SWORD AND SHEATH

1: ANGELS ON EARTH CAN HURT JUST AS MUCH

-a TC fic

Kattyena tapped her pen against her teeth and stared at the overhead's

projection. "The square root of 25 is 5, so thus the factor of the binomial

would be..." As the teacher went into more and more detail, Kattyena became more

and more bored. It was only the start of the period and she was already as

anxious as hell to be out of the class. Suddenly there was a knock on the port-

holed ship-themed door. A student got up to open it. Kattyena barely raised

her head from the desk. Which was a good thing, since then her jaw didn't have

very far to drop when she saw the boy who walked through that door. His

platinum gold hair framed an angelic face like no other Kattyena had ever seen.

His brilliant blue eyes sparkled with a gentle light, much like sunlight on a

forest, as he greeted the teacher and was introduced to the students. "Class

this is Quatre Raberba Winner, he's an exchange student from Japan and will be

staying with us for a short while. Oh and don't worry, he speaks perfect

English." The boy, Quatre, smiled warmly at the class, his manner shy yet

friendly. As his eyes swept the class, they locked briefly with Kattyena's deep

hazel ones. Kattyena felt a blush rising to her cheeks and quickly looked away.

When she looked back, Quatre was being shown to a seat on the other side of the

room, much to Kattyena's disappointment. His easygoing manner made him hard to

dislike and he quickly became the centre of attention, much to the teacher's

amusement, luckily she had finished teaching before the new student had arrived.

Several of the more popular girls in the school, attempted to flirt with Quatre,

only to meet with the friendliness expressed to everyone else and not a tad

more. Somehow though, this not quite rebuke seemed to cause them to try even

harder. However, every time they found themselves going nowhere, and yet not

offended in the least. So the class continued, with Quatre politely refusing

the onslaughts of the [female sheep] cliquish girls, and Kattyena, drooling from

afar. All this changed though, after the bell rang twice. In fourth period

science, the teacher assigned Kattyena to show Quatre around the school, since

he was already familiar with the Science Lab they were doing and Kattyena could

make it up after school. So the pair started off, Kattyena muttering slightly,

but maintaining some polite small talk, and Quatre responding in kind. [Little

did she realize that Quatre was just as shy as she was!] Both blushing

furiously whenever their eyes locked. [But since they looked in opposite

directions immediately after of course, neither saw the other blush!!] She had

shown him around one wing of the school and was starting on the other when an

insistent beeping startled them both. Quatre looked down at the small pager

affixed to his waistband, glancing at it quickly before moving to block

Kattyena's view of it with his body. He smiled wistfully and excused himself,

looking gravely into Kattyena's eyes as he asked her to lie for him. Kattyena

watched him go with a curious expression, what could the pager possibly have

said? Where was Quatre off to? She quickly squashed her desire to find out and

headed back to class, her ingenious mind already preparing a suitable excuse.



"Rashid that was unacceptable!" The angelic boy paced the small room in a

rare show of anger. "I was forced to ask an uninvolved innocent to lie for me!"

The bearded man bowed his head in consent.

"I'm sorry Master Quatre, but this was urgent, we just received word that

some OZ troops followed us and are headed in the direction of the school. They

will arrive here in under half an hour." Quatre froze then sighed.

"Thank you Rashid, I'm sorry I got angry, but I don't like involving

unnecessary people in my battles. I just wish OZ would choose more honourable

battlegrounds. Is there any chance of intercepting them before they get here?"

The young boy ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair. The older man lowered

his head briefly.

"No Master Quatre, not if you plan on defending the school. Considering

the time needed to retrieve your Sandrock, you will have to fight them here.

Quatre sighed again tiredly.

"Alright then, let's go get Sandrock."



Kattyena adjusted the focus on the microscope, bringing the sample into

view. "Whoa, active little things aren't they?" She said to no one in

particular. The single-celled organisms zipped around the microscope's field of

view enthusiastically, much to Kattyena's annoyance. How was she supposed to

observe the damned things if they kept moving? As she adjusted the focus again,

Kattyena realized there were some very odd noises coming from outside.

Crunching metal, shattering glass and car alarms. After pausing for a minute,

Kattyena gave in to her more apathetic side and decided it was none of her

business. That was until the noises started getting closer. As the tearing and

rending of metal screeched somewhere much too close for comfort, Kattyena froze.

Anticipating a surprise as she was, Kattyena was still unprepared for the sight

that met her eyes. A huge robot crashed through the side of the lab, tearing

away most of the wall and parting the floor before it before coming to rest near

the fume hoods. Subsequently, the large hole in the wall provided Kattyena with

a panoramic view of the ruined 'shop below, and a second humanoid robot

advancing on the damaged one. The aggressor was much more elegant than the

damaged robot. He, for the robot had a distinctly male look to it, had broad

shoulders tipped with what looked like fledgling wings, a head resembling a

samurai helmet, and charcoal, crimson, yellow and white armour all over his

metal form. Altogether beautiful, in a massive and threatening way. Kattyena

felt a spark of something as she looked into the glowing green "eyes" of the

mechanical samurai, but it was there and gone again in an instant. The damaged

one, a rather sickly green colour, had vaguely cylindrical head, plain, blocky,

joints and only a large, red, square where it's eyes should be. Kattyena had no

affinity to this one whatsoever, actually she thought it was pretty ugly. As if

hearing her thought, it shifted before raising its cannon for a shot at the

advancing enemy. However the armoured warrior didn't even give it time to bring

him into its sights as he drew two curved white swords and sliced them downwards

through the chest of the floundering green robot. The resulting explosion was

smaller than it might have been, but still large enough to disintegrate the

floor under Kattyena and hurl her into the air. Time almost seemed to stop as

she flew upwards before, her own scream echoing in her ears, she plummeted

downwards. The world stretched and distorted as she saw a giant, grey, hand

reach out towards her, and suddenly she was landing on it. She skidded and

bounced along the smooth surface, almost falling off the edge before the robot

cupped its hand, trapping her safely inside. Greyness fuzzed at the edge of her

vision as she curled up in the palm of her saviour, only the rocking of the

giant hand telling her that they were moving. The closed hand blocked out most

of the remaining sunlight and created a sort of shifting dusk whose shadows

played with her mind before she drifted into unconsciousness.



"Master Quatre! What are you doing?" A tanned man wearing small round

sunglasses ran out onto the cracked, mossy asphalt. "Who is this?" He continued

to demand answers as the tired pilot descended from the hatch of Kattyena's

"metal samurai", which was actually the mobile suit Gundam Sandrock. Quatre

leaned slightly against the scarred white armour of his machine's leg for a

moment, unconscious girl in his arms, before he smiled ruefully at his

distressed servant.

"I'm sorry Abdul but I couldn't just leave her there. Rashid's not going

to be very happy about this is he?" The lithe man slowed to walk beside Quatre,

who was striding towards a large run-down warehouse.

"No Master Quatre." He said rather wryly. "Rashid is never happy when you

let your kindness endanger you." He looked down at the still form in Quatre's

arms. "Though I have to admit, she doesn't look very dangerous. Nor does she

look very injured, don't tell me you brought her here because she's pretty,

Master Quatre." The servant turned a teasingly sceptical eye on his young

master.

"No Abdul," Quatre tried to keep from blushing and failed. " The truth is

she was hit by the explosion from one of the Leo suits I destroyed. Maybe it's

only scrapes and burns, but I have to be sure."

Abdul nodded and fell into step behind him quietly. Quatre carried Kattyena

inside and down a hallway until he reached a battered-looking freight elevator.

They stepped inside and Abdul pressed the lowest of three buttons, taking them

down to a previously non-existent level of the warehouse. When they stepped out

of the elevator into the hallway, there was a remarkable change in atmosphere.

All the dirtiness and shabbiness was gone, replaced by newer, sturdier materials

and pristine cleanliness. At the end of the hall was a thick metal door. Abdul

stepped in front of Quatre to knock. Three precise raps on the smooth material

made a surprisingly loud noise and the door was quickly opened. Behind it was a

beehive of activity. Men in what Quatre recognized to be standard Magnamac

uniforms bustled to and fro, guiding his Sandrock into the high-tech hanger

concealed beneath the dirty shell of a warehouse. "So this is our local

concealed base?" Quatre asked Abdul. The man only nodded, any words he spoke

unlikely to be heard by the young boy as a large engine had started up somewhere

and was causing a copious amount of noise. When it stopped, he expanded on the

nod.

"I guess you were kind of in a hurry the first time you were here Master

Quatre, so you didn't have a good look around. This is one of our most

concealed locations yet. Since there is plenty of little-used waterfront

storage in this town, it was not hard to quietly purchase a warehouse and move

our supplies here. However, constructing this hanger was slightly more

difficult. This whole town is composed of wetlands, and thus anything normally

built underground would flood. This hanger and underground complex is a sealed

network of tunnels, vents, and hidden exits and entrances. I wish OZ had picked

somewhere where basements were easier to construct. Anyway, we are posing as a

small swamp-fishing company, and this is where we make repairs to our boats and

package the fish for transport. If anyone ever thought to check, they would

find a perfectly normal operation on the surface, and due to our location,"

Abdul made a face at this. "No one would ever suspect an underground facility."

They had reached the opposite side of the hanger, where several other doors led

off into different parts of the complex. Abdul opened one of them, and led

Quatre to the small infirmary behind it. There he stopped, and bowing to

Quatre, he left, saying he was going to inform Rashid of Quatre's arrival. That

left only Quatre to lean against the wall while the doctor looked over Kattyena.

Finally, after much prodding, poking, and muttering, the doctor stood up and

looked at Quatre gravely over his spectacles.

"Well, there isn't any internal bleeding, but her ribs are extremely

bruised on one side and one or two may be fractured. However those are nothing

to worry about, and neither are her scrapes and burns, those can be easily

dressed and will heal quickly. We'll have to wait until she wakes up to see if

there's any head trauma, I can't be sure from a purely physical examination. It

was good of you to bring her in Master Quatre, but what about you, are you

injured?"

"No, I'm just tired, what are you going to do with her?" Quatre raised his

head to eye the doctor levelly.

"Well, since I don't think you would allow me to do anything else, I

suppose she can be housed in one of the beds here until she wakes up. Why don't

you go and get some rest while I dress her wounds, I'll send for you when she

wakes up." The doctor looked up at Quatre from writing on a clipboard.

"No, if it's okay I'd like to stay here until she wakes up." Quatre

stated. The doctor sighed. There was something about this particular rescue.

He had a feeling Master Quatre wouldn't want to leave until he was sure she was

all right, so he dressed the girl's wounds and left her sleeping in one of the

beds in the deserted infirmary. As he had assumed, Quatre took up a bedside

vigil. When the doctor left he was still there, watching the girl sleep and

seemingly lost in his own thoughts. One hand abstractly stroking stray strands

of honey brown hair off her pale face.



Kattyena didn't know where she was, but her head hurt and she felt the

sting of many minor cuts and bruises along her torso and limbs. She was lying

in a soft bed between clean sheets, and there was a comforting hand cupping her

cheek. Slowly opening her eyes, Kattyena saw what looked like the room of a

deserted hospital facility of some sort. Four other beds were in her room,

empty with their curtains tucked neatly away. Overall the air had a canned

smell, kind of metallic and antiseptic, however it was pleasantly overlaid by

another softer scent. The hand on her cheek had fallen away, and when Kattyena

turned, she realized that it was not a family member as she had assumed, but the

golden haired boy from her classes. She felt her heart go out to him as she saw

that he was fast asleep. Head and shoulders leaning on her bed, the rest of him

slumped in a chair pulled up to her bedside. A few silky locks fluttered as he

breathed deeply. Kattyena's hand went out almost of it's own will, and she

tucked the stray hair behind his ear. How anyone could have such a beautiful

colour of hair was beyond her. Sure she often fell for blondes, but Quatre's

hair was different than any other she had seen. So soft, it almost seemed

translucent in its ability to capture the sunlight, and ethereal in retaining

its rich platinum gold colouring. As she stared at the angelic face in front of

her, he mind began to shake off its cloak of sleepy muzziness. Kattyena began

to wonder why the angel was sleeping with his head on her bed and why she was in

a hospital in the first place. However at her first sign of movement, the young

man's shaded blue eyes snapped open and locked with hers, a radiant smile

springing to his face at the sight

"I'm so glad you're awake, how do you feel?" he asked her kindly as he sat

up.

"Like hell." Kattyena replied before she could stop herself.

"I'm not surprised, but I am impressed by your honesty." Quatre's smile

turned mischievous and Kattyena flushed. He got up to go. "I'm going to go get

the doctor okay? He'll want to know you're awake."



"Well I'm glad to say there's no psychological damage, but one of your

ribs is cracked. I advise you stay here for the next couple of days and

recuperate. After that we can release you to a normal hospital, okay?" The

doctor looked at Kattyena. She nodded and the doctor patted her shoulder

reassuringly. "For now I think you should go back to bed and rest." Kattyena

complied, wishing that Quatre could stay with her, it was kind of lonely in that

room, even with the entertainment they supplied. So she spent the rest of the

day sleeping, utilising the entertainment facilities, and being bored. With

suppertime came a welcome surprise and interruption of her monotonous day.

Quatre pranced into the room carrying a tray with what was definitely not

hospital food on it. He sidled up to the bed and put it on her lap, beaming

when he saw the surprise and delight etched on her face.

"Surprise! Oops, I better be quiet, I don't know whether the doctor would

approve of you eating the non-supplemental, recuperatory-diet-interrupting foods

I brought you." Quatre held a finger to his lips in a comical display of

secrecy.

"Well be comforted by the fact that I approve." Kattyena smiled

gratefully. Quatre bowed slightly and she giggled. "What's got you in such a

good mood?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Having a patient to care for I guess," A momentary shadow fell over

Quatre's eyes "I destroy so much, I like feeling like I'm healing something."

He looked down. "Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry I asked." Kattyena ignored the oddness of the statement and

took Quatre's hand. "I really am grateful, I mean I always thought TC was crazy,

hating my banana puddings, but now I finally understand and share her passionate

hate for the things. (Umm ignore that...) How about we share this hmm?" Quatre

looked at her.

"But it's for you." He stated hesitantly.

"Yeah I know, but I'm so lonely being here all by myself and you look

kinda hungry. Besides, I'm not sure I should eat all this, I might end up like

Fruitmajoot (don't ask...)." Kattyena made a face. Quatre laughed.

"I always told her she'd get fat from eating all that junk food. (I.e.

TC'S HOMEMADE COOKIES!! ) and fasting the rest of the time...it's unhealthy!"

Kattyena snickered and shook her head. "Well off that pleasant topic, let's

eat, shall we?" Kattyena looked at Quatre.

"I thought you'd never ask." Quatre smiled back. They ate through the

supper in no time, and yet Quatre didn't leave after it was finished. He stayed

at Kattyena's bedside talking happily to her until they both fell asleep, in

almost the exact same positions as the night before. Quatre rested well that

night. Having another person his age that understood him so well and was

willing to talk was amazing to him, not to mention majorly therapeutic. The

only times his sleep was interrupted was when he dreamt strange things about

speedwell and a girl with honey-brown hair and hazel eyes.



The next morning Quatre left the infirmary whistling happily to himself.

He had a very un-Quatre-like thought about "accidentally" breaking another one

of Kattyena's ribs, just so she could stay longer. However that thought was

quickly, and a little guiltily, pushed aside. He felt incredibly relaxed around

her, well not exactly, but relaxed as in he didn't feel as if he had to keep his

guard up all the time. For the first time last night he had slept without

nightmares, in fact, he hadn't dreamt at all. (Suuuree you didn't...) But

being around Kattyena was also very strange for him. He got odd flutterings in

the pit of his stomach and blushed easily. It wasn't unpleasant, just strange.

Oh he knew what it was all right, but accepted the fact that she would never

want a Gundam pilot with such bloodstained hands, and quashed the feelings

uncharacteristically viciously every time they arose. Still whistling, Quatre

entered the briefing room. Rashid looked up at his entrance. "You look happy

this morning Master Quatre," he commented grimacing. "I'm sorry I have to spoil

it with my news. Take a look at this please." Quatre looked.

"A map of our current location?" He blinked.

"Now look at the rest of the transmission we intercepted from OZ." Text

rolled up the screen.

"Kuso." Quatre swore quietly. "That's a lot of mobile suits. Are you

sure of this?"

"Yes Master Quatre," Rashid nodded grimly. "That's why we set up a base

here. We've known for some time that OZ was building its forces here."

"But we never suspected it would be this..." Quatre was still staring

numbly at the message. Suddenly his face took on a determined look. "I must

keep OZ from getting those troops to outer space." He said. "Whatever I do I

won't give up. Rashid, I'm sorry to be so morbid but I think I had better

record a few messages." The bear-like man conceded, knowing that with that many

enemy mobile suits, it was a good precaution to take.

"I'll get the camcorder."



Kattyena repeated her previous day at the infirmary, amusing herself,

sleeping and gagging down banana pudding. [Curses and death...] However today

she mulled over Quatre's strange behaviour that morning. He had come in rather

sombrely, saying he was off on a mission and he might be late for supper, then

he had spontaneously hugged her. It was a fierce embrace, not a light hug, and

twinged her rib. Then he had left without another word. It was definitely odd,

but Kattyena still looked forward to their dinner together. His company was so

enjoyable, she wished she could stay longer, however she wasn't sure she could

manage to break another rib. After all it was really that giant explosion that

had broken the first one. Quatre had explained how he had been coming back to

pick up work from the teacher when he saw the explosion and ran to help. She

still wasn't particularly sure what was going on, but Quatre had said they were

keeping both of them here for a short while as a sort of witness protection

program. She was watching a particularly boring TV program about teen boot

camps, when one of the servants came and summoned her. Slightly stiff, she

followed him, rather perplexed. When they finally reached their destination

after wandering through a maze of corridors and big empty rooms, the first thing

she saw was a big man with sideburns was standing by a screen. He looked grim,

and a wetness that might have been tears shone in his eyes.

"Hello Kattyena, my name is Rashid." He said as she walked into the room.

"Umm hello." Kattyena responded nervously. Quatre had talked of a man

named Rashid, he had said all good things, but she was still a little nervous.

Rashid looked at her guageingly for a moment, then began to read of the screen

before him.

"As of 13:00 hours today, Quatre Raberba Winner was killed by the self-

destruction of his mobile suit in the battle against OZ. An ally has retrieved

the body and the appropriate funeral functions are being arranged. He was a

great pilot and an even better friend. I don't know what the Gundams will do

without him. Transmitted from Gundam 03, pilot: Trowa Barton." Rashid looked

up to see a bewildered Kattyena.

"What? Gundams? Battles? I- I don't understand!" Kattyena's voice was

unnaturally high and she was looking around wildly. "What's going on? Where's

Quatre?" She stopped and stood still as Rashid handed her a videotape.

"This should explain everything. Master Quatre told me to give this to

you if he didn't make it back." Kattyena took the tape with shaking hands.

Staring at it for a moment before collapsing to her knees, all the confusion was

washed away, leaving behind only cold realization. She sobbed brokenly, unable

to stop now that her tears had been released. Quatre was dead.


-OWARI-

(End) Part 1


Author's Note(s)/Personal Disclaimers/Rambling: All original characters in this

story are completely fictional and if they bear any resemblance to real life

people it's not my fault...hehe who am I kidding? I wrote this fic for a friend

^^ sorry if I stuck some RL people in here...I suppose it's my first "real"

fic...and the one that's closest to being "finished" ^^;; ...unfortunately I

have no idea how this will read to someone who doesn't know me or

"Kattyena"...or Fruitmajoot for that matter...so feel free to tell me that it

sucks...or that you don't understand...but it'd be nice if you included some

reasons too...and yeah the "Sword/sheath" thing is from RK but I only borrowed

the concept. If a standard disclaimer is needed for that, place it here -- (

) sorry...my friend uploaded something...I decided it was time I got my butt in

gear, so I did the "mimicry is the finest form of flattery" thing and uploaded

something too...V.V too bad I didn't have much to upload...oh and there might be

some conversational Japanese stuffed in here somewhere...O.o;; But you should

get the context...well I think that's all...weird author's notes ne?


Disclaimer(s): I don't own Gundam Wing or the characters and stuff I used from

it...I'm not making money from this, I did it purely for fun...so don't sue

me...I do own my own characters though...and my plotlines...my stuff...O.o;; I'm

making a mess of this aren't I? Well all the standard disclaimers and stuff I

forgot...