Chapter 10
Heero walked from the locker room into the pool area, usually used strictly for exercise and training, and stared at the water for a moment. He had always enjoyed the sight of water, especially when it was still like this. Undisturbed. Quiet. Serene. He had enough action in his life, he needed to relax sometimes. This was as close as he got.
He walked to the far end of the pool, and was about to jump in, when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Without turning his head or even focusing his eyes, he watched Relena come through the door from the women's locker room solely using peripheral vision.
"You're not usually here this early." He said, not letting the irritation he felt at being disturbed during his time of tranquillity penetrate his voice. He knew she came here at regular intervals, and had especially marked out this time so he would not be disturbed.
"Oh! Heero, I didn't know you were in here!" She hurried over, and stood just close enough so she supposed she would make him uneasy. Her gaze ran over him, taking in as much as she could. She had never seen him this exposed before. On the other hand, he had never seen her this exposed before, either. She smiled, knowing that that was the whole point of this little endeavor. She had purposely selected a fairly skimpy suit for the express purpose of attracting him. It only covered the bare essentials, though it was full backed. She didn't want THAT much to show. It was a deep blue, selected by Hilde. She'd have to remember to thank her again if this worked.
Heero was losing control of his eyes, and they were attempting to look at things he was sorely tempted to look at for a long time. He decided to give in for a moment, and his eyes attacked Relena's seemingly flawless body. The stimulus was having a…disquieting effect on him. He had always been able to control that particular stimulus before, though now it seemed his own brain was ignoring him. And his body was acting on it's own, encouraged by his brain, which was sending signals designed to put him in a state of readiness, and give him, in layman's terms, a "stiffy"
Relena saw him struggling for control, and knew what he was doing. "Are you alright?" She smiled, and he almost lost it.
Heero had to do something. Fast. He thought through the haze clouding his mind, and managed to say, with reasonable control, "Well, we might as well have another lesson today. Come on in." And with that, Heero slowly walked, every muscle rigid, over to the edge, and jumped, headfirst, barely making a splash, into the moderately cold water.
Relena watched him, and smiled as he jumped in. That was one of three possibilities she had predicted. One was him being in complete control of himself, as always, and the third was something Heero would never allow to happen, in front of her, anyway. She smiled, recalling the scenario she had played out in her mind. She wondered how long he was going to be under there, and jumped in after him.
Heero had let out just enough air to sink to the bottom, and stood there for a while to think. He could stay under with only half the normal payload of air for over five minutes, so he had time. The water had already cooled his body down, and shocked his mind back into submission, though it still seethed. He now realized she had done that on purpose, and was trying to figure out how to counteract it. Sexual attraction was usually easily stifled. Why was this any different? For the first time in his life, his body was disregarding any signal from his mind. He would not stand for this. He needed to do something. Quickly.
He heard a splash, and looked up with one eye. He could see through water as though it were air, and he saw Relena swimming toward him. Great. He sighed mentally, and kicked at the bottom of the pool with one foot, jetting back to the surface, followed by Relena.
His head came above the surface, and he took a normal breath, immediately back into normal rhythm, while Relena came up with a small gasp, and sputtered.
Relena eyed him. "I assume this is what today's lesson is going to be on?" She was a little indignant, seeing the humor in his eyes. Heero did not seem to have a normal sense of humor, and when he was amused, it usually meant he was plotting something. Heero enjoyed different things than most people, excluding the other pilots. They were all devious as hell. It was beginning to rub off on her.
"Yes. Underwater is the best place to learn to hold your breath and control your heartrate. It comes in useful when aiming a gun. I'll explain the uses of this exercise later. Let's get to work." He then simply sank.
Relena watched, kind of bewildered. 'How the hell did he do that?' she asked herself while she watched the stream of bubbles emanating from his sinking form.
Glad for the won silence, Heero once again stood on the bottom, staring at Relena's floating silhouette. He now had more time to think about his dilemma. Though when he thought about it, he wondered why it was a dilemma. She wanted him, obviously, and it was painfully obvious, 'to both of us, now,' he thought, with a flash of resentment, that he, one part of him in particular, wanted her.
The mind and body were engaged in an internal struggle, and Heero listened as his brain and balls duked it out.
Body---'What the hell is wrong with you?! There is a HOT BABE, in a BIKINI, in the pool, ALONE with US, TRYING to give me a hard on! What is the freaking hold up?!'
Mind---'Shut up! Dammit, I brought you here to IGNORE YOU, and get HER, the hell out of ME! Stop doing this to me, or I'll chop you off!'
Body---'You wouldn't dare!'
Mind---'Wouldn't I?'
Body---'We both know you want her, now get up there AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!! You're KILLING me!
Mind---'As far as I'm concerned, you're already dead! Now go back to sleep! You're using valuable air!'
Heero stood by as an impartial third person, the soldier. The soldier couldn't care less what the other two did, as long as he remained dominant. Usually, the mind agreed with him, and he couldn't remember the last time he heard from the body. He thought it was the last time he had to go to the bathroom. The body never complained. The body usually couldn't care less if you chopped it's arm off. Something had awakened it, and the mind seemed to be getting some odd ideas too, as of late. For the three months Relena had been there, those two were constantly bickering, and the soldier stood by and took care of business. Women and sex were not part of business, and while he would allow "fun" he kept it to a minimum. It kept the mind happy, and the genitals dormant. Relena seemed to have a positive effect on both mind and body, yet neither seemed to want the same thing, though they wanted it from the same person. He was the perfect soldier. He did not need distractions right now. He still needed to figure out where those mobile dolls were coming from, and how to deal with them discreetly. Relena would be no help in that, and was therefore of no consequence.
Once again, he heard a splash, and saw Relena swimming toward him. He knew he couldn't tell her to get lost, or both mind and body would rebel. Plus he would drown. Relena came to rest beside him, but had trouble staying where she was. She kept having to almost swim back to the bottom. Heero mentally smacked himself. He hadn't told her how to sink. She was staying down here with her lungs full, which used more air than it saved. He tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to look at him. He pointed upward, and she nodded. Heero once again kicked at the bottom, and jetted back to the surface. Relena came up a few seconds later, coughing. He shot her an apologetic look, which surprised her.
"Okay. First. Your teacher has forgotten to teach. The way you stay under without having to do anything is you let out just enough air so you sink, but leave enough to sustain yourself for as long as possible underwater. This way, once you are adept at this exercise, your normal oxygen level will drop, and you will need less and less as your body adapts. You will subconsciously lower your own heartrate, conserving the oxygen you do have. This exercise focuses on self control."
Relena nodded, still amazed that he knew every detail about what he did. He could probably name every muscle involved in any specific movement she could make.
"Alright, Heero, let's go. I've got to try this." Heero nodded, and again, simply sank. She watched him, and saw his sinking form reach the bottom. She shook her head, and thought for a moment. An evil grin crossed her face. She then hesitantly drew a deep breath, and blew a little of it out. She WAS sinking. Once she was under, though, she stopped, and blew out more air to sink again. She could see Heero, though he was blurred by the water. Now or never, she though, as she reached the halfway mark, about fifteen seconds after she began to sink, and smiled to herself. She began to feign panic, clawing at the water, though purposely not going anywhere. She had enough time to turn to Heero when she saw a blur come from his direction, on her in an instant. A strong arm encircled her waist, and she could swear she felt G-force as they rocketed toward the surface. One second later, her head was out of the water, and in another two seconds, she was lying flat on her back on the cold tile of the pool room. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, and one hand gripped her shoulder while another sought the pulse in her throat.
She opened her eyes, and saw genuine concern in a pair of blue crystals. She breathed hard for a couple of seconds, not entirely for effect, before sitting up quickly and wrapping her arms around him. He stiffened, but he was not so cold as to push her away in this situation. She could feel the taught muscles in his back under the slick skin, and it felt like warm marble wrapped in silk.
Heero, very hesitantly, put his arms around her, giving himself the excuse that it was to support her. He was almost shaking, and he didn't know why. This was REALLY driving him crazy. Emotions were surfacing that he didn't know he had. He knew how to induce them in other people, but had only been experiencing them since Jai and Relena arrived. Scratch that. Since he met Relena, years ago. He didn't know how to deal with it then, and he didn't know how to deal with it now.
Relena embraced Heero for a few more moments, before letting him go and standing up slowly. Heero did the same, and mumbled something about continuing this some other time before heading back toward the locker room door. Relena watched him go, very pleased with herself.
Heero walked down the hall toward the elevator, thinking to himself. He held up his fingertips and inspected them. Nothing physically wrong, as far as he could tell. The feel of her bare skin had been burned into them, the same as the rest of the arm he had used to drag her from the pool. The sensation had spread over his chest and neck when she had embraced him. He had heard the old legend, being touched by fire. He shuddered, thinking about the second she had begun struggling, and his heart froze. Thanks to his conditioning, he saw every detail, unlike Relena, who likely only saw a darkish blob to recognize him from…… He had to sleep. There was nothing else for him to do today.