Chapter 9: Closer than you'd think
By 10 o'clock that night, everyone was exhausted. The last few days had been rough, and now only Heero, Duo, and Jade were left up in the lounge area watching movies.
The movie was boring, one Duo had picked, and to be honest perfectly predictable. Heero glanced back and forth between the other two members of the room.
Duo was sitting strait up like a little kid, with what appeared to be a permanent, stupid grin plastered to his face. Jade on the other hand seemed to be in a bad mood. Jade sat leaned back in her chair, looking as if the next person to laugh at a cheesy punch line would die a very painful death. Fire burned in her eyes.
Heero turned back to the movie, mentally rolling his eyes. A few minutes later Jade got up, "I'm taking a shower and turning in for the night."
Heero nodded to her and turned back to the movie, but his stupid friend Duo just couldn't do the same. "But this is the best part," Duo whined, "and the movies almost over. You can't leave yet."
Jade was already halfway through the door. "Duo trust me, I've already seen this movie about a million times, und es ist besser auf deutsch!"
Sticking his lip out Duo mumbled, "Not fair insulting me in languages that I don't know."
"Good night Duo," Jades voice came as the door clicked shut. Heero stood up as well and headed for the door.
"Are you leaving me too?" Heero just gave him a look, and walked out the door. "Fine, the more movie for me."
Heero snorted as he walked down the hallway towards his room. He was antsy and wanted to get to the colony soon. This waiting was driving him nuts.
Hearing a noise, he stopped. He was outside of Relena's room, and she stood in the doorway.
"Can I talk to you?" she repeated. Heero nodded his head and followed her into her room. "I wanted to let you know I'm sorry for yesterday. I was way out of line." Heero just looked at her, not exactly sure how to take her or the situation. "I know that your past is a touchy area, but I got upset because I had thought we were closer than that."
"I never told anyone about Jade, Relena. And Odin, is just another screwed up part of my life that I didn't want to deal with."
Relena looked up at him with big doe eyes, "I just thought that you might be shutting me out again. We worked so hard to get around that." Heero reach down and put his arm around her. "Anyways, I'm really sorry." Relena said again.
Lifting her face up with his hand. Heero leaned over and kissed her forehead, telling her in his own way that it was okay. In his opinion Relena worried to much. He stood up and went back to the door. "Good night Lena," he said before he left.
Humming to herself, Jade stepped out of the shower, dripping wet. Normally she would have begun singing as well while she combed through her hair, and dried off, but not today.
As she stepped out of the shower, Jade nearly fell over. It wasn't because the floor was wet, though. It was because the shaking had started again.
Jade managed to remain calm. It wasn't as if she hadn't dealt with this before, it was just an annoyance to deal with. Soaking wet, she threw on the tank top and pajama pants she had brought with her. She would be okay, she just needed to take it one step at a time. She just needed to get back to her room without anyone noticing.
Duo let out a laugh to himself as the movie ended. The ending truly was the best part. It was just to bad that Heero and Jade had to miss it.
He got out of his chair and stretched. The clock on the wall read half past 10 and he guessed he should head to bed. After all, no one else was up, and he hadn't slept in like 38 hours.
He grabbed his glass off the coffee table, and started off towards the kitchen. Normally, he would have left it, but he didn't feel like arguing with Quatre. Duo's blond friend was always annoyed by Duo's personal habits, such as leaving glasses sitting around.
After putting his glass away, Duo grabbed a cookie and headed out of the kitchen, towards his room. Oddly enough, he stared at his feet most of the way there, not something he normally did, but there was some really interesting stains on his shoe. One was purple, and he had no idea where that came from. When he finally did look up, he saw Jade walking towards him.
Something about Jade didn't look right though. Jade's long black hair, which reach to the bottom of her shoulder blades was thrown everywhere and sopping wet. Her clothes weren't much better, so overall she looked like she needed a towel.
Jade's physical appearance wasn't what was really bothering him. The way she was walking held more truth. Jade was walking slowly, every step with an excessive amount of force. Her face was screwed up, and head tilted down, as if concentrating on one task, while ignoring another. She also seemed to be waiving and shaking as she walked.
Even before Duo looked into her eyes, he could tell that something was wrong. When Jade did look up at him, there was pain in her eyes. But, before Duo could ask what was wrong, she fell to the ground, shaking violently.
Panicked, Duo immediately ran to her side, and grabbing her by the shoulders asked, "Are you okay?"
It took awhile for Jade to respond, and when she did, it was through a clenched jaw. "Yes... I just... need to get back... to my room."
"Okay," Duo nodded, firmly grabbing her arm to help her up. It worried Duo that the shaking seemed to be getting worse. When he had first found her, she had been walking fine on her own, but now Jade could barley take a step without falling against him. Her room was only 3 doors down, but it took almost 5 minutes to get there.
As they entered her room, Jade walked a few steps, and plopped on the floor next to her bed, shaking. Duo had tried on the way, to get her to the infirmary, but Jade had clearly refused. Feeling that he had to do something, Duo handed her a pillow off of her bed. Jade gratefully accepted it, and smiled at him, clutching it to her stomach.
Duo stood there, not quite sure of what was going on, or what to do. "Is there anything you need?" he finally asked.
Jade looked at him, her eyes much softer that they had been a half hour earlier. "Just... don... don't leave me."
Duo nodded his head, and sat down next to her. He watched her for a few minutes, then spoke up, "What's going on?"
Jade bit her lip, looking as if she was heavily debating with herself. Finally, "Do... you promise... not to tell?"
"Tell who?"
"Anybody... but... especially... not Heero."
"Okay, but is there any special reason why?"
"Just that... I...I don't want him... to know."
"Alright, so what is it?"
Jade kind of sent him a pleading look, "Would you mind... if we... talk about this... after...it stops?" Duo nodded his head signaling that he understood. Jade gave him a weak smile.
"Come here," Duo said, patting the floor next to him. Jade kind of looked at him as if she wasn't sure what he was doing. "I'm serious, come here." Jade scooted over next to him, and he put his arm around her shoulders. Jade gave him a surprised look, but didn't move away. Duo just continued on with the conversation, ignoring her look, and the fact the she was still dripping wet, "So tell me about yourself."
"What... do you... want to know?"
"Start with the basics; age, personality, likes and dislikes."
Jade paused, "Well... I'm...16... My personality... is... kind of tomboy... I like long... walks on the beach." she laughed, the shaking was less severe now, "But really I like... Hats... Long hair... and t-shirts... all of which... I have a ton of." She paused again. Her speech was more normal now, and she didn't have to stop as often. "And as for dislikes... I guess I really don't like it when... I lose a fight."
Duo started laughing then, and so did Jade. The shaking had completely stopped, but Jade made no attempt to move away. In fact, Duo felt her relax in his arms. Her hands were messing around with the tail end of his braid, which was thrown over his shoulder. "So where did you grow up?" she asked.
"Believe it or not, in the exact colony we're going to."
