Chapter Eight
Trusting
"Are you sure about this?" Sally asked softly as they waited in line to order meals for the evening. Heero and Wufei had remained out in the car; Relena had thought to go inside and order for everyone herself, but Sally had insisted on going along with her.
"Sure about what?" Relena asked back cautiously. She hadn't missed the looks Sally had passed her way, usually after the doctor had sent a somewhat considering look Heero's way first.
Sally gave Relena a look that said 'this should be obvious,' and Relena felt her cheeks heat. She'd been so surprised when Sally had knocked on the door to their motel room that morning. Relena hadn't intended for things between her and Heero to progress as they had. She'd merely wanted to comfort him, he'd seemed so lost.
Relena certainly had no regrets for letting herself get closer to Heero; her heart and stomach fluttered just thinking of the bond forming between them. She hadn't again felt that echo of his heartbeat in her mind, but Relena felt she'd gained ground with him in proving she didn't fear him.
"If you're referring to Heero," Relena began, wishing her cheeks didn't feel so warm.
"What else could I possibly mean?" Sally scoffed while rolling her eyes. "I know you, Relena," she continued, voice low but filled with concern. "I realize you aren't the type to throw caution to the wind. In the four plus years I've known you, I don't think I've ever heard you go on more than one date with a guy."
"That's hardly accurate," Relena tried to defend, but Sally just held up a hand.
"Exaggeration or not," Sally conceded, "I just need to know you're letting your head do some of the decision making here. Our hearts can be very eager, and the two of you went through a lot in the last couple of days..."
Relena looked up at her friend, seeing nothing but honest concern in Sally's expression, no judgement or disapproval. "I know it makes little to no sense," she admitted slowly, "but I feel a connection to him. I..." she trailed off for a moment, swallowing back the emotion she felt suddenly bubble up in her throat.
"I want to protect him," Relena said fiercely, looking directly into Sally's eyes as she said it. She wanted her friend to know this was more than just foolish emotions running wild with her. It wasn't just because Heero had saved her life.
The look Sally returned wasn't exactly what Relena had expected; the doctor didn't exactly look relieved. Her gaze was weighing, considering, as her eyes left Relena's face to glance back towards the front of the restaurant and to where the car waited.
Relena hadn't thought too much about that expression at the time, mostly because their turn to order had arrived by then. But Relena realized now that something of what she'd said had caused Sally concern, if the incident she'd walked out of the motel office to find was any indication.
She'd felt something was off with Heero since they'd left the motel that morning. Relena hadn't been sure what, but she'd suspected something had been said by either Sally or Heero when they'd stepped into the bathroom together. Relena had had no chance to speak to Heero about what was on his mind, until now.
Sliding the bolt into place on the door, Relena turned in the dark room towards Heero. She'd guided him in ahead of her, feeling the tension in his arm slowly ebb as they'd moved away from a very stunned Sally. In a perfect world, Relena would have like to take a moment to reassure her friend that everything was indeed alright.
'In a perfect world,' Relena thought ruefully, 'there would have been no incident to come upon.' To see Heero, his gaze intense and his right fist clenched until his arm shook with small tight vibrations, as he crushed a piece of concrete with his mind should have shocked her. Maybe it should have even scared her. But Relena had only seen a lost and hurt young man, struggling against something unknown to her.
At the sound of her voice, he'd immediately stopped and turned to her with a look of hope in his eyes. Relena hadn't hesitated to reach out and touch him, had felt him begin to relax and breathe easier the moment she did. Looking at him now, Relena could barely make out his face, hidden in the shadows of his mess of bangs.
"What happened?" Relena asked softly, gently.
Heero's head came up a degree, and the filtered light from outside their room let Relena see a brief flash of blue, before he turned his back on her. Relena switched on the over head light, wanting to better see Heero, and blinked against the sudden brightness. Heero stood in the centre of the room, shoulders tense and fists clenched at his sides.
Relena took a step away from the door towards him. "Heero?" she said his name gently. "Are you alright?"
His back straightened at the sound of her voice, but he didn't turn to look at her. Heero kept his head down and turned away from her, and she saw him move his left hand out in front of himself. That tightly held fist, Relena thought perhaps he opened it before his eyes. She waited patiently for him to respond to her, but as she watched, he just shook his head, right fist clenching tighter at his side.
"It's probably not a good idea..." he muttered at last, his voice sounding hollow to Relena's ears.
"A good idea for what?" she prompted softly, feeling a sense of dread form in the pit of her stomach.
"This. You..." Heero replied vaguely, and she caught another brief flash of blue eyes before he was more fully turned away from her. "I told you I was better off alone," he said, his voice sounding harder than Relena ever thought she'd heard it before.
"When we get to..." he trailed off, unsure. Wufei had only told them that he knew someone who might be able to help in this unusual situation. "Promise me you'll go back home," his voice was rough to her ears. "Don't look back. Don't—"
Relena threw her arms around Heero's shoulders, pressing his back tightly to her body. She could feel the tension in him now, his body was rigid with it. "I told you," she began fiercely into the back of his neck, "I'm not abandoning you." She spread her right hand across his chest, feeling the elevated thump of his heart against her palm.
Pressing her cheek to his shoulder, Relena squeezed Heero tighter to herself. "I don't know what just happened," she continued, wishing he wasn't so rock hard in her arms, "but my feelings..." words failed her, as her throat tightened with emotion, swallowing hard. Relena shut her eyes and pressed her warmth to him. "I told you how I feel."
He was still tense in her arms, and Relena worried her words weren't going to make it through to him. 'What did Sally told him?' she wondered, although she didn't think this was just a reaction to whatever Sally had said moments ago. Heero had felt a little distant in the car that day. He'd looked at her, but it hadn't been the same as when they'd been alone in the motel room. Relena thought perhaps he'd looked unsure, confused, even a little lost.
Thinking about the motel room, the touch of Heero's powers against her skin, the gentle way he'd held her, and the way she'd felt him in her mind, made her long to experience it again. She pressed her palm more firmly over his heart, wishing she heard that echo again, that connection she knew was there. If she had felt him in such a close and intimate way, surely what she felt for him had gone the other way.
"None of this makes any sense," she whispered against his back, and could feel him tremble slightly at her voice. "But I think you know exactly how I feel for you." Relena let the emotion into her voice as she spoke, and didn't try to hide the tears that welled up in her eyes. She pressed her lips lightly to the back of his neck, and felt the shiver that caused flow down his spine.
Heero's head turned a fraction towards Relena, and she held her breath. "It isn't real," he said, voice rough but not harsh. If anything, Relena thought he might have sounded defeated. "It's just adrenaline," he drew a sharp breath then. "You're grateful I protected you. That's all this is."
Relena's head came off Heero's shoulder in alarm and her eyes caught a hint of his. She wanted to protest, to reassure him, but her voice betrayed her and Heero pressed on. "That's all this should be." His face turned away from hers again, and he seemed to tense even more in Relena's arms.
"Your friend is right," he muttered, head tipping as he looked back down at his left hand. "anything more doesn't make sense."
"Heero..." she all but whispered his name, unable to manage more than that. Relena felt his heart rate pick up, and felt sure by that alone that Heero was at war with himself. Her eyes darted towards the door, glaring darkly at it through her watery eyes. Why couldn't Sally just let it be? "You don't really mean that..." she whispered, swallowing against the lump in her throat.
His head dropped chin nearly to his chest, "I..." he trailed off immediately, and she felt him shiver again. "You saw me as human..." Heero muttered, drawing a deep breath, "believed I could be something other than what I am." His voice sounded thick with his own struggling emotions.
"But I'm dangerous, Relena," he said bluntly, his head twisted slightly towards her then and his expression was a harsh one. "I'll always be a danger to you." Heero looked away, and she saw him swallow hard, his back remaining tense and straight.
A second passed and Relena felt him shift then, as if trying without too much determination to shake her off. "I should sleep in the car..." he said, his right hand moving to take hold of her right wrist and pull her hand from above his heart.
"I don't want you to leave," Relena said with a wobbling voice. 'I don't want you to be alone,' she wanted to say but felt herself choke up more at the thought. Clearing her throat sharply, Relena snagged her anger at this situation, and shut her eyes tightly against her tears. She felt Heero pull her other hand away from him, and Relena changed tack.
Moving to turn Heero to face her, though he resisted her attempts, Relena tried to look into his eyes. "You promised to protect me," she said fiercely, moving to put herself in his line of sight while he struggled to avoid looking directly at her. "I know that wasn't a lie," she continued, managing to dodge his halfhearted attempts to stop her from taking his face.
Relena took a gentle yet firm hold of Heero's cheeks, and he immediately looked down so as not to meet her gaze. "Heero," she said his name firmly, "look at me." Relena let a bit of a command enter her voice then. It still took several moments before he finally raised his eyes reluctantly to hers. "I don't want you to leave me," she said, stressing each word.
His face was so warm in her hands, his breathing, a little heavy. She knew he was struggling, confused and upset, and all she wanted was to be back in his arms again. Relena offered him a smile that she hoped would encourage him, and she held his gaze, but saw his brow knit together with uncertainty. "Sally doesn't know everything," she told him truthfully, "and she worries perhaps a little too much about me."
"Doesn't make her wrong..." he muttered, breaking eye contact again.
Relena released Heero's face, but only to wrap her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly to her. "I trust you, Heero," she whispered into his right ear. "It might make no sense, but I'm not going to ignore what feels so right to me." Relena pulled back a little, catching a flash of cobalt regarding her. "Doesn't it feel right to you too?" she asked softly.
Heero swallowed hard again, letting himself look deeply into her eyes for a moment. Relena saw the hurt in him, the fear, and she knew now that he'd lost control when she'd come upon him and Sally. Was he afraid of doing something like that with her? Relena trailed her fingers through Heero's hair as he continue to watch her. "You didn't hurt Sally," she pointed out hopefully.
"I could have..." he replied, eyes dropping again.
"But," Relena said quickly, retaking his face and ducking so she was in his line of sight. "You. Didn't." She let her hands slide down the outsides of Heero's arms and took hold of his wrists, trying to draw him towards the bed.
Heero resisted her hands and cast one fleeting look towards the door, and Relena released his left wrist. Moving that much closer to him, she placed her hand once more over his heart, and looked up into his eyes. He allowed himself to look back into her eyes, and Relena could see the conflict in him.
"Don't let the unknown keep you alone," she told him softly, pressing her fingers more firmly against his chest. She felt the elevated rhythm through her fingertips, as her eyes searched his face. Relena thought her words might have been swaying him, felt like whatever barriers he'd tried to erect around himself weren't completely solid yet, as he looked down at her.
"Alone is..." he swallowed, eyes leaving hers to look over her head.
Relena knew what he'd been about to say, and felt his heart beat that much faster at having nearly said it. "I've always heard there was safety in numbers," she said, smiling at the way his heart betrayed him to her, speeding up at the sound of her voice. Relena lifted her hand from his chest to touch his face and draw his eyes back to hers.
Lub dub...lub dub...lub dub...
Relena looked into those striking blue eyes, and imagined she could hear the echo of his heart. "I'm not giving up on you," she told him bluntly, leaning that much closer to his face, and brushing her lips lightly against his.
Lub dub...lub dub...lub dub...
Heero released a breath she didn't know how long he'd been holding, and his shoulders sagged in what she'd almost have called defeat. Relena drew him over to the bed, and was a little surprised when he sat down without prodding. Kicking off her own shoes and climbing on behind him, Relena tugged at his jean jacket. Heero twisted on the bed to look at her, even as she drew the light coat off his shoulders.
Lub dub...lub dub...lub dub...
Relena cocked her head slightly to one side as she stepped off the bed to place Heero's jacket on the chair. Glancing back over her shoulder she saw Heero silently watching her, and she offered him an encouraging smile as she slowly walked back towards him.
Lub dub..lub dub..lub dub..
Relena's smile only grew when she lightly touched Heero's chest to push him further onto the bed, and felt the fast beat of his heart beneath her fingers. It struck a rhythm exactly matching the one she'd been hearing, that subtle echo in the back of her mind. Heero looked at her with a puzzled expression, but allowed her to draw him further onto the bed, so that he was half propped against the headboard beside her.
Relena promptly took Heero's right arm and drew it around herself, and was delighted when his left moved of its own accord to hold her close to him. She lay there against him, hearing at a deeper level the steady beating of his heart. Relena held his arms to herself, snuggling against Heero, as she let her eyes drift close.
She heard Heero release a breath, as he relaxed a little against her, his arms holding her just a little bit closer. His heart rate was slowing. Relena could sense its easing, a gentle echo in the back of her mind. It was a soothing reassurance, to feel that connection to Heero, as she felt herself drift in the security of his arms.
"I know you could feel me," she mumbled sleepily, settling just a little more into the warmth he provided. "And I could feel you..." Relena smiled at the memory. "Do you realize how special that is?" she asked, tucking her hands around his arms, and released a contented breath.
…
Heero looked down at the young woman curled up beside him on top of the comforter, sound asleep. It hadn't taken long for Relena to drop off completely, her breathing evening out and deepening and her hold on his arms going lax. Heero didn't feel the least bit sleepy himself, still too alarmed by his loss of control in front of Sally.
Relena's determination, in keeping him by her side, had been impossible for Heero to properly resist. Even when every rational thought was telling him he needed to be doing just that. He'd held her as she fell asleep, and had heard her drowsy admission that she could feel him. That had caused Heero a slight sense of alarm, as he hadn't been anywhere near that part of his mind.
Ever so slowly, Heero began to disentangle himself from Relena's sleeping form, hesitating a moment when she pulled in tighter on herself. When nothing more came of it, Heero slipped away and got up from the bed. For a moment he simply stood there, looking down at Relena's sleeping face and wondering what this connection was between them.
Perhaps this would always be the results of using his mind on a living being. Certainly he had enough memories of the feelings washing back towards him from the targets he'd been set against. Heero shivered at the unwanted memories; he had not been given the chance to try and block them out, OZ had only wanted results. And they wouldn't hesitate to 'encourage' him to get them.
Whatever this connection was between himself and Relena, Heero didn't think he could allow it to continue. He stepped back from the bed, and took a seat on one of the room's two simple chairs, resting elbows on knees as he continued to watch Relena sleep. Heero reached over towards the door and flipped the overhead lights off, bathing the room in near blackness. Only soft filtered light spilled in from the window behind him.
If Relena was somehow able to feel him, and Heero couldn't begin to process how that was even possible, he needed to find a way to close that door. Relena shifted into a tighter ball on the bed, and Heero thought he could see her shivering a little. The room wasn't particularly cold to Heero, but as he watched Relena pulled her legs a little closer to her core.
Drawing an unsteady breath, Heero wondered if he'd unknowingly opened the door the first time he'd touched her with his mind. Could he close it again permanently if he touched her again? Shifting to the edge of his seat and sitting a little straighter, Heero reached into his mind, turning his left palm towards Relena.
He had been gentle with her the first time, and Heero kept his touch even lighter now. He didn't want to risk waking her, certainly didn't want to scare her. The sense of Relena in the back of his mind flared to life the moment he touched her, and he could hear the steady beating of her heart as she slept. As Heero wrapped her within his grasp, feeling the gentle expansion of her chest as she breathed slowly and deeply, he tried to block out that sense of her in his mind.
Unsure how to accomplish what he needed, Heero realized this was going to be a night of trial and error. To begin, Heero merely lifted Relena up from the mattress, and dividing his attention for a moment, used his mind to pull back the covers of the bed. Feeling both a human body and the sheets at the same time was a striking difference to Heero. He knew the thread count of the sheet, and the pattern of the comforter, but both were cold and devoid compared to the warmth and life he felt in Relena.
Heero lowered Relena back to the mattress, making sure her head was supported by one of the pillows before drawing the comforter over her. He felt her sigh of contentment as the warmth settled around her. And Heero tried to block out the sense of her feelings, but if anything the awareness of them was no longer situated in the very back of his mind. It was as if the door Heero had thought only open a crack had swung about half way.
Withdrawing his touch from Relena's body, Heero expected the sense of her to dim and fade back to mostly memory. But she was there, in his mind, a beacon of warmth and sensations Heero didn't have proper names for. And he knew somehow that she was dreaming, images flashing through his mind with no proper sense or order.
He saw an image of a man he didn't immediately recognize. It was there and gone before Heero had anything more than memory of it, but as he sat there watching Relena shift more comfortably under the sheets, those images rose up again, more strongly this time. Heero saw the man coming towards Relena, and she moved to meet him, her steps lighter than air as she reached out a hand towards him.
"Heero..." the name, whispered with a pleased sigh, was only audible to Heero's ears through the connection he couldn't seem to sever. He sat straighter in his chair, feeling stunned as he looked at Relena's sleeping face in the dim light of the room. This was how she saw him?
Images flared to life in his mind, more strongly now, and it was almost like Heero felt a hum run through this invisible connection tethering him to Relena. She was floating, drifting on a light current of air, feeling as though she were light as a feather. He was there in her dream, holding her aloft, drawing her towards himself, as she smiled down at him. Her expression was unlike anything Heero had witnessed before. She was smiling, a delighted expression which lit up her entire face, but there was a softness to her eyes, a warmth Heero didn't know the words to describe.
"Why do you look at me like that?" he breathed quietly into the silent room.
Relena's expression within Heero's mind only grew brighter. "Because I think I love you," she whispered softly.
Heero jerked up straight in his seat, heart thudding in his chest. 'Did she actually hear me?' he wondered, trying to suppress a sense of panic.
"I like the sound of your voice," Relena sighed, both in the dream and in reality, as she snuggled more deeply beneath the blankets.
Heero tried to refocus his mind, to push back the sensations of Relena that were pulsing stronger than ever within him. Clenching his left hand into a tight fist, Heero backed away from that aspect of his mind, but was alarmed when it did nothing to lessen the sense of Relena inside of him.
"Heero, don't push me away," Relena's voice pleaded softly.
'You can't know that's what I'm trying to do,' he thought firmly, battling against the connection, which felt alive.
Relena pouted slightly before reaching out to him, and he to her, in the dream. Heero tried desperately to rise above the images as Relena drifted into the arms of her dream Heero, their lips meeting in a soft kiss which quickly turned deeper. Heero gasped slightly at the passion he felt flow through the bond into him, as Relena's dream deepened.
Heero shut his eyes for a moment, but it only increased the intensity of the images he was seeing from Relena's dreams. He stood then, and silently began to pace the length of the room, searching for something, anything, to distract himself from the connection he couldn't seem to escape now that he'd let her in.
Silent feet taking him back towards the wall the bed sat against, Heero couldn't help but glance at Relena's sleeping face. She looked so peaceful, so content. Heero shivered against the emotions he felt seeping into his mind from Relena's dreams. He knew he needed to regain control, even if he didn't know how to do it.
His eyes darted for the door of the room. Perhaps distance would enable him to close this wide open connection in his mind. Casting one last glance back at Relena's sleeping face, Heero swallowed, and took hold of the bolt keeping the door secured. Heero stepped out into the cool spring air and immediately shivered at the temperature shift.
"Couldn't sleep?" a smooth, deep voice asked.
Heero's attention immediately shifted to his right, and the next room, where Wufei stood in just his jeans. The man was leaning back against the wall between the two rooms, one bare foot propped against the rough surface. Heero noticed that Wufei wore his hair loose now, and it fell to his shoulders in straight black lines.
Drawing a deep breath of the cool night air, Heero regarded the other man cautiously. "Not tired," he muttered, not glancing back at the door to his room. Heero couldn't be positive but he thought the sensations and images were slightly more faded now, but that might have just been wishful thinking.
He stepped towards the edge of the sidewalk, and felt like he might have been able to push aside that strong bundle of emotions coming from Relena. Heero still couldn't close the door that was wide open, but he felt like he had a better handle on his own mind. He pulled both hands through his hair, and came to a stop when his foot kicked something hard on the edge of the sidewalk.
"You did that with your mind?" Wufei asked smoothly, his voice carrying but not loud. There was only the low, mournful sound of a distant highway overpass, and the crickets chirping in the nearby grass.
Heero blinked down at the chunk of concrete he'd broken off the blockade. His right foot, still shod, was nudging against the piece that was left, surrounded by thick dust. His eyes met onyx in the yellow glow of the outdoor lights. Heero wasn't about to confirm the answer to that question. But he doubted he even needed to, Sally clearly had spoken to Wufei about what had happened.
Wufei shrugged one shoulder as he continued to consider Heero, his own expression thoughtful, rather than guarded or suspicious. "Do you know your limits?" Wufei asked then.
Heero didn't react to the question, though his eyes did dart towards the closed door, where Relena still peacefully slept. Wufei followed his gaze for a moment, before those near black eyes were back watching him. "I imagine," he mused, pushing off of the wall and taking a half step towards Heero, "that they pushed you to the limits."
The man folded arms across his chest. "But did they teach you control?" he asked, though to Heero's ears it sounded more like Wufei was merely musing to himself.
'Control...' Heero thought with a scowl, his foot kicking at the hunk of cement again. They'd opened his mind to these powers, and immediately wanted to push him to limits that needed to be extended with each new test. "They wanted results," he said in low tones, and saw Wufei nod his head through the corner of his eye, as though that was exactly what he expected.
"I'm not surprised," Wufei said quietly as he shifted slowly to stand more in Heero's line of sight, while remaining at a distance. "In martial arts," he began, pulling a hand through his loose hair, "you're taught a great deal of power. But with it comes the equally important lessons on control."
"Something tells me you were driven to achieve new and greater feats without ever learning how to control what you'd unlocked." Wufei took another step towards Heero, his bare foot coming to rest on the opposite side of the piece of cement. "Like running before you've learned how to walk," he commented with a shrug.
Heero eyed Wufei, his mind still awash with the warmth and faded images of Relena's dreams, and he knew the other man was right. They'd driven him to expand his mind, without giving him the chance to learn how to manage it. All they'd wanted was the destruction he could create; control had been in their hands to stop him when they needed. Heero shivered at the memories that dredged up.
Wufei's dark eyes regarded him calmly. "It's never too late to learn some control," he said with a pointed look.
That caused an eyebrow on Heero's face to raise, and he turned his left hand out slightly towards the piece of cement between them. "You have experience with this?" he asked, using his mind to shift the rubble away from their feet and towards the blockade it had come from.
"No..." Wufei admitted, not blinking twice at what Heero had just done, "but the principles to achieving control remain the same." Wufei turned more fully to face him, and Heero noticed the other man's eyes glance behind him towards the room he'd left. "She sees something in you."
Heero straightened at Wufei's words, not looking back over his own shoulder to the room, but he felt the connection to Relena hum back to life again. He didn't know if it was just chance, or the fact that Wufei drew his thoughts back to her, but those faded images of Relena's dreams and the emotions seeping through the bond welled up around Heero again.
Drawing a deep breath, Heero tried to push aside the sights and sensations, while at the exact time wanting to give in to them. But more than that he wanted to be in the room with Relena, not just witnessing her dreams. He glowered at the man in front of him. "What do you know?" he asked sceptically.
Wufei smirked, his mouth opening but a soft deep chuckle was the first sound that came out. "Not nearly enough," he admitted with a slight shrug, his own dark eyes glancing back towards his room. "But I know some. I know what its like to fall short of someone's expectations. I know what it's like to have someone see something in you that you couldn't see in yourself."
"Sally saw something more in me than I thought was there," Wufei continued and he placed his right foot on the piece of cement, before stepping over it so he could lean himself against the rest of the remaining blockade. "I worked black ops, for several years. I didn't question orders, and even took a righteous pleasure in the kills I racked up."
Wufei's face twisted in disgust, but he kept talking. "Meeting Sally was the turning point for me, and know I pushed back. I wasn't looking for someone to improve me," his lips turned up in a small smile. "She showed me a lot of things. That I could do my job, and hurt myself less, by gaining control."
Wufei drew a deep breath, unfolding his arms and resting his palms against the blockade. The fingers of his left hand tapped lightly at the ragged edge Heero had created, as though to draw Heero's attention back to it. "Do you want to become what she sees?" Wufei asked with a raised eyebrow, his lips turning up in a slight knowing smile.
Heero's thoughts immediately shifted to the first glimpse he'd seen of himself, of how Relena saw him, at least in her dreams. She saw his powers as more than tools for death and destruction. She saw him as more than just a weapon or a monster. Heero felt the warmth of the connection he'd opened to Relena, could hear the steady beating of her heart as she dreamed.
He blinked, realizing he'd turned towards the room where Relena slept, unsure when he'd put Wufei in just his peripherals. Looking back to the man, Heero saw that knowing smile still tipping up Wufei's mouth, as he waited for a reply Heero apparently didn't need to verbalize.
"To do that," Wufei said pointedly, drawing Heero's attention fully back to him, "you need to master yourself. You need control," Wufei continued firmly.
"Control..." Heero breathed the word, eyes glancing down to his left hand. Turning his hand towards his face, Heero's attention shifted from the lines on his palm to the broken piece of concrete still resting at his feet. Heero knew he didn't want to lose control like that again. He didn't want to give Relena a reason to change how she saw him.
Wufei pushed himself off the barricade and looked into Heero's eyes. "I'll help, if you're willing to learn," he offered, shrugging his left shoulder as if to say it didn't matter to him one way or the other.
Heero considered the man standing before him for several long minutes. He hadn't known what to make of Wufei up to now. Heero had known right away that Wufei had the potential to be dangerous. It had been obvious in the way the man carried himself, and Heero had been well attuned to threats from a young age.
But as quiet and dangerous as Wufei was, he was also offering something of himself to a virtual stranger. Something Heero knew—as he tried to once again force down the images of Relena's dreams—he desperately needed. Chewing slightly at the inside of his lip, Heero sized Wufei up, before finally nodding his head.
"Right," Wufei said easily, stepping back over the piece of concrete and making his way back towards his room. "Get some sleep," he tossed back over his shoulder.