Author's Note: I did upload this
chapter earlier, but took it down for major editing… * Sorry *
Confusion: I you are confused as to the timeline of events in this fic, please look
at the explanation/timeline attached (last chapter
Disclaimer: I own none of the Gundam Wing characters or any
information from the show used in this fic. The ideas though are my own.
This is an HY/RP story.
Please review!
Enjoy!
Somewhere in Between
~Phoenixstar
Anniversary
Approximately 1 year earlier…
~~~
He
stood on the street corner, head twisting this way and that. To any passer-by he looked like a visitor,
lost in a new world, yet he had lived in this city for many years. It wasn't the city he was lost in, it
was life...
It was the anniversary of her leaving, the
anniversary of him losing himself, and the anniversary of when living a new life
truly began. Here he stood on the
corner, watching as the people pushed by, hurrying through life, realising how,
in all this time he still didn't know any better than he had before. This day was one of the few that he
allowed himself to truly wallow in the past. He knew, from the advice of others and personal experience
that it was best to allow some time for memories, but in a new life, the future
is all that should matter.
The dirty city air was somewhat refreshing for him. It was as if the dirt and smog that he
was sharing with the other millions of inhabitants helped him fit in, helped in
be normal in a common way. He
checked his watch and cursed at himself, he would be late if he didn't hurry up. Leaving the corner behind he strolled
ahead, disappearing into the massive crowds that fought their way down the
sidewalk.
~~~
He watched her disappear down the sidewalk, heels clicking rhythmically
along with the sway of her hips. He hated to see her go if only for a day. She turned slightly at one point, braving the bashing
shoulders of the other pedestrians, and looked back at him, a small promising
smile hanging on her lips. He
might have smiled back if they were alone, or if he wasn't sharing his
attention with the surroundings. The
twenty meters from here to the car where Pegan waited was too long, too full of
the danger to which she was so obviously ignorant. He wanted her to either stay with him or hurry up,
preferring of course the later but knowing of course that she had work to do,
just as he did. Adults didn't have
the free range of time their childhood selves did. Of course they had never really gotten much chance to have
normal childhoods anyways.
Smirking at his disapproving grin she turned and walked over to the car,
looking back at him one last time before shutting the door behind her. Letting go a sigh of relief he hadn't
be consciously holding he watched as the car disappeared into traffic, then he
turned and jogged off, he was going to be late again.
~~~
The room
was small, but he didn't mind the space. The windows along two sides let the light stream in and dissolved and
feeling of claustrophobia, which the room was sure to spark if it were just
four walls and a door. It was the
office that most would kill for, that corner office that signified importance,
yet the room meant nothing to him; nothing apart from the fact that he could
see the apartment from there. His
office building was tall, towering over the streets where little toy cars and
bustling ants went about their daily lives. And if he looked out, just on the horizon, beside the hill
and park that rose up to meet it, there was a building, grey, dirty and old
like every other. The only thing
that made it extraordinary was the memories it's walls kept hidden away, the
memories of happiness; the happiness that they had shared.
Hmmm... Memories were so
sweet sometimes. He leaned back in
his chair until abrupt knocking from the door, startled him into realising that
he was supposed to be working. He
quickly waved his hand across the desk, spreading the neatly stacked papers
into a not-so-organised mess and fished through his drawer for a pen, a pencil,
anything to make him look the hard worker he was. The door creaked open slowly, and a small woman with mousy
brown hair and the most unflattering round-framed glasses stuck her head if
checking first then easing her slim frame through the space. She looked at him bright eyed, in awe
or fear he could never decide.
"You know, one of these days you should learn to walk into a room
without looking like you are trying to sneak into it,'' he smirked slightly at
the sight of her surprised face and the faint blush that crept into her cheeks.
"I'm sorry Hee…
Mr. Yuy, but I thought I had permission to come in," she squeaked. He gave a small throaty laugh.
"That you did, which is exactly all the more reason to come into
the room normally," he started to set out his laptop as she fidgeted in front
of his desk, shifting the papers in her hands nervously. "So what is it this morning?"
he looked up over his laptop at her. She wasted no time in starting to recite off the information on the said
sheets.
"Well, first of all there was that bomb near here
yesterday." He grunted in
acknowledgement.
"Yes, I heard about that in the news, did they catch who did
it?" He already knew the
answer; the preventors were too good to let one terrorist get away unknown.
"Yes, they have him in custody I think. I don't know if he has been transferred yet. Rumour has it that he thought that the
building was our headquarters," she gave a small laugh thinking that this
was funny, but seeing his grim face she stopped and continued reading. "And there is a meeting with Mr.
Maxwell tomorrow that I thought you might want to know about." She watched his face expectantly,
trying to gauge his reaction. He
was simply typing away at his computer. She shrugged her shoulders in a mixture of confusion and disappointment
in his lack of attention and continued, "yes, well here's what they want
to discuss with us," she placed some folders gently on the top of the
desk, being sure to not disturb the mess. "It's the usual routine check-up to make sure we are staying within
out boundaries and not getting any ideas of world domination." She smiled and looked up and him,
folding and unfolding her now free arms.
"Hn," was his only reply and seeing this was the extent of the
answer to which she could expect she turned and 'snuck' out of the room again,
letting the door click gently after her. He looked up from the screen and looked out at where she had been
standing and blinked, trying to recall anything she had said past her
apology. 'One of these days,' he
figured, 'I really ought to start paying attention to what she says.' He turned
back to the screen and continued typing, scanning with half attention the lists
that consumed the page.
After a few hours had past and nothing extraordinary had arisen from the
given lists he started rearranging the papers on his desk into neat little
piles, making sure that they were properly aligned and flattened in a seemingly
compulsive way. When he came to
the folders he opened them and started flipping through them, not bothering to
read what they said. He was
placing the list back down when a picture fell out onto his desk.
He
picked it up hesitantly, holding it softly in his hand as if it were an age-old
artefact. He slowly trailed his
fingers down the glossy picture front leaving streaks of oil from his fingers
on it. He didn't notice that, but
turned and looked out the window at the distant building. Lord how he missed her. His breath seemed to stick in his
throat and his pulse quickened ever so slightly.
"Relena..."
~~~
"Does he know?" Silence hung in the air, painfully sharp and uncomfortable. "Please tell me you told
him? This isn't fair you
know. I should be off collecting
scrap metal and machines but here I am, taking a break as a favour for the Lady
and I get stuck with this. It's not my job…"
"Well, we figured that it would be better coming from you…
You know, because you guys know each other better than we know him." Duo shot a look over his shoulder,
making no attempt to show that he was unhappy with the situation.
"So that's why you brought me here?" he
continued. "So I am not
coming here for a check-up after all? I've come here to be the bearer of bad news? Ever heard the phrase 'shoot the
messenger'? And I can guarantee
you I'll not be looking too pretty when the news gets out. I'd probably be better shooting
myself now; save myself the grief." He threw up his hands in exasperation and collapsed into the chair. "How the hell did it
happen?" he said quietly his head now resting in his hands. "How?"
"No, one knows really. They caught him though." He paused looking through some papers on his desk. "Lady tried talking to him
earlier. I don't know what
to say. All he said is that he
meant to destroy the Preventors building, and if she's likely to believe
him, then so am I. Don't ask
me, but you can talk to him if you want. We just want to blame him, or at least I know I do, but truth of the
matter is that it's just a tragedy isn't it?" From behind his hands, Duo's
muffled voice answered,
"Tragedy… Ha! You have no idea. For his sake, if you're right
about his intentions, he'd better be under the best security, though I
doubt that will help him any."
"Yeah, I already talked to Lady and she said that they applied to
transfer him. Even if everyone
knows where he is going it buys us some time to talk to Heero at least."
"Well, you better have hope that this Heero's got more
patience then he used to and that he hasn't found out
already." He paused and
looked up at Wufei. "And for
my sake I don't know whether it's better to hope he does or
doesn't know. Whether
I'd rather try to break the news or stop a homicidal gundam pilot is not
an easy choice damnit." He stood up; slamming his clenched fist on the
desk. Through his anger Wufei
could see the pain and tears gathering at the sides of his eyes.
"You, never know how'll he'll react."
"You got that right, and I don't want to be the one to deal with it."
"He might have gotten over what happened before." At this Duo let out a dry and tired
laugh. An angry sort of smile
touched his face for a moment or two.
"Yeah, if only things were that simple…" Wufei hung
his head. This was going to be
hard for all of them. For Duo it would
be difficult; for Heero it would be near impossible. As Duo walked out of the room Wufei could barely make out
the words mumbled under his breath.
"Why did I ever decide to
call myself god of death?"
~~~
Heero walked down the street
slowly; head down turned, watching the cracks in the pavement pass beneath his
feet. Behind him his shadow lay
long and eerie, flickering in the faint orange light of the street lamps. The constant clicking of his shoes kept
a steady pace as he walked alone, hands shoved in his pockets reminded him of
how lonely things could be.
'So long, it's been so long.'
He
only looked up to take stock of his surroundings when he noticed the great
trees in the park looming every closer, their towering heights reaching upwards
into the dark sky.
'Such a beautiful sky tonight.' He stood, head titled back looking up at the sky with a melancholy
expression plaguing his features, but in the darkness no one was ever the wiser
of it. So strange it seemed to him
that after all he had been through, after all he had been that now he could
look up at the sky and see it as just that; a black canvas with little twinkle
lights poking through, cheerfully reminding them that there was so much more
out there then they could ever imagine. If it weren't for the memories of all that he had been that kept poking
at his mind he would had figured he was normal, your average guy taking a
moment to enjoy nature. He
shrugged his shoulders; space would always mean something more to him than
that. He looked back up one last time, moving his eyes every so slightly to he
left, seeing the dull grey building, only visible at the base where the street
lights touched it, rising up to meet the lonely sky.
Shoving his hands back in his pockets he continued walking along the
sidewalk.
Tap... Tap... Tap... "So lonely; this time of night is so
lonely..."
~~~
Heero
turned the key gently in the lock, listening as it clicked, once... twice. He opened it slowly, trying his best to
be as quiet as possible. He was
well aware that it was late, so he wasn't going to start making lots of
unnecessary noise. Shutting the
door behind him he looked down the hall, his eyes trailing across the mess on
the floor. Picking up the mail and
stepping over various shoes and other bits of apparel he made his way the
kitchen.
'Hn. Must have left the
light on again.' He moved
into the room, automatically dropping the mail on the kitchen table before
moving over to the fridge.
"Hey Heero," she said cheerfully swinging round the doorway
and into the kitchen, giving a slight twirl, arms out stretched. "Home so late again
today." She ran over and
hopped up onto the counter, studying his hard-set face as he looked through the
fridge. "Gesh,
someone's grumpy today!" He grunted and she merely shrugged, still smiling. "Yeah, I know, no groceries! I promise I'll find the time to run out
this week. There are leftover in
the oven if you want them."
He moved over to the stove, crouching down to see exactly what it was
that was in there. He turned his
nose up ever so slightly as the sight of the, rather inventive dinner. He turned, took a glass from the
cupboard and proceeded to pour himself a drink, watching her all the while.
"I'll take that as a, 'no thanks, I'll buy my own food on the way
to work tomorrow,' huh?" He
looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. She laughed a little, her sweet high-pitched giggle filling the
room. "One of these days
you'll have to learn to trust me." She leaned over and gave him a small peck on the cheek. He, much to her surprise brought his
hands up and cupped her face between them.
"I trust you Relena," he whispered, a playful smirk on his
face. Moving his lips to her ear
he continued, "I'm just not so sure I trust your cooking." Her body trembled with the feel of his
hot breath of her neck. She was
frozen for a moment before taking a swipe at him arm.
"Hey, that's not nice you know," she chided, hopping
off the counter.
"Yes, I think we
already established that," he turned setting his glass down in the
sink. Following a staged cough
from behind, he turned and smirked before moving the glass from the sink to the
dishwasher.
"Better."
"Hmmm..." He said moving up towards her, locking his arms
around her waist. "Your stuff
in the hall isn't much better." She blushed a bit and was about to protest when he covered her lips with
his. He could feel the smile of hers against them and pulled her tighter...
~~~
"Damn," he
muttered breathlessly sitting up in bed. "Late, going to be late." Heero bounced out of bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as
he moved to the bathroom, clad only in his boxers. He managed to pull on his normal work clothes while brushing
his teeth, cursing as he got some toothpaste on the jacket. After changing into clean clothes he
grabbed his bag, laptop and all, and dashed for the door. No time for coffee this morning. He was late enough as it was.
He
arrived at the top of the stairs, panting heavily. He was not out of shape, but the half an hour run from his
house to work was tiring on even the fittest of people, especially if they were
running as fast as he was. Just
his luck too that the elevator happened to be out of order as well. He strode straight to his office,
trying to ignore the questioning looks from others. Passing his secretary he ran his fingers through his
dishevelled hair before giving her a nod to follow him.
Once the door clicked into place behind them he turned to face the small
woman, trembling slightly at the imposing figure of her boss; cranky and
breathless, with his clothes messed up and a wild look in his eyes.
"How long has he been waiting," he barely managed to keep
himself from snapping, instead his words came out as a low growl. The small lady pushed her glasses up on
her nose before glancing at the clock on the wall.
"About twenty minutes," she squeaked. She never got a reply because he was
out of the room in a flash. Running her fingers through her hair she breathed a sigh of relief,
shrugged and headed back to her desk to continue working.
He swung the doors to the conference room
open, narrowed eyes scanning the room. He stood; looking out the window over the city. Hearing his entrance he turned and
their eyes met, in a moment of piercing judgement.
"Nice to see you too Heero. Still not a morning person huh?"
"Hn. So Lady sent you
to 'check up' on me this time?"
"Hey look Heero, this wasn't my choice okay!" he threw
up his hands defensively. 'Does he know?' "I'm here because she trusts me and I know for one that I
can use the money." 'Please say he doesn't know, please say
he doesn't know…'
"Fine, I'll trust you Maxwell, but this had not be another
trick to 'see how I am doing." Duo gave a short rhetorical laugh.
"No, this isn't a joke." 'If only it was a
joke. I'd pull it and run
the hell away from here.'
"Fine, let's go back to my office then," Heero held open
the door and motioned for Duo to go through. On the way back to his office Heero seemed to loosen up a
little. He asked about Hilde and the business, nothing specific just the usual, general questions about how life
was going. Even being friends didn't
mean they saw each other much. To
Duo he still seemed uptight, and it disturbed him. 'Argh! I can't tell if he knows or not. Maybe he's just paranoid or
tired…' It was almost
as if not being sure was worse than knowing for sure one-way or the other. At least then he could plan how to
approach and deal with the conversation. 'If he doesn't know…'
"Duo?"
"Huh?" he looked up.
"Duo, you've been standing outside my office here for two
minutes. Want to come in or
not?"
"Oh," he laughed uneasily, trying to boast a broad smile,
"yeah sorry. I guess I
drifted off there huh?" Heero moved aside for Duo to pass him and go into the small office. His eyes narrows he passed. Something did not feel right here.
"Duo stood by the window and looked out over the city. "Quite some view you've got
here huh?" Heero's
face seemed to soften a little, although from what emotion Duo couldn't
tell.
"Yes. Yes it
is." Heero shut the door and
went over to his desk which he promptly sat down behind. Duo looked around the office, walking
over to admire the bookcase. He
let his eyes roam over the bookcase, his gaze finally setting on an overturned
picture frame. Turning it over he
froze. For at least the five
hundredth time that day he wondered, 'does he know?'. He looked at the picture and could feel
the tears pooling in the corners of his eyes. Desperate for them not to fall he turned his head only to be
greeted with the scowling face of Heero Yuy. For once he was thankful for Heero's glare for it gave
him an excuse to put the picture back down. He immediately walked over to one of the chairs opposite
Heero's desk and sat down.
"So, where do we start then Duo?" Heero said starting to look over his desk for the files he
had been given the day before, watching Duo out of the corner of his eye while
he friend rubbed his eyes furiously to keep the tears away.
"Did… Did you read the papers that Lady Une sent out?"
"Ugh, no I didn't."
"Did you get them?" 'Maybe he didn't get
them. Maybe he hasn't
heard.'
"Yeah, I got them yesterday," he paused, extracting the
files from the piles of paper that littered his desk. 'Oh, this isn't going to be easy.' "Why, what did they say?"
"Well that one there," he pointed to the top one, "is
about the checking procedures and all that, that I am supposed to do and what
you have to do to help me."
"Hn. And the
other?" He moved the top one
aside.
"Well, it's about Relena." Heero head snapped up and his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"What about Relena?"
"And the bomb yesterday…" It didn't matter what Duo said after this point; Heero
wasn't listening anymore. In
fact Duo didn't even know if he was Heero anymore, but he didn't have
time to think about it as he came face to face with an entity so terrifying
that Duo was almost scared to the point of meeting his namesake. 'Damn. Guess he didn't know…'
