"May I come in?"
Duo gazed dumbly at the door before nodding. Relena
approached the bed and handed him the brush, then sat in the chair that
Quatre had occupied a few minutes earlier. "What are you doing here?"
"Visiting you; what do you think?" Her tone
was casual and relaxed.
//Maxwell, this isn't anything other than a friendly
visit. Calm down!// he ordered himself. Setting the brush in
his lap, Duo pulled the braid over his shoulder. "So you just happened
to be passing by L-2 in your travels?" he asked with as much levity as
he could muster. "A few hours' stopover on your way back to Earth?"
He heard Relena stand and take the braid from
him. "Let me." She had her hands on it before could protest, undoing the
braid quickly. "Hilde thought I should come by."
Duo felt something short circuit in his brain
as Relena ran her fingers through his hair, loosening the larger tangles.
It was an intimate gesture, one that threw him further off-guard. "And
what did Hilde have to say? I haven't talked to her in a while."
"She's been worried about you since she left,"
Relena replied. "And now with all this going on... she thought you guys
could use a neutral mediator."
Duo forced himself to chuckle. "Naw, we just like
to fight things out around here."
"So I heard." Lightly, Relena grasped Duo's chin
and turned his head toward her. She studied his face for a long moment
before releasing him. Duo turned his head quickly so that the long strands
of his hair would hide his face. "Heero really did a number on you."
"This is a beauty treatment compared to some of
the crap I took in Deathscythe."
"And some of the crap you took from Heero."
Still hidden behind the curtain of hair, Duo answered,
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you know about that."
"It was one of the first things Heero told me."
Relena gathered the loose strands back from Duo's face, but didn't turn
his head again. Instead, she began brushing the tangles from the loose
hair. "He's always felt guilty about that night."
Duo was silent.
"I won't say I understand how you feel, but I
am worried about you. Sometimes you pretend to be happy so well that no
one sees anything is wrong."
He felt his heart trip over itself once, then
start skipping rapidly. //She's worried? She shouldn't have to worry.//
The strokes down his long hair ran from his scalp to his waist and beyond,
but he couldn't relax into them.
"So what happened with Hilde?"
"Does it really matter?" he said bitterly. "She's
on Earth, and I'm lying in a hospital bed." //Having my hair brushed by
the Relena Peacecraft.// "Why do you care anyway?"
"Because I care about you."
His heart repeated the little dance it had done
a few moments ago. //I can't take much more of this.// Duo sighed and let
his head fall forward. "We had an ongoing disagreement."
"You didn't love her."
The calming rhythm of the brush passing over his
hair and the tension of being alone with Relena, like this, were starting
to neutralize each other. "No."
"You wanted someone else."
"Yes." He closed his eyes.
The motion of the brush never altered; nor did
the tone of Relena's voice, but Duo could sense the change in her. Reaching
behind him, he tried to reclaim his hair and his privacy, but Relena batted
his hands away. He sat there on the bed, staring at his hands, waiting
for something--anything--to break the silence.
"Hilde told me you kept a picture of Heero and
me under your pillow. Were you thinking about him?"
All the water left Duo's mouth and a red flush
crept across his cheeks. A deep breath didn't still the tremors in his
stomach. //She knows; or if she doesn't, she's smart enough to figure it
out from here. There's the problem with not lying--when you can't
run or hide, you're stuck.//
Finally, he admitted hoarsely, "No... I wasn't
thinking about Heero."
The brush stopped, then Duo felt his hair being
divided into parts. The room was silent as Relena finished the braid and
wrapped the elastic around the end of it. She then came to the side
of the bed. "When did you realize..." she said softly, her question
trailing off into silence.
He reached for the braid and played with its ends.
//No point in holding back now...// "You wanted my forgiveness for
what happened with Heero." Keeping his eyes downcast, he smiled ruefully.
"You were almost as annoying as I was. I don't know how Heero put
up with either of us."
"Persistence pays off."
Relena's soft chuckle gave Duo confidence; his
voice was stronger when he continued. "I started seeing Hilde to get you
off my case, but..."
Her hands covered his in his lap, stilling them.
"But what?"
He looked up into the clear blue eyes he never
dreamed he'd see so close-up. "I missed you more when you stopped calling."
A smile curved onto Relena's pink lips; the same
shade of pink dusted across her cheeks. This time, it was she who looked
away.
Duo leaned back against the raised back of the
bed and sighed. It was done, now, and he felt surprisingly good that it
was all in the open. //She hasn't slapped me, so there's hope. Actually,
she looks kind of embarrassed.//
//Man, she's sexy as hell when she's blushing.//
"Say, Relena?"
She looked at him demurely, her irises barely
visible between her thick lashes.
"Whatcha doin' tomorrow night? I get out of the
hospital in the morning... we could go to dinner." Duo winked devilishly.
"You know, a celebration of my liberation. The food here leaves something
to be desired."
She raised her head. "Duo Maxwell, are you asking
me out on a date?"
This time it was his turn to blush. "Well... yes,
I am."
"Well, then, I'll go." She met his eyes. "Although
I have heard rumors about Shinigami's legendary stomach, there's nothing
like seeing it in person."
Duo winked again. "There's this great buffet downtown..."
"Mr. Maxwell?" A young, red-haired nurse stuck
his head in the room. "Mr. Winner just called, asking if Mr. Yuy was here."
"Heero? No, not that I've seen," Duo replied,
his brows knitting. "Why would Quatre ask that?"
"He insisted on talking to the nurse on duty in
the emergency room, although I'm certain he knows that if Mr. Yuy were
to visit, he'd come directly to this floor's nurse station." Duo paled.
The nurse rushed to his side. "Is everything all right, Mr. Maxwell?"
Relena squeezed Duo's hand as he took a deep breath
and asked, "Is Mr. Winner still on the line?"
"I wouldn't know. He's probably still on hold
to talk to someone in the ER."
"See if you can punch him through to my room,
will ya?"
"Certainly, Mr. Maxwell." The nurse left the room
quickly.
As for Relena, she'd gone from blushing bridesmaid
to solemn negotiatior while Duo wasn't looking. "Trowa's still upset."
Duo sighed. "Quatre was here this afternoon, demanding
an explanation for the first time Heero beat me up. Trowa was outside the
door while I was explaning. He's not just upset. He's pissed
off."
Relena shivered. Duo could understand why. He'd
only seen Trowa mad once, and he never wanted to see the normally stoic
pilot enraged again.
The phone rang sharply. "Hey, Q-man."
"Duo." The blonde was clearly worried.
His voice wavered slightly as he asked, "You haven't seen Heero or Trowa?"
"No. What happened?"
"I got back from the hospital and they were gone."
"Together?"
"We don't know."
Duo flinched. This had been a possibility,
but he'd never let it cross his mind, not wanting to jinx the peace that
had lasted until now. "Anything we can do on this end?"
"We?"
"Relena's here."
"Oh? Let her know that she can stay with
us. I wouldn't want her to have to get a hotel room."
Duo grinned. //Still the perfect host, even in
the middle of *this.*// "Will do."
"Wufei and I are going to search. We'll call you
periodically to check in."
"Sounds good." They said hasty goodbyes and hung
up. When he turned back to face Relena, she was standing. "Going somewhere?"
"To look for Heero and Trowa."
Duo's eyes widened. "Uh, Relena, I wouldn't recommend
that. We *are* dealing with two emotionally unstable ex-terrorists here."
"I know." She took the brush and pocketed it.
"That's why I'm going to help look. I know Heero. I know the kinds of places
he would go."
"So does Wufei," Duo replied. "Besides, we have
a date tomorrow night, and I'd like you to still be alive to attend."
Relena laughed and tousled his bangs. "I'll be
fine. You just stay here and worry about getting rested up for tomorrow."
With a flirtatous smile that left Duo's mouth hanging open, she walked
out the room.
***
Heero's hand throbbed underneath its cast as he
paid the cab driver, but he didn't pay any attention to the pain.
Taking the pills would have made him drowsy, and he wanted to be fully
conscious when he reached the hospital. He had to talk to Duo, without
the others.
The cab pulled away, leaving him a few blocks
from the hospital. It was mid-afternoon, and he'd wanted to stroll through
the park he'd seen last night and gather his thoughts before visiting Duo.
Thinking was difficult while surrounded by reminders of Wufei. The black
pants and tunic from the Christmas party, his books, his reading glasses--they
all underlined his lover's already-conspicuous absence.
They'd had problems before, and they would work
through this one just like the others. Heero would make sure of that. But
first, he had to apologize to Duo. Fei would understand.
A sharp sting in his shoulder pulled Heero from
his thoughts. He reached around in time to identify it as a tranquilizer
dart before blacking out.
***
Relena started her search by wandering through
the park near the hospital. Unbeknownst to most, Heero liked nature--perhaps
because he spent most his life surrounded by technology. Her stroll
was casual and directionless as she kept her eyes open for any sign of
a man of medium height with dark brown hair. Which, of course, included
most of the colony.
She wouldn't find him. The colony was too big,
and there were too many places Heero could have gone. At least the stroll
gave her time to think.
It wasn't that she didn't like Duo. She wasn't
leading him on. Any woman would be lucky to have Duo Maxwell at her side,
with his long braid flicking back and forth as violet eyes peeked from
underneath chestnut bangs. Any woman. Including a woman of medium height
with dull blonde hair, eyes that no longer shone, and bags under those
eyes from meetings that never seemed to end.
From a distance, she examined and rejected yet
another passer-by as Heero. He was too tall, with the wrong walk. The next
had light brown hair and was far too thin, and therefore didn't even make
it onto her radar screen. Another had the right height and build, but his
butt wasn't as cute as Heero's.
She looked up, blushing--to think of something
like *that* at a time like *this*.
//But Duo did the same thing.//
A blush rose into her cheeks, brighter than the
one she'd shown Duo earlier. //Thank goodness I was out of his sight when
he told me.// A sad smile touched her lips. //Wonder if it's occurred to
him yet that this is the *second* relationship of his I've accidentally
ruined.//
She frowned as yet another mid-height, brown-haired
man passed by her. She knew it wasn't Heero. There was something about
the way Heero was--the way he stood, the way he walked, the way he breathed--that
distinguished him from the crowd. And though she'd never admit it,
even if pressed, she still knew the scent of Heero's skin, as much a part
of his clothing as the fibers that made the fabric.
She would love to run her fingers over that well-muscled
chest again. In fact, she had one of his old green tanktops nestled in
a drawer next to her nightgowns. The smoothness of it against her cheek
soothed her when the politicking and the journalists got under her skin.
Being with Wufei made Heero happy, and if Heero
was happy, so was she.
//But if Heero doesn't return home to Wufei, a
lot of people are going to be very unhappy.//
//Including me.//
***
After spreading out a colony map on the large
worktable in the study and figuring out how far a person could travel by
foot in 30 minutes, then accounting for the fact that they were dealing
with two ex-Gundam pilots, then tacking on some distance for Heero, then
more for Trowa, both Quatre and Wufei frowned as they considered the enormity
of the task in front of them.
"This is impossible," Wufei snarled. "They
could be anywhere by now."
"I'm worried too," Quatre said quietly.
Immediately, Wufei softened. "I did not mean to
sound so harsh."
"I know." Quatre gave up on the map, instead turning
to his laptop, which was opened on the hardwood desk behind him. "We've
checked the hospitals, and the only thing remotely unusual in the area
was a stolen car."
"It could be Trowa," Wufei replied. "Do you know
the make, model, and license plate?"
"Of course. It's an '02 four door sedan from NewMobile.
Dark blue, plates 02C-X423," Quatre reported.
"Then let's go," Wufei replied, heading for the
door. "We have some pilots to find."
***
When Heero awoke, he found himself staring at
a fuzzy blue ceiling. It took him a moment to shake off the effects
of the drug used on him, then he concluded he was in a car moving at 58
kilometers per hour. Quietly, he glanced at the driver. The
distinctive unibang marked his captor as none other than Trowa Barton.
//Trowa? What the hell...?//
"You're awake."
The words were flat and spoken without so much
as a turn of the head. Heero saw no point in lying. "Yes."
The car turned smoothly around a corner as Heero
sat up--or tried to, rather. Whatever Trowa had used, it had left
him dizzy. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere quiet."
***end part 5***
Okay, I'm really starting to hate cliffhangers,
but this was too good. Thank you so much for your comments! R&R!
C&C! Please??
