xXx
Chapter 4 On the Road Again
"We're not going to let him get away now, are we guys? There's only one door, we'll just have to set up a watch, we all know they can't stay in there forever. I'll take first watch."
"For once Maxwell is right, we can't let Yuy escape now."
What Duo and the rest of the guys witnessed over the next few days included two facts: one, that Heero Yuy was apparently leading a normal life now and two, that if he so chose, he and Rowan could stay in the house for as long as necessary. They saw him accept groceries and deliveries and hold conversations with neighbors all without leaving his home or letting any of the former pilots come in contact with him. On the seventh day of watching the house, they caught their first glimpse of Rowan since her collapse. She was pale and still looked slightly under the weather, but looked to be feeling a bit better than she had been a week ago.
Two days later, Duo was on watch, when he saw Rowan leave the house. This surprised him, because he was sure if Heero wouldn't leave, Rowan would have no cause to. He contacted Wufei and told him he was going to approach her, before leaving his post and following Rowan down the street. They came upon a bazaar two blocks away and Rowan stopped at one of the stalls. Duo approached her cautiously and was near enough to touch her by the time she had completed her purchase. Duo backed up a step as Rowan turned and saw him.
"Duo," the name was a whisper on her lips.
"Umm. . ." Duo's voice, for once in his life, seemed to have deserted him. Before he could summon up something to say, Rowan's eyes hardened right before she pulled her arm back and punched him in the jaw with such force that he fell to the ground.
"Stay away from me. And from Heero." With this she turned and continued on her way through the bazaar to take an alternate route home.
xXx
"She hit you? She actually hit you!"
"How is it that you find it hard to believe that she hit me, when on our first encounter she not only hit Wufei, she broke a vase over his head?"
"Well, he provoked her."
"Is stalking not considered provocation any longer?"
"Well. . . I guess I see your point. Is Wufei still watching the house?"
"Yeah, I tried to relieve him, but he told me to come back here and have you make sure that she didn't break my jaw. I tell you now, Quatre, don't get on her bad side, she does not hit like a girl."
xXx
"Heero?" Rowan said the name softly, as if the silence would suffocate her if she spoke any louder. She called out again slightly louder this time and let out a small sigh of relief as she heard Heero's muffled reply coming from the back of the house, probably from the kitchen. She walked back to where Heero was making dinner and listening to the radio, which was turned down so low that it was amazing that he could even hear it over the sounds of the food sizzling in its pan. Heero turned as Rowan entered the room and gave her a small smile as she set down the food she had bought at the bazaar on her way home.
"Stir fry is almost done, Rowan. Did you want to eat in the dining room or in the parlour?" Rowan left the question unanswered, and merely said what had been on her mind since she had left Duo lying in the road next to the cloth sellers' stand.
"Heero, we can't stay here. We have to leave. They're watching us and the house and they aren't going leave us alone, despite the fact that I might possibly have broken Duo's jaw this afternoon."
Heero turned and gave Rowan an unreadable look before asking, "You broke Duo's jaw?"
"Probably not, I don't think I hit him hard enough." For a moment, Heero looked as if he might laugh before sobering quickly.
"Did he hurt you?"
"No, I took him by surprise. I doubt he thought that I was aware of being followed." Heero simply nodded, clearly relieved that she was unharmed.
"Where should we go to?"
"Iceland. It's isolated enough there that we might be able to escape notice. I'll call the airport and schedule the earliest possible flight while you finish dinner and set it up in the parlour."
"The only question now, is how to get past the guys."
"Don't worry about it, Heero. I'll think of a suitable distraction." Rowan left the room to do what needed to be done and to begin to implement her diversion.
xXx
A/N: First of all, PLEASE R&R! Secondly, sorry it took me so long to update, computer problems, writer's block, and all that jazz. Lastly, not all statements about the European countries in this story are accurate, so I apologize in advance for any inconsistencies.
