TITLE
Hidden Place

AUTHOR
Asher Cross

GENRE
Songfic, Drama

RATING
PG

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own any part or the whole of Gundam Wing; Sotsu, Sunrise, Bandai, etc. does. Same goes for Bjork.

***************************
Through the warmthest cord of care
Your love was sent to me
I'm not sure what to do with it
Or where to put it
***************************

Sitting in his comfortable chair in his comfortable office behind his comfortable desk, Quatre Raberba Winner sighed and sat back. These construction contracts he had to sign were one of the more tedious parts of his new job, CEO of Winner Industries Inc., the birthchild of his father's dreams. Winner was the leader in interstellar construction and industry--under Quatre's watchful eye, of course.

Though Quatre normally hated conflict, he would've loved to be in a battle right now--even mild Quatre had limits, and the boring routine of signing contracts was beginning to wear on his disposition.

Finally he broke. After flipping through another 5 million-page document of flim-flam, he slammed the contract on his desk. His index finger seemingly slammed onto te itnercom button. "Sharon, hold my calls for about an hour. I'm getting some fresh air."

Sharon, his bored, middle-aged secretary, replied, "Gotcha, boss."

Quatre grabbed his jacket and walked out the door, glancing at Sharon, who was chewing an enormous amount of gum, filing her nails. Quatre shook his head. *I get stuck reviewing and signing hundreds of contracts, and Sharon is sitting on her butt doing nothing. What I wouldn't give to be a sec--oh, /personal assistant./* Quatre smiled as he remembered the numerous times he slipped and said the 'S' word in front of proud Sharon.

***************************
I'm so close to tears
And so close to
Simply calling you up
And simply suggesting
***************************

Quatre trekked through the labyrinthian building, finally reaching the entrance. He gave the glass door a simple shove, and it yielded. He stepped out, allowing himself to inhale the air, and then walked past his car and down the sidewalk.

He spent half an hour or so simple navigating the sidewalks of the city built into his home colony, L4, the base of his operations. Life seemed okay. He hadn't heard from his fellow Gundam pilots in quite a while, but Quatre was planning their next reunion soon.

***************************
We go to that hidden place
That we go to that hidden place
We go to that hidden place
We go to that hidden place
***************************

However, something seemed wrong...he could sense it. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw a woman there--about 19, a shock of red hair, a brown leather jacket pulled innocently around her chest...looked like she hadn't eaten in days.

Quatre, feeling suscpicious, decided to walk around the block a few more times. For fifteen minutes he circled the same block over and over...the woman still following him. Quatre started to become nervous...then scared.

***************************
Now, I have been slightly shy
But I can smell a pinch of hope
To almost have allowed once fingers
To stroke
***************************

Quatre decided to make his move. Glancing over his shoulder one more time to make sure she was still following him, he quickly turned into an alley. Once inside the narrow alleyway, he took a few quick steps and turned around quickly...

To find no one.

Quatre stepped out into the street, looking around. The woman was nowhere in sight. Shrugging it off, but still shaken, Quatre walked back to the office.

***************************
The fingers I was given to touch with
But careful, careful
There lies my passion hidden
There lies my love
I'll hide it under a blanket
Lull it to sleep
***************************

He finished up his paperwork around 11:00 at night. Yawning, he let Sharon go for the day. She threw a "See ya boss" over her shoulder before heading out the door.

Quatre smiled, and headed out the door of the building. He was a bit more nervous tonight, however. He couldn't stop thinking about the woman. *What did she want? How did she know me? Why...and /how/ could she have disappeared like that?*

He stepped into his car, started it up, and carefully backed out of his parking space. Then, he embarked on the journey home, a small house just outside of the capital city of L4, which he lived in while he worked at Winner Inc's home office.

Midway into his drive, he noticed in the rear view mirror a car behind him. A car with no lights on. Quatre's hands gripped the wheel tightly, and his breath became short pants. *Wait a minute, I'm being paranoid. Maybe he just forgot to turn his lights on. Come on, Quatre, it's your imagination--*

And just then, the car behind him drove under a lamppost--

The light clearly illuminating the red hair of the woman driving the car.

***************************
I'll keep it in a hidden place
Keep it in a hidden place
Keep it in a hidden place
Keep it in a hidden place
***************************

Quatre wrestled with his nerves during the entire drive from there. *What the hell do I do? What does this woman want from me?! Where am I going to confront her? Will she disappear again?* His mind flooded with questions, and what scared him most was that he didn't know the answers.

Quatre tried to put on his game face as he approached his house. *Okay, I'll be safe in this house. I'll be on my own home ground. Ah, damnit, if only the Maquanacs were here...* But he had insisted they take a long-deserved vacation from guarding him. "I'll be fine. No one would want to hurt me," he remembered saying to them. He chuckled nervously as he remembered. *Yeah, right.*

Quatre made the turn into his driveway. His house was close enough to the city that the police would be there in about 2 minutes. *Two minutes would still be a long time though in a struggle.*

He looked behind him again---

And the woman was gone, again.

***************************
He's the beautifullest, fragilest, still strong
Dark and divine
And the littleness of his movements
Hides himself
***************************

Now a bit reassured--*She wouldn't pull that trick on me twice, would she?*--he pulled up to his house, got out, locked the car, and entered his house.

He wanted it sparse, so he wouldn't feel like he was somehow taking something away from the people who worked under him. Trying to relax his nerves, he took a shower, changed into his pajamas, and collapsed onto his bed.

After a half hour of tossing and turning, Quatre Raberba Winner finally drifted off to sleep, his lips curling into a smile. After all, there are no stalkers in Dreamland....

***************************
He invents a charm that makes him invisible
Hides in the hair
Can I hide there too?
Hide in the hair of him
Seek solace
Sanctuary
***************************

"You look so cute when you sleep."

Quatre's eyes opened--

To find a red-haired woman staring right back at him. Up close, her face seemed innocent, almost...angelic.

Quatre sat up quickly, preparing to run. The woman pushed him back down, and held his wrists together. Though he struggled, the woman seemed strong for her size.

"Don't run away from me, please...I need your help. Please help me." Her face shifted from frustration to sorrow, which scared Quatre even more.

"What do you want from me?"

"Please...marry me." The girl suddenly fell into his arms, her arms wrapping around his torso like a vice grip.

Quatre tried to squirm out of her grip. "Listen, I-I think we need to talk about this--"

"No, we DON'T!!!!" The girl almost shrieked, and her face crumpled into an expression of pure jealousy and rage. Then, a second later, her face was right back into its usual smile.

"You haven't had time to think about this. Please...please." She tightened her grip on Quatre.

Quatre was still nervous and scared, but the girl seemed innocent enough that he could play along with her. It might just ward her off. "I don't even know you. Another thing, following me everywhere I go, sneaking around, breaking into my home, isn't the best way to make a first impression."

The woman broke.

She shoved him down on the bed, and with lightning speed pulled out a rather large kitchen knife from her jacket, and held it against his throat. She straddled his chest, and leaned down, lips pursed in a kiss--

She forced her lips onto him, and he screamed. His free hand, swinging down from the bed, slammed down numerously on the one security measure he agreed to--and he was glad he did--a silent panic button on his bedside table that would send the police running at full speed toward his house.

*Two minutes,* he thought to himself. He glanced at the knife, and the girl whose kiss she was forcing on him. *Well, only one thing to do.* He began to respond to the kiss, and the girl--thinking in her psychotic little mind that he was warming up to her--began to loosen her grip on the knife.

Quatre acted quickly, one hand slapping the knife away, the other pulling her away from him. She fell off the bed, and stood, suddenly sobbing uncontrollably. "Why, Quatre? I'd do you proud...I'd be a good wife. You could help me...this life's terrible. I have to sell my body for food. People don't like me. I can't get any help without you. I love you..." Her face showed desperation, her eyes gaunt and hollow.

Quatre gulped, and shook his head. "You need help...if you calm down, I will help you. But it won't involve a relationship between you and I. I've never seen you before in my life. Please, you need--"

"You don't know what I need!!!!!" The girl shrieked. "You don't know what it's been like out there. It's enough to drive a girl crazy!!!!"

"Please, just calm down and we'll--"

"I knew it!! You don't care!!!! You never did, did you?!?! You...you...corporate STIFF!!!!!" The woman was beyond control at this point. Quatre noticed a hand crawling into her jacket--

"Don't do it!!!" he found himself screaming.

From her jacket she pulled out a small revolver, and pulled it to eye level--

Quatre stood still, knowing that any movement meant death--

The revolver suddenly turned, her hand directing it toward her forehead--

Quatre, realizing what she was going to do, leapt off the bed and dived toward her--

BLAM!

Quatre slammed into the girl, and noticed red...red everywhere. Sobbing, he looked up, to find the girl's head hollow, and what used to be in it splattered on the walls. His heart sank at whatever drove this girl to do this--obsession, mental illness, desperation. He would never know exactly what it was.

As sirens blared outside, Quatre stood, looked over the room, and felt the devestation of life lost.

***************************
In that hidden place
In that hidden place
In that hidden place
In that hidden place