Chapter 9
It was Jackie's barking that brought Relena back to reality. If not for the dog she thought they might have gone on forever, forgotten who they were even. When she gently pushed Trowa away and saw the confused look on his face she almost wished they had. Instead she turned to Jackie and shushed her before she drove them all mad. The dog paused for a second, as if waiting for something to happen, perhaps for them to pull away from each other, but when everything remained the same she resumed.
'Quiet! Jackie, quiet!' Relena insisted and, looking offended, Jackie scurried away. With a sigh she settled back down, the tiles were cold against her back, but she still felt too light headed to move. Never mind that Trowa had yet to pull away himself. The troubled look on his face worried her. 'Are you alright? Did you hit your head?'
'No.' he shook said head, frowning. 'You?'
'No.' she waited for him to move off of her, yet he remained right where he was. He too seemed to be waiting for her to make a move. What move Relena could not say. Starting to feel a little awkward she resorted to a bit of humour in an attempt to make him snap out of his stupor. 'Should we call this a draw then?'
'A draw?'
'Or will you concede me the victory since you were the one to knock me down?'
'Knock you down? I may have just saved your life!'
'Saved my life?' seeing her incredulity he pointed at the spoon lying harmlessly a foot from them. 'You thought I'd trip on it? I knew it was there.' When he didn't say anything, she changed her strategy. 'Are you trying to cheat? Because if that's the case then—'
'I'm not trying to do anything.' Trowa retorted visibly exasperated and, because she'd never seen him genuinely lose his patience before, she went silent.
At least for a moment.
'What should we do then?' she insisted and he suddenly avoided her eyes. Relena thought he looked meek but, because the simple notion of a meek Trowa was ludicrous, she followed his gaze hoping to find something out of place. She didn't. 'Well?'
His confidence restored, he whipped his head back and his gleaming eye bore into hers. 'I thought we might continue what we were doing… Before we get too sober to.'
'What we were… Oh.'
She knew she'd wanted the kiss to go on forever, yet that had been before when she'd been lost in the middle of it. What did she want now? True she wasn't quite as drunk as he seemed to be but… What if she regretted it afterwards anyway? What if he did? He surely wasn't in his right mind. But then… Hadn't he been flirting with her earlier, before he got drunk? Relena looked into his expecting eyes trying to read his mind, to understand what he was thinking, yet she found no clue whatsoever and was left with no idea as to what she ought to do.
'Would you rather regret going through with this or not?' Trowa asked her suddenly. It rang with the words her mother had told her not long ago… I just don't want you to make the same mistake again. And Relena knew what she did not want to regret.
'What about lunch?' she asked anyway, still divided.
'Dinner.' He corrected her. He was clearly determined. If moved by alcohol or something else though, she could not tell. Regardless of his motives, he waited for her to be sure of what she wanted.
'Alright.' Relena took a deep breath. 'No more regrets.'
'No more regrets.' Trowa agreed and the smile that twisted his lips was one that she didn't know what to make of. Thankfully, however, he did not give her enough time to ponder least of all change her mind. When he kissed her again, she knew she'd made the right decision.
XXX
When Trowa woke up it was already dark. It took him a moment longer than usual to recall where he was and what had happened… Once he'd made sure Relena wasn't with him in her queen sized bed, he ran a hand up his face and through his hair. What had he done?
It didn't matter that once Jackie was gone he wouldn't need to see her again. She wasn't just any woman and she was certainly not the kind of woman you could just sleep with and leave unscathed. The only reason he'd tried to seduce her was because he thought she'd never surrender to him, that she was as hard as a rock, but she had turned the tables on him somewhere, somehow… What was he supposed to do now? She'd become the lover he could not get rid of, as she had herself described. And even if he did manage to 'get rid' of her… Wouldn't Heero come back from wherever he was and strike Trowa dead?
A lamp suddenly being lit brought him out of his reverie and he moved his forearms away from his face to see Relena standing by the door. 'Oh, good. You're awake.' She smiled. It was an ordinary smile neither regretful nor especially devoted and he felt somewhat relieved. 'Dinner is served.'
'You should've woken me up sooner.' He complained for lack of something better to say.
'I thought you needed the sleep. You don't seem to get enough rest on a daily basis.' Relena merely shrugged as if all that thoughtfulness towards him meant nothing to her. He wondered if it was some kind of subterfuge… Was she trying to hide her discomfort in his presence? Fool him into thinking she did not really care? 'Well… I'll be in the dining room.'
At least she looked content, he mused as he pulled his wrinkled clothes back on. He'd thought she'd be a virgin, but of course she'd dated other men even if she had been unknowingly in love with Heero. She kept surprising him and that was mostly thanks to his erroneous prejudgement of her. He'd been taught not to judge anyone by appearances yet, when it came to Relena, those teachings seemed to completely escape him. Or perhaps he had been judging her based on who she'd been at fifteen and that had been his mistake. She was a woman now and one he knew he wouldn't be able to forget anytime soon.
'I took the liberty of filling up a plate for you.' She was still smiling when he arrived in the dining room and pulled himself a chair at the table. 'I hope you don't mind.'
'It's fine.' He was starving and the food looked delicious so he dug right in.
'Alright…' Relena dismissed his lack of manners and started making herself a plate. Her appetite wasn't half as ravenous as his though and after a few bites she decided to speak. 'So… About our contest… What do you say we come to a compromise?' He raised his head for a moment to show that he was listening. Relena took a sip of her water before continuing. 'I won't criticise your decision to leave anymore, but you must do something for me as well.'
'So it'll be as if we'd both won.' Trowa finally paused in his hungry rampage and dried his glass of water.
'In a way.' She nodded. 'Seconds?'
'Yes, please.' As he watched her make him another plate he wondered what she could possibly ask of him. She seemed to read his mind.
'I want you to get yourself a Jackie. I think you need one.'
'You want me to get a dog?'
'Or a cat.' She shrugged. 'I'll come with you to the shelter. How about… Next Saturday? Do you think you could make it?'
'That's the weirdest thing anyone's ever asked of me.'
'So?'
'You're wasting an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'
'If you don't accept I'll change my mind and say I won because we both know you cheated.'
'I saved your life.'
She didn't look at all convinced. 'Saturday then?'
'I'll need to check my schedule.' He was forced to concede or he knew she would've argued her point forever, if necessary.
'Well, then let me know when you're free and I'll rearrange my schedule since it's more flexible than yours.'
'As you wish.'
Relena's smile was very clearly victorious. 'Will you be having more chicken? Then I'll get the dessert ready.'
Somehow Trowa did not feel like their contest had ended in a draw at all.
XXX
'Are you sure you're well enough to drive?' she asked when he started gathering his belongings. His motorcycle keys jingling in his hand.
'I'm fine.' Trowa snapped back at her. He'd been sulking ever since she'd 'won' their contest and got her way one way or another. In Relena's humble opinion it only served to show how childish men really were. 'I wasn't that drunk to begin with.'
'You were worse off than I was, you have to admit.'
'I did have an extra shot of tequila.' He paused to meet her eyes, but Relena did not believe that shot they'd battled over had made much of a difference and she made sure he knew. 'I hadn't drunk in a while. You drink regularly. If I'd been better prepared I would've won easy-peasy.'
'I don't drink that much. Only a glass of wine over dinner. They say it's good for the heart, didn't you know?'
'So's grape juice.' He shrugged. 'Even if you have only a glass of wine, the fact that you do it routinely stimulates your liver to produce more alcohol digesting enzymes which gives you an unfair advantage over me.'
'Good thing we called it a draw then, huh?' she refused to let him sway her. This was a non-victory she was not giving up on. She opened the front door for him. 'You do sound quite sober, so I'll let you go.'
With a snort, he flung his backpack over his shoulder and walked past her without as much as a glance. It was not anger she could sense coming from him though… He seemed conflicted as he stopped by the lift, his shoulders tense and his knuckles white as he held his belongings. If Relena were to be completely honest with herself, watching him leave like that gave her a very awkward, very unpleasant feeling that she could not yet place.
'Will you call me then?' she asked just as the metal doors slid open and heard a hopeful edge in her voice she had not intended.
Trowa stepped forward, but when he turned around to press the button for the lobby, he met her eyes. There was something different in the way he looked at her… Relena could only hope he didn't think of her as an easy woman now that they'd seen each other in their birthday suits, among other things… Whatever he thought though she knew he would be calling her. What remained to be decided was what she would do then.
What did she feel for him? Was it just a drunken attraction? Or was there more to it? And were they on the same page? He'd run away from the people he'd cared for… Did that mean he did not care for her? Or did it mean he would inevitably run away from her too? And how long would that take? Was he worth investing on? Would she have enough time to change his mind if she wanted to?
'What do I do?' she asked Jackie, who'd remained at a distance ever since the incident in the kitchen. 'Still angry with me, are you? You think I should've played hard-to-get? My mother certainly would…' There was only one person whose opinion she valued above all others though… 'You're right, Jackie. Maybe I should ask him…'
She found her mobile lost in the middle of the mess that had become her bedroom and called Carlos. He was still awake and sounded as solicitous as always though Relena knew he was none too pleased about suddenly having to come to work on a Sunday morning. 'There's somewhere I need to go.' She insisted.
He gave her an odd look when, the next morning, he found out it was the cemetery she wanted to visit, but said nothing and neither did she. As she made her way out of the car and into the necropolis he followed at a reasonable distance and Relena smiled to herself knowing she'd later have to thank him for his consideration. Maybe Carlos was a little grumpy and prone to complaining, but deep down he was a good man and that's what she valued most in her employees.
The cemetery was empty at that early hour and Heero was just where she knew he would be. She was glad for the distance she'd put between him and the rest of her family… She wouldn't have wanted her father to hear about her love life, dead or not.
'Looks like you've been entertaining too.' She remarked with amusement, kneeling to inspect the white lilies that had been laid at the foot of the tombstone. Some of them still had to wither. 'Who could it have been?'
It was when an earlier conversation with Trowa popped back into her mind… He'd hinted at someone inside Preventers who knew he had vanished by his own free will… Relena didn't think he'd trust anyone other than one of his old comrades and, whereas Duo was too much of a blabbermouth and Wufei was too uncaring, Quatre was reliable and altruistic. The blonde man had been Trowa's first true friend as he'd told her himself. And while her colour may not be white, Quatre's certainly was.
'Thank you.' She smiled at Heero's name. 'Maybe Quatre can help me make Trowa see reason.'
She laid her own pink roses by the bouquet of lilies, then read the short enigmatic epitaph she had had engraved beneath his name. This place would not be here if not for him. He would've liked it, she was sure.
'Will it be okay if we end up together?' she wondered, though this time Heero had nothing to say.
