand on Heero's shoulder, he whispered, "Salaam." Heero sighed after the sliding doors were closed.
"What do you think?" asked Sakura.
"He is the same."
"If you say so," Sakura snapped closed her cell phone. "By the way, never touch my computer again."
Heero nodded, "Understood."
For the next hour, they sat in silence thinking with their gazes pointed upwards as if waiting for stars to appear. A young servant came out and collected the tea set, including Heero's cold cup. (The calligraphy stitching on her outfit read 'Lydia'). Sakura held onto her mug. Though he could not smell it, Heero knew it was hot chocolate, her favorite. Similar knowledge rose up into his conscious mind, collecting on the surface like oil in a shaken salad dressing. The forks go in the drawer to the right of the sink, the blue door squeaks in the winter, Jones beach is too crowded in July, and the new shuttles have security holes in their computer systems.
Sakura gracefully stood up and walked into the mansion. "Oyasuminasai," (Good night) she called back.
Back in his guest room, Heero took inventory of his duffel bag: forest green tank, two pairs of blue jeans, one pair of dark dress pants, two dress shirts, two undershirts, three boxers, three pairs of socks, a Preventer uniform, a laptop, a hand gun with holster, and a box of 9mm rounds.
More belongings then he'd had since he was four.
Heero was wary of trying to hack into his own computer (a wrong input would cause the hard drive to wipe itself), but his fingers typed in the password without pause. From his files, he gathered he was a key member of the Preventer Organization, which took responsibility for maintaining the peace on Earth and among the Colonies. There were several recent mission reports, all bland; a list of applicants who passed the physical exam; and a copy of Sakura's schedule with added notes in red.
Sally had informed him he'd received the concussion three days earlier. On that date, September 3rd, was listed a press conference on L4. On the side of this were his notes, "9HG, U, TS2F", which told him he was to take his 9mm hand gun on an unofficial mission that was top secret to his family. Heero's chest tightened at the possibility that he had known of an assassination attempt on Sakura; his unofficial mission would have been her protection, which it appeared he succeeded in. Heero scanned the rest of the schedule, finding the code "TS2F" several times.
Insignificant and brief memories continued to return. However, the most recent memory of Relena he had was still from thirty years ago, yet felt like hours ago. They had gotten on space suits, and he'd said good bye, taking off in Zero and leaving her holding onto the railing. Heero replayed the memory, finding a gap in the sequence. Before closing their helmets, had he kissed her or not?
Tired of remembering and reminiscing, he closed the laptop and went to bed.
(1) This connects to another story of the Sakura Timeline that hasn't been posted yet; in which, Heero does track down his home colony. The important thing to note is that my stories (of the Sakura Timeline) assume that Heero remembers ALL of his past and that he is Odin Lowe Sr.'s son.
(2) A teddy bear he owned when he was young, the teddy bear of the little girl with the dog, and the teddy bear he gifted to Relena after the war. Since Heero can not yet recall the aftermath of the war, he doesn't remember gifting a teddy bear to Relena.