¤°§ ¤ § § ¤ § § ¤ §°¤

Moments Earlier...

"I think I'll name him Hero," she patted the young dog gently, wisps of golden-basked fur escaping onto her fingers although she didn't seem to mind.

Heero's throat caught itself quickly, feeling her words were quite deeply unforeseen. Try as the indifferent soldier might to conceal any impressions of flattery or quieted appreciation, he was inwardly amazed that he had been so momentarily intrigued. In his thoughts, analytical as they were, the adolescent should not have paid any mind, any second concern, to what should have been a civilian irritancy robbing him of his pre-attack strategic planning time. It was a complicated mental process that often ran through his mind, depictions of the task he would soon carry out that could take a few minutes to run through securely, ensuring success and obliterating any slim opportunity for failure. He operated much like the most cunning of chess players, visualizing outcome and process before the pieces were even laid on the board. However, just as easily as he could imagine, Heero Yuy, at anytime that he wished, could dismiss the young pester with the turn of a cold shoulder, or the growl of a few words, but as that seemed so evidently sensible, yet somehow, those deep brown eyes lay focused on what he could only deem as unimportant yet to his unresisting interest: to stare curiously at the two most unique and appealing characters he had ever come across.

"Why would you name him that?" the words escaped Cadet Yuy with much effort to them, as if he were divided as to whether it was a mistake or not to continue the seemingly pointless conversation. There was still plenty of time until he would have to board on to his fascinating machine of massive destruction which lay skillfully concealed in the most dense packing of forest a couple of yards away, but yet he didn't know how much risk it was associating with the girl. She may have been young and freely careless, yet his very name was in her mind and face within her eyes. Just as easily, she could have been nothing more but a flesh data recorder sent out to observe him from OZ-enforcement parents, just as much of a threat as the cold press of a pistol to his temple. It was so graven to think of it that way, and for once, Heero questioned why he did. That was the system in which the boy functioned. He purposely made himself familiar with worst-case scenarios and his untrusting solitary motifs, yet as he watched this girl with natural ringlets in perfect circles, large orbs of eyes that could win the envy of sapphire, dainty hands and feet in a pastel pink fluff of clothing coated slightly with a gold tinge from her tiny and harmless friend, his ideal of her being an enemy of his was almost laughable. He didn't know nor did he care whether her parents or whomever she knew were friend or foe, he understood that a child's innocence was an enemy to no one.

"I think it's a pretty name," she replied in her light voice, preoccupied slightly in tying yet another dandelion around the stuffed collar of the newly-named pup, small fingers weaving with surprising accuracy. "He's gonna be big when he grows up you know, Retrievers are always big, and they're always heroes. That's how he's gonna be someday, I just know it, he'll be my hero when we're grown ups. One day he'll be big and strong and handsome and he'll be known as a hero, he will, just like you!"

She had said it simply, with stumbling grammar and a child-like leaning to repetition, but yet… there was still something strange to it, something definitely different in the impression that it had embodied within him. It drove distinctly and almost insanely on Heero's very being, as if defying all that he could relate to from his associations with others, all but one. Immediately, like those rare and unmentioned times before, Heero's young and firmed heart began to twist and his very rigid stream or priority and principles began to curve slightly, allowing accommodation to his sudden liking to her words. He was realizing it slowly firsthand that he wasn't as clear-cut about himself than he thought he would be. Although all common sense and pure logic would go to assume that the cadet would not, or should have not, spent much more than a second to attend to this stranger, still yet that had not been the case, and somewhere along that thin line, he had even come to enjoy her company to a limit he didn't know. It was something that bore discomfort in his militaristic persona, yet all the same, it was also something that bore a satisfying content to his frequently denied and lonely soul.

¤°§ ¤ § § ¤ § § ¤ §°¤

.: Kaliko Rosa Creations .:. http://www.kaliko.cjb.net :.