Despite Relena's earlier assumption of Owner being asleep, she was very
careful at every turn and shadow. She turned and glared over at Heero.
P
"How did you manage to get in?" she demanded. P
"Basement window." Relena turned back to the dark hallway and stopped in
front of a doorway. "I'll have to go patch it up to keep idiots like you
out." She opened the door they stood before leading into an empty closet.
Relena went in and felt around the sides of the shelves and pulled one out
slightly and pushed against the wall. It opened just enough so someone
could slip through into another room. On the other side of the door, Heero
found a large area with some chairs, a candle, and a small draped window.
Relena signaled for him to quickly move inside as she shut the door hastily
behind him. Relena moved to a chair and put her feet up on an old crate
and faced Heero. He stood next to the window staring outside for a moment.
The sun was setting, he should probably get back soon, but not until this
conversation was done and over with. P
"What do you want to know so badly to brought you here and cause another
member of our team to nearly be beaten to death?" she said tensely after a
few moments. P
"I want to know what you meant from before. What more is there to the
game?" he asked bluntly. Relena's eyes narrowed. P
"I said that you have yet to learn that. I'm not going to tell you
something that you're going to learn eventually anyway. Figure it out for
yourself. I did." P
"What about the other girls? Have they learned whatever you're talking
about yet?" Relena smiled. P
"They're smart, but they still need to figure out factors about this game."
P
"You're talking in riddles." P
"Do you think you deserve to know it the easy way? If riddles make it
harder for you, then so be it, but I'm not going to sit here and make life
easier for you when you already have it easy enough." P
"You've made assumptions that are not true." P
"Really? Like what?" P
"That I have not lived the life of a real Lost Child." Relena's eyebrows
went up to mock him. P
"Oh? Well, then enlighten me," she said sarcastically. P
"I may have lived with Hiroshi for a period of time, but I still remember
what it was like before. You only forced me to remember something that
night that I had forgotten a long time ago." P
"Yet you are still privileged. Get over it. What I said that night was
out of spite and I will not take any of it back despite that spite." P
"There you go again, talking in riddles." The corner of Relena's mouth
went up slightly in amusement. P
"If you think these are riddles, then it will take you a long time to
figure out what I was saying earlier in the courts." P
"Why did you say it?" P
"What? That you were privileged? Because it's true." P
"Not that, why did you say there was more to the games. There's only one
thing. freedom." Sighing sadly, Relena stared out the window. P
"That's what most players think, but in time, unless you've been there,
Lost Children don't know the game until they know the extensions of what we
all play for." P
"The whole point of the games is to win freedom and there's nothing more.
I don't know what crazy idea that you have that there's more to it, but
you're wrong." P
"If you're so set in that idea, then what are you doing here asking me what
I meant?" Heero was silent for a long moment, as if debating on something.
Sighing, he seemed to make a decision, but he said something completely
different than what Relena thought he would say. P
"Do you know how many really good players are here in this city?" P
"Excuse me?" P
"There are probably a total of 60 teams, 75% of which are probably not even
real players." P
"What's your point?" P
"I was watching your team play and I have not found any team that plays
like yours." Relena shrugged. She wouldn't tell him that they had not
been training as long as other teams. They had simply clicked with one
another. P
"We work hard and have only one common goal." P
"Yes, but everyone knows that all players do that, but what your team does;
it's like it's on an edge and is constantly threatening to fall over, but
in reality, you're in complete control at all times." P
"Most of the time." P
"What are you doing differently?" Relena smiled ironically. P
"Do you think I would tell you. a person from another team? You think very
highly of yourself. Besides, it's always been like that. That's all I can
tell you, being that we're going to see each other in the tournaments."
Heero's eyes narrowed. P
"You really think you're going to win the tournament." He said it with
such amusement that Relena shot up off of the crate and stood toe to toe
with him. She was shorter than him, but that didn't seem to faze her at
all. P
"Listen, I didn't want you to come here. I didn't ask you to stalk me! I
just want you to leave us in peace and let us go about our own business!"
Heero shrugged. P
"I don't want to leave you alone. You obviously have a better hold on this
foreign thing called freedom. I'd like to hear more of what you know."
Relena let out an exasperated cry and spun around towards the window. P
"What I know about freedom is as much as you do. Nothing. What I have
been talking about is something that I cannot tell you and you have to
learn for yourself. I can't tell you something when it's something felt in
your soul and mind." Her gaze looked out at the fading light. She turned
back. "You better go. It's getting dark. You will want to be back soon."
With that, she started walking towards the door. Heero reached out and
grabbed hold of her arm. P
"You know we're going to see each other again." P
"So?" She yanked her arm out of his grasp. "What does that have to do
with anything?" P
"Let me put it this way. One of us is going to have to give. It might as
well be you." Relena's eyes narrowed and she was about to let fly a punch,
but she stalled and a cold smile spread over her lips. P
"I guess we'll just have to see, now won't we." Suddenly, she was pulled
into an embrace and she found herself very close to his lips. P
"I don't think you got my meaning." He closed the distance and his lips
took hers momentarily; he pulled away just as quickly. He released her and
stepped lightly out the door. Relena was stunned to say the least.
Finally, she realized that Heero had left the room without her and she
quickly followed, securing the door back into place. She led the way out
of the closet and crept down the hall, taking a moment to glare back at
Heero. P
"If you ever pull a stunt like that again I'll do exactly what I threatened
the first time I saw you." A small corner of his mouth went up. P
"You mean, the 'I'll beat you from within an inch of your life' bit? I
remember it quite clearly." P
"That's an inch from your death and I'll do it too." With that, they made
the final turn and walked into the bunkroom. Duo seemed to be having a
fine time. The girls just finished laughing at a joke he had cracked. Duo
looked up and waved Heero over. Hilde now sat up, leaning against the wall
on top of her bunk, glowering at Duo. Something had obviously happened
while Relena and Heero were away. Instead of coming in, Heero made a curt
comment that it was time to go and turned to leave. Duo rolled his eyes
and got up to follow him but spared a moment to wink at Hilde who glowered
back at him. Then they were both gone. The other girls looked expectantly
at Relena, who chose to ignore the looks. Making her way to her bunk, she
lay down, placed her hands folded behind her head and stared up at the bunk
on top of hers. The other girls sighed and chose to question her later
when she didn't look so distracted. P
Something was changing in their little team and this was definitely not the
time to be doing such things. Their first level tournament was coming up
in a few days and they had to be ready, regardless of nosy Lost Boys. P
P