DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.
Chapter Nine
Everyone, save the missing Trowa and Duo, was downstairs eating breakfast when Quatre arrived. Sally and Wufei were playfully fighting already, Heero was sitting very close to Jinx, and Relena just glared at them all. Hilde, Catherine, and Noin were there too, and Quatre couldn't help but notice how enchanting Cathy looked in her green dress. Jinx was dressed in some of the clothes he'd brought for her. Thank goodness she was out of the boy's clothes, Quatre thought, admiring his choices for her attire. She was wearing a pair of slightly baggy jeans, a black fitted tank top and a dark blue shirt that she left unbuttoned. Heero was wearing his "Bob" mechanics shirt, which meant he must be planning to salvage later that day.
Quatre sat down at the table. Heero nodded hello to him and the girls each said their own welcome, except Relena who was still sore, figuratively and literally, about being pushed out of the bed.
"Where did Trowa and Duo go?" Quatre asked, reaching for some pastries.
"Noin informed them of a carrier heading toward that OZ base. They took the shuttle and left to destroy it," Wufei explained.
"How come you guys didn't go?"
"Duo and Trowa were already awake," Heero said. "Besides, it only takes a couple of people to blow up a carrier."
Quatre nodded in agreement. The girls were engrossed in their own small talk.
Heero got up. I'm going to get some supplies. I'll be back by the time Trowa and Duo get back from their mission, he explained to Jinx. Before he left, he bent down and kissed her on her left shoulder.
Sally couldn't help but smile. She knew the significance of kissing Jinx there.
"Ok," Jinx replied out loud. "Be careful," she called over her shoulder at him as he walked down the entryway to the front door.
"Be careful?" Relena repeated, her voice dripping with distaste. She got up and ran after Heero, catching him in the hall before he disappeared through the door.
"Where are you going, Heero?" she asked.
"I have stuff to do. I'll be back later," he replied, deliberately not giving her any details.
Relena stood pouting in front of him. "How come you kissed Jinx?" she asked.
Heero just stared at her coldly.
"I'm going to have to have a talk with her," Relena said, trying to sound threatening.
"Don't get yourself killed, Relena," Heero said, walking out the door.
"What stupid kind of cryptic message is that?!" she cried after him.
* * * * * * * *
After Relena ran off, Wufei excused himself from the table, wanting to go and get some martial arts practice in before his friends returned. He had a feeling Heero knew what he knew, and they'd all have to be in top form when Trowa and Duo returned in order to survive the further wrath of Relena.
Jinx asked to join him, and so she left the table too, leaving Quatre surrounded by girls.
"What's with Heero and that girl?" Relena scowled as she returned.
"I think Heero likes her," Sally said with a gossiping tone of voice. "They slept in the same room last night."
"Really?" Hilde asked. "In the same room or in the same bed?"
"In the same bed," Noin said, joining in and giving her little tidbit of information just to make Relena madder. "When I went in there this morning to tell Heero about the carrier, they were still asleep together." Noin left to find Wufei, emphasizing her bit of gossip.
Quatre enjoyed the girls' provoking Relena, and they were excellent at doing it too.
"So that's the real reason Heero didn't go on the mission," Cathy teased. Relena was turning red with rage. Cathy turned her attention to Quatre, who was trying not to laugh. "Why did Jinx speak to Heero like that, Quatre? It's almost as if they can read each other's mind." Cathy got up to put her dishes away.
Quatre smiled. "They can." He got up too, being finished with his light breakfast. "Sometimes you walk in a room and they're just staring at each other, like this..." Quatre got inches away from Cathy's face and stared unblinkingly into her eyes.
"Just staring, not saying a word..." he continued, still staring at Cathy without moving. She began to giggle and squirm from his unrelenting gaze. Quatre started to laugh too.
Sally joined in the conversation, "Jinx has psychic powers, and she's always been able to sense other people's feelings and even communicate to people through her mind."
"And when she met Heero," Quatre continued, "she found someone who could actually talk back to her."
Noin's running feet called all their attention to the doorway. "Sally, Sally, you have to come and see this!"
Everyone raced after Noin, heading toward the gym room where Wufei was most likely working out.
Wufei was definitely getting a workout. His jacket was on the floor, and he was panting in his loose black sleeveless shirt and white pants. Jinx was in a fighting stance opposite him, breathing heavily and adorning only her black tank top and baggy jeans. Both of them were glistening with sweat, and Wufei's hair was falling out of his ponytail.
"DO YOU YIELD?" Jinx screamed at Wufei.
"NO!" he yelled back.
For the better part of two hours, they watched Wufei and Jinx battle. Broken swords and other martial arts weapons of destruction were scattered all over the floor. Sais, knives, and stars were sticking into the walls at various places.
With an unbroken sword still in hand, Wufei charged at Jinx. She leapt into the air, used his head as a springboard, and somersaulted over him picking up a couple of undamaged knives off the ground as she returned to a fighting stance. Wufei spun around to face her again.
A knife hit the pillar behind him, and inch above his head. Jinx held the blade of the other knife between her first and middle finger, ready to throw it, too.
"Wow," Quatre said, leaning over to Catherine. "She's almost as good as you."
"Are you kidding?" she whispered back. "She's way better than I am."
"DO YOU YIELD?" Jinx screamed at Wufei.
"NO!" he yelled back, rushing at her again. Jinx used the small knife in her hand to deflect Wufei's thrust, and she brought her elbow down on the base of his skull as he rushed by, sending him sprawling to the ground. Moving quickly, despite her tired body, she picked up Wufei's dropped sword and straddled him, bracing each of his arms with a knee. Jinx held the sword to Wufei's throat.
Wufei finally yielded.
Applause erupted from the gathered crowd. Jinx smiled with embarrassment and helped Wufei off the floor. They both bowed quickly to each other and the group of onlookers.
"That's what I meant by not getting yourself killed," Heero said from behind Relena, startling her so much that she yelped in surprise. Before she had a chance to respond, Heero walked past her and picked up Jinx and Wufei's discarded shirts on the ground. He handed Wufei's to him.
"Thanks," Wufei said, a little out of breath. "She's good," he admitted.
"See?" Sally said, hugging Wufei from behind despite his sweatiness and the public environment. "Not all women are weak." Wufei only smiled at her.
Quatre's eyes narrowed as he saw the brand on Jinx's shoulder. "You never told us about this," he said, accusingly.
Jinx backed away from him like she'd been hit. Her right hand instinctively went up to cover the scars on her left shoulder.
Heero came up behind her, placing his own hand on top of hers protectively. "We all have a past, Quatre," he said softly with a stern voice.
"But an OZ Special? They're the most highly trained, savage, ruthless group of soldiers ever produced. How can we..." Quatre stopped talking when he saw the hurt in Jinx's red eyes. Heero was right: everyone had a past. And she didn't have the choice to leave OZ when she was young and taken to the military. "I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head. "I shouldn't..."
He was interrupted by a kiss on his cheek. Quatre looked up and blushed slightly to see Jinx smiling at him in forgiveness. Even more amazing, Heero didn't seem jealous that Jinx had just kissed him. Heero ran his fingers tenderly over her left shoulder and then walked toward the gardens in the back of the palace.
Wufei and Jinx left to take showers and change clothes.
A large rumble shook the palace, making several vases and crystalline structures fall off shelves and break into shards. Relena went screaming into the gardens, yelling insults at the two returning Gundam pilots.
* * * * * * * *
Trowa landed the carrier behind the palace, destroying the remaining rose bushes and most of the other plants in the gardens as well.
"Nice killing of the rose bushes," Duo praised.
"Thanks." Trowa smiled proudly.
Both pilots waved goofily out the window at the screaming form of Relena.
"She is going to be so pissed," Duo said through the clenched teeth of his fake smile.
"Uh huh," Trowa agreed, not disturbing his plastered smile.
* * * * * * * *
"You stupid idiots, what are you doing destroying more of my garden!? " Relena screamed at them as she ran outside, watching hopelessly as Trowa landed the large carrier in the backyard of her palace.
Heero appeared, driving a large truck and running over the remaining plants of the garden.
Relena left the garden screaming and waving her arms in the air.
Mission accomplished, Heero thought as she slammed the door behind her. Quatre and the girls with him remained outside, waiting for Duo and Trowa to come out of the carrier.
"What is this?" Quatre asked, pointing at the large aircraft.
"A carrier," Duo answered, climbing down from the hatch.
"I can see that, Duo," Quatre countered, annoyed. "But weren't you guys supposed to blow up that carrier, not bring it home and keep it?"
"Hey," Trowa said with an uncharacteristic smile on his face. "What better to fight OZ with than their own mobile suits? Besides, we were bored."
Wufei walked outside, joining the group after taking a lightning-speed shower. "Nice carrier," he complemented Trowa and Duo. "How many suits are inside?"
"Six," Duo answered. "Enough for all of us and an extra." He glanced over at Heero who had climbed out of the truck and come up to the group. "Maybe Jinx would want to pilot the last one."
"Maybe she would. I'll go ask her," he said, glad to have a reason to walk in on her showering. "Be back in a while," Heero called to the group. "There's some stuff in the back of the truck you might like to use to customize your weapons systems." He head inside to Jinx.
"Well," Duo said with a shrug. "I guess we should get started."
The six mobile suits were unloaded, and the pilots began taking them apart and used Heero's gathered parts to recreate versions of their old Gundams. Two suits were set aside: one for Heero and one for Jinx.
* * * * * * * *
"Jinx?" Heero called as he opened their bedroom door.
In here, she said from the bathroom. She emerged, wearing a towel around her.
Heero smiled and locked the door behind his back before coming close to Jinx and kissing her. He slipped a hand through the slit of the towel, feeling the soft skin of her stomach underneath. Gently, he moved behind her and began kissing her ear and neck. His kisses trailed down the left side of her neck to her shoulder, where he lingered over her OZ brand. Jinx reached around with her right hand, grabbing Heero's hair and pulling his face up to hers, kissing him softly on the lips. He tried to get closer to her, to deepen the kiss, but she kept holding him by the hair and his face remained barely too far away.
Heero growled at her teasing, causing her to laugh at his frustration. But soon enough, Jinx gave up on keeping Heero away and let go of his hair. Heero wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and kissing her passionately. He started backing up as he kissed her, heading toward the still unmade bed.
Oh no you don't, her words entered his mind. Her mouth was too full of his tongue for her to speak out loud.
Oh yes I do, he teased, dragging her closer to the bed.
Jinx braced a leg against the frame of the bed, preventing Heero from dragging them any closer to it. Ha! she laughed at him victoriously.
I'm a soldier, he reminded her. I can improvise. With that, Heero suddenly swept with his leg, causing Jinx to fall to the floor with him on top of her. She was laughing, a beautiful melodious sound to Heero. He sat up on top of her, looking down at her near-naked figure with her black hair radiating across the floor.
I love you, you know, he told her in a moment of seriousness, stroking her cheek with a finger.
I know, she said. She smiled and reached up, grabbing his shirt and pulling him back down on top of her. Jinx began unbuttoning the buttons on his "Bob" shirt as she mouthed his ear and neck. It made Heero forget what he wanted to say to her.
Wait a minute, he said as she flung his shirt aside.
What? she asked, gazing up at him with star-filled eyes.
You're supposed to…
Say I love you too? she teased as she started kissing him again, rubbing her hands over his chest. Heero was about to break away from her and demand an answer when she stopped and looked at him intensely. I love you too, she said, sealing it with a gentle kiss.
Heero rolled off of her and lay beside her, with his head propped up on his elbow. She mimicked his position, staring at him and reaching over with her free hand to tug playfully at the waist of his pants. His own free hand traveled lightly up the outside of her thigh, and he was enjoying the shortness of the towel around her. Amazing that the towel stayed on through all that, he thought.
Duo and Trowa brought mobile suits back, he said suddenly, breaking the mood. We were hoping that you could pilot one of them.
Mobile suits? she asked, taking her hand away from him and rolling onto her back.
Yea, he affirmed, pulling himself closer to her and leaning over her. What's wrong?
She shook her head no, refusing to look him in the eye. Brushing him aside, she got up off the floor, smoothing out her hair.
Heero stood up behind her, running his fingers through her hair to brush it out. He combed it into a Duo-braid and kissed her lightly on the neck when he was done. He wondered why she hadn't spoken since he mentioned the suits.
Jinx melted as Heero hugged her from behind. Here he was, being so nice to her and she didn't even have the balls to talk to him. Heero, she called. She felt his grip around her torso tighten momentarily, and she knew he was paying attention. I don't know how to pilot a suit, she admitted.
Heero breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness that was all that was bothering her, he thought to himself. He turned her around in his arms to look into her eyes. Jinx raised her arms up, holding the back of his neck and shoulder. I'll teach you everything I know, he said with a smile. Heero leaned down to kiss her again.
They were too engrossed in each other to notice the small sound of the unlocking door.