Disclaimer - *walks up to you, does a twirl* This is me *pulls a bald guy in a suit from nowhere* This is Bill, who is the head of some corporation which owns Anime. Do we look alike to you?
**How many times do I have to tell you? I understand!
By Felflowne aka Espion
This fic is a present for all my Gundam buddies, especially Hex and Charlie, for reasons that will become apparent later on. Ooh, if I write a lemon, won't they be proud?! But not yet, nop, not yet. Sorry. Enjoy!!
The reason I am writing about gymnastics so reverently is because it is something, which I have never, and will never master, or even try. So there.
To all reviewers, I am SO sorry, but I will write what you want soon, as soon as I can think of a good plot.
*sighs*
She had to concentrate. Concentration was the key, and also the motivation, because if she didn't concentrate, her head would meet a wooden plank very hard. The gymnast took a breath and drew her arms up over her head, her entire body tingling with focused energy.
Suddenly her arms fell down and swung back again, and the petite figure used the momentum to throw her entire body backward in a neat arc. Her hands met the beam briefly, but then left it just as quickly as the girl landed back on her feet, and drew her arms up again. There. She'd done it.
The girl let her arms fall again, and turned to hop down off of the beam, grinning at her two friends on the bench. The rest of the hall was empty, as the practice had ended fifteen minutes ago, but the one remaining student had wanted to stay on until she got that flip right. Her friends stood up and began to walk over.
'How you do that without smashing your head in I'll never know!' laughed the much shorter of the two.
The girl giggled, and pulled her shoulder length dark blonde hair out of its bun in one swift movement.
'Its just that first thought that gets in the way. I'm like, okay, if I want to do this, I've got to throw myself backward onto virtually nothing… And the sane part of me is telling me, DON'T DO IT! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!'
The other person smiled.
'And exactly how large a part of you is the sane part, Relena?'
Relena smiled again, then drew her arm up in front of the speaker's face and put her forefinger and thumb very close together.
'Theeeeeees much,' she squeaked, and then laughed at his expression and dipped down to pulled her cardigan over her leotard and to pull her gym bag onto her shoulder.
'Well, she did it, so that must indicate something,' said Hilde, linking her arms though those of Relena and her best friend.
When the three young people reached the car park of the centre, the tallest of the three asked, 'Why did you take up gymnastics, 'Lena?'
She answered immediately, 'to take out my aggression.'
'You have aggression?' Relena rolled her eyes at the speaker.
'Yep, I do.'
'Why?'
'I don't really know, but I know that participating in displacement activity helps.'
Hilde sensed something static about the conversation. Relena seemed totally normal, but it was her best friend who seemed off.
On the drive back to Relena's house, he didn't yell abuse at a single fellow road user, and he was unnaturally quiet. Hilde caught Relena's eye as she sat in the back seat. She'd noticed it as well. What on earth was wrong? Hilde just couldn't figure it out.
'What's wrong Duo? Buddy? You look down?' He looked startled at the question and forced a smile that was almost painful.
'Hm? No, I'm cool babe, nothing wrong here.'
Hilde frowned for an instant, then decided not to take action just yet.
The three of them were in residence at Relena's home, near the centre of the largest town in Oceasia. Although Duo and Hilde had both been born on colonies, there was an overwhelmingly safe feel to life on Earth.
Relena had offered all the pilots a place to stay, expect, of course, Quatre, who had a very large house himself, and Trowa had decided to accompany him. Wufei hadn't even graced her with an answer, although, had he bothered, she was sure that the word 'onna' would have appeared at least once. Out of all the pilots, Duo had nowhere to go. Hilde's home had been destroyed, but Duo had never had a home. They were the only two whose pride/sense of justice/whatever hadn't prevented them from accepting.
God knew where Heero was, but maybe that was best.
Although it was Relena's car, Duo drove them around. It made him feel better, and it made him feel that he was useful, as well as being a friend. He drove the car into the large drive, vaguely hearing gravel crunch under the modest-sized tyres. It was only a Ford Focus, but Relena liked it best out of all her cars. Her only extravagance on the car was the paint job. The bodywork glimmered in the evening sun, a colour that stood on the brink of sky blue and silver, like ice.
Hilde and Relena thanked Duo, who grinned in a distant kind of way before setting off towards the front door.
'Man, what's up with him? I just can't figure it out!' burst out Hilde after Duo was out of earshot.
'I have an idea…' said Relena, then sighed as Hilde looked at her and hitched her bag up higher onto her shoulder.
'Let's talk inside, shall we?'
Hilde nodded and followed her friend into the house.
*
Duo walked into his room and threw himself down onto his bed, not even noticing how his braid caught for a second on the headboard before sliding down slowly and landing with a flop over his face.
'Man, what is wrong with me? I'm zoned out permanently, and what if I'd had an episode while I was driving? Oh God!' He sat up and looked at his braid as if it could answer all of his questions. It couldn't, of course, as it was three strands of hair twisted together. Besides, it couldn't talk.
He'd've thought that he was the least likely of the Gundam pilots to suffer depression, but here it was. Depression. Nice, eh? If only he could figure out WHY he was depressed, it would help a lot… Why… Why…?
*
'You're kidding!'
Relena scowled. She found Hilde's disbelief off-putting. She found it irritating, and she had had an aggression problem for a while now. She shut her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, Hilde squeaked.
'Listen to me, and believe what I say. I need to get through to one of them, preferably both of them, as soon as I can.'
Her eyes stabbed at Hilde like sharp pieces of ice that stung.
'But… Relena… How do you know?'
'Know what?'
'Know…I didn't have a clue!' Hilde blinked suddenly, on the verge of tears, 'some best friend I am.'
Relena didn't console her at once, but sat, silent and thoughtful, her eyes focused coldly far away. Hilde looked up again, with the intention of asking Relena another question, but instead, something else came out of her mouth.
'You look like Heero when you do that.'
Relena blinked and switched her gaze to Hilde. That was it! THAT WAS IT!!
'That's it!' she cried suddenly, making Hilde jump.
'What?'
'The reason why Duo agreed to come to live here, instead of going with Quatre or Wufei.'
'Wha…?'
'Hilde, do me a favour, okay?' Relena stood up.
'Anything,' said Hilde, and Relena gave her a hug, then pulled away so Hilde could see her eyes again.
'Look after my house for me, okay?'
'What?'
'I'm going away.'
'Where?'
'I can't tell you, but please trust me on this one, I have a good feeling about it.'
'Relena, you're a psycho loony…but also one of the smartest people I know,' sighed Hilde, 'Okay, I'll watch the house for you. I assume you're gonna try and take Duo?'
Relena nodded.
Hilde frowned.
'He can be damned stubborn, 'Lena, and you already heard him deny that anything was wrong.'
Inexplicably, Relena smiled.
'I'm sure I'll get though to him,' she said evenly, carefully not placing emphasis on any of the words so as to give her friend any clues.
She gave another smile, which was slightly strained, and stood up and left.
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Yay! I got Chapter 2 done. Apologies to all they are due to, especially 1xR fans, but I have a treat for you soon *reaches into authoress bag* eheh heh. Coming up in Chapter 3 – Why Relena is acting how she is, Why Heero is in so much danger, and general fluff!
*'^_^*
Please Review, cos I like flames, they make me laugh, and are a cheap non-polluting source of thermal energy!
If you ain't gonna flame, then I like regular reviews even better! Feel free to openly comment on my grammar, characterizations, or anything. I appreciate constructive criticism.
If you wanna speak to me on MSN or Yahoo, my email address is
See y'all soon! =*^_^*= Felflowne