Chapter 2
Hope on the Horizon
The sun came into view gracefully as Peacemillion made its second pass around the Earth, flooding every room but the very inner chambers with a cold light, although seemingly producing warmth.
Quatre awoke with a start, remembering his fevered dreams and shaking all over from them, still scared. Looking up, he saw the face of his protector during the night, whose arms hadn't left their place around his shoulders, soothing his fears. A gentle, caring look was washed over Heero's features, like he had been protecting a child of his own. Quatre smiled. 'He cares so much for us...yet no one seems to notice it.'
Heero must have felt the Arabian's sea colored eyes on him for suddenly, he woke also, eyes on him, for suddenly, he woke also, eyes wide as he scanned the room quickly. Noticing the smaller boy in his arms, he stared down, almost seeming to now know what to do. The blonde sensed this and quickly left the comfort and warmth of Heero's embrace to sit on his cold hospital cot, smiling sheepishly.
"Thank you, Heero. For everything."
Duo suddenly came bursting in, a huge grin as always plastered on his face, which only seemed to get brighter when he saw Quatre was awake and sitting up without support. "Q-man! Hee-kun! You guys are up! Q, you never looked better! Do you think you can join us today? Out of the corner of his eyes, Duo saw Heero furiously shake his head. "But, why, Hee-kun?"
The Japanese pilot's cold Prussian eyes gazed over to Quatre, looking over and noting all of his bandages. "No, Do. Quatre still needs to rest."
Even Quatre felt disappointed at this command. "But, Heero...I'm getting tired of just sitting here, doing nothing. And I miss working on Sandrock. Please...can I at least get out of these bandages and hospital gown and get into some real clothes?" He tried his best to pull off the puppy eyes and pouty lip, an expression which worked well on his boy-like features. "Onegai?"
Heero sighed. He knew he would be feeling the same way if anyone kept him inactive for any length of time longer than...five minutes. "Fine, Quatre. You can get up and dressed, and I'll take a look at your wounds and see if they need bandaging. But, you cannot, I repeat, CANNOT work on Sandrock just yet. There is a possibility of collapse from overly straining activities, too much activity, or fatigue. If you start to feel funny or not normal in any--"
"I'll call you. Don't worry so much, Heero, it's not your style. Now get out so I can get dressed." Heero's eye diameter expanded slightly in surprise at Quatre's commanding tone, but he quickly recovered and start to excuse himself. Thinking the better of it, he stopped and turned, about to offer assistance, when he came into the view of Duo helping the blonde pull off his gown.
That is when Heero was brought to the awareness of the fact that hospital gowns are not designed to have anything worn underneath then. Mouth dropping, Heero blushed straight to his roots at seeing the naked Quatre, and he quickly left, much to the amusement of the boys he abandoned in his wake.
"You'd think he's never seen a guy's body before!" Duo exclaimed, shaking his head in laughter.
~*~
Heero's eyes narrowed, and he stopped his inspection of the Zero's hull momentarily. Was that a blonde head he just saw in the corner of his eye, moving quickly up the side of Sandrock? No, Quatre was in the pilot room with Sally.
Wasn't he?
Frowning, the illustrious Gundam Pilot turned his head, trying to see Sandrock. But, somebody just had to put their Gundam in between his and Quatre's...
"Braided baka..." he cursed almost silently.
Adjusting the system of pulleys holding him up, Heero moved around to the front of Zero, enabling him a full view of Sandrock.
And the little blond Arabian sitting on his shoulder, reading a book.
Heero sighed with exasperation, the released himself from the harness and floated towards Quatre, who seemed as if he didn't notice his approach. Landing on the Gundanium Alloy, the Japanese boy leaned against Sandrock's neck, watching the recovering boy, lips pursed.
After a few moments, Quatre stopped reading and placed a bookmark with the name 'Trowa-sama' on it in the crack to keep his place. Closing the book, he stared at it for a moment in his little hands, then turned his attention to Heero. Acting completely calm, Quatre asked quietly, "Is there anything I can help you with, Hee-kun?"
Heero just sighed out a, "Hn." and picked the boy up, floating to the ground with him. Setting him gingerly down, he again pursed his lips as he stared at him, analyzing every feature.
"Well, you never said I couldn't read on Sandrock, you just said I couldn't work on him. Reading isn't working."
Another sarcastic, "Hn."
Then, surprisingly, the Perfect Soldier spoke. "We need to talk about something." Duo appeared out of seemingly nowhere, brushing his hands against his normal black attire and grinning furiously.
"What do we need to talk about?"
"You need to talk about nothing. In fact, let's make that your mission for the day. Do not say a word, a single word, about absolutely anything. At all. Quatre and I, on the other hand, need to discuss something. Quatre, follow me."
The two boys promptly left the room, leaving a dumbfounded American with a braid in their wake.
Arriving in the conference room, Quatre took a seat as Heero locked the door, making certain they wouldn't be disturbed.
"Quatre...how are you feeling?"
The said boy scoffed. "You know I'm feeling great..."
Heero shook his head. "Not physically or mentally. Emotionally. The blonde shrugged, looking away. But Heero's Prussian blue eyes demanded attention, and quickly got it after the following statement. "Do you think he's alive?" Their eyes finally locked, and Quatre's immediately filled with tears.
He shook his head, breaking their stare, and dropped his forehead to his palms, shoulders quivering as he cried. "I don't know, Heero...I hope so, so god damn much it hurts, but I don't know..."
Heero, continued to stare, hands clasped before him and resting on the table. Face still not showing any emotion, but a thousand of them being thrown around his head, Heero quietly asked, "Do you think he's dead?"
Quatre looked up sharply, thin eyebrows furrowing furiously as his light eyes seemed to burn. "Of course not!" he replied, scowl crawling across his normally pleasant features.
"Well, if you don't think he's dead, then you must believe he's alive, right?"
The blonde still stared, trying to intimidate the leader of him and his friends, then realized his mistake in answers. Looking down at the table sheepishly and tracing the grain of the wood with his finger, he slowly nodded.
Heero sighed. "Then you must want to find out where he is, right?" Quatre nodded again, this time faster. "Me too." The Arabian looked up locking eyes with Heero again.
Almost silently, as if he were a mouse, Quatre asked, "You do?"
Never breaking the stare, Heero nodded. "He has to be alive. Trowa's tougher than that. One attack from his little, temporarily insane, Zero system affected koiboito is not enough to kill him. Either that, or I've grossly over-estimated his abilities, and I doubt that." Standing to leave, he added with a smirk, "And, he is a Gundam Pilot, after all."
Quatre remained in the conference room, a million questions storming through his head. Most abundant of which was, of course, as to the location of his beloved Trowa. Was he floating through space somewhere, all by himself? Was he being held by Oz officials? No...he ruled that option out. They would have paraded their catch on all the publicity they could, trying to show how powerful they were. And Howard hadn't heard anything, so they knew he hadn't been found by those villains. Had he been found at all? By whom?
Tortured by the lack of knowledge about the whereabouts of his koi, and curious as to what Heero had been planning, Quatre got up and left the room, wiping away stray tears.
'I hope we find him soon...'
