WARNING: This chapter contains slightly graphic violence. Please be advised.

Chapter Twenty: The Truth Comes Out

*They stepped from the shadows into the center of the dance floor and signaled to the DJ to stop the music. When they had everyone's attention, Serena called out to them and explained what they were to do. Hiiro cleared out and stood with his comrades among the men and married women. The mob of single women that crowded the dance floor, though, was a scary picture- one Hiiro never wanted to see again. He thought they would tear the bouquet apart, but when all was said and done, and Sally had the bouquet firmly in her grasp, the women grudgingly admitted defeat.

"Now the garter!" Duo cried out. He shot Hiiro an evil look and laughed mechanically. "Garter! Garter!" And the chant rose throughout the room. Trowa set a chair in the center of the dance floor, and all of the single men stood in front of it, whistling and hollering.

Serena, blushing bright red, sat in the chair and waited for Hiiro to join her. When he finally arrived, she just blushed harder. Having him touch her in such an intimate place scared her… she didn't really want anyone touching her mid thy without knowing them incredibly well, and while she knew Hiiro, it was not to the point where she was comfortable. He still made her shiver just with a simple touch, and now he was pulling down her garter?

"Serena?" Hiiro asked her. "Look. Quatre told me I was supposed to do this with my teeth, but if you want me to do this another way, or not at all, tell me now."

"Could, could you… just use your hands maybe? The point of this is that you're supposed to look like you're a little dirty, but I don't want…"

"I understand." He told her gently. Frankly, he was very glad she was shy about this, because he was worse off than she was. "I'm going to start now."

"Ok." She whispered. She felt him lift her dress skirt and begin to pull the garter down slowly. The DJ began to play some music with a heavy beat, the kind a stripper might dance to, and Hiiro and Serena both blushed deeper red, and Hiiro finally slipped the little lacy white garter off Serena's tiny foot. He casually tossed it into the throng of men, and when the crowds cleared, laughter ensued. The lacy white undergarment had landed atop Zechs's head. Duo finally plucked it from its landing position.

"Well, since Zechs is married, and I'm the one who got the garter first, that means I'm getting married! Sally! You're my bride!" Duo cheered.

"Maxwell, leave my woman alone." Wufei glared. Duo backed away slowly and grabbed Mina. Using the blonde woman as a human shield, he began pleading with Wufei.

Hiiro helped Serena up and together they watched Duo being attacked by Wufei. People began to drift away from the scene, still laughing, to dance and finish their cake.

"Hiiro, can we leave now?"

"Leave?" Ami walked up to Serena. "But this is your wedding Serena!"

"I know." The blonde nodded gravely.

"Where are you and Hiiro going on your honeymoon?" Ami asked, trying to detain her friend as long as possible.

"We aren't having one." Serena told her gently. "Honeymoons are for people who are planning to have children. Or who are so deeply in loved and wrapped up in themselves that they feel they have to get away for a week."

"And your not? You looked pretty cozy, kissing in the church, and then the cake, and dancing, not to mention the garter…"

"Ami!" Serena gasped at her friend.

"Well, have you worked out living arrangements yet then?" Hiiro perked up at this question. He wanted to know this too, to see if Duo had been telling the truth when he said married couples shared beds.

"No…" Serena trailed off. "I don't know how we'll work it all out."

"But you'll be living together?"

"Of course. That is what married people do." Serena rolled her eyes, but gave her friend a tiny smile.

"So then you'll be sleeping together as well then?" Mina chimed in.

"What?" Serena looked shocked. "Mina! We barely know each other! Sleeping together is for people who are in love!"

"It's also for married couples. That was your reason for living together, remember? Just checking." Mina giggled.

"Look, I'm tired." Serena yawned as if to prove her point. "I just want to go to sleep."

"We'll get going then." Hiiro spoke up.

"Well, at any rate, congratulations you two! May you live a long and happy life together!" Ami mock toasted them.

"And please, try not to kill each other!" Mina added. Serena thought her blonde friend may have had a bit too much to drink.

"Ami, make sure that Mina gets home safely, I think she's a little tipsy." Serena called as she and Hiiro began walking out, back to the limo that would take them home.

)(

When the limo pulled up to the curb in front of their two apartments, Hiiro quietly stepped out and held out his hand to Serena. She refused his help and climbed out of the car on her own. He sighed, then shot her a longing gaze, just before she turned her head and looked at him.

"Well. We're officially married." She remarked dryly.

"We are." Silence befell them as they looked at each other, but avoided eye contact. They must have been quite a sight, Hiiro thought, standing on the street in a tuxedo and a wedding dress.

"Well?" Serena prompted him.

"What do we do now?" Hiiro asked her, not sure what she wanted. He didn't want to disappoint her on her wedding night.

"Actually," Serena paused. "I'm not sure." He blinked. She wasn't sure? "I never really thought of what we would do after the wedding. I mean, it isn't as if we're going on a honeymoon, and we most certainly aren't about to consummate the wedding… but, well, it just seems s strange to think of it."

"Yeah." Consummate? His brain began turning a mile a minute. What was that all about? He was not ready for anything like that! "Serena? Would you like to come up for a cup of tea?"

"Tea?" She smirked. "Not coffee, but tea?"

"You don't drink coffee."

"When did you find that out?"

"I don't know."

"Alright. I could use a cup of tea." She sighed, almost depressed, and began her way up to his apartment. Hiiro stood a moment longer, thinking about her sigh. He wondered what she had been thinking about. Then he realized she was leaving him, and he quickly caught up to her.

Unlocking his apartment for her, he let her in and flicked on the lights. As their eyes adjusted, Hiiro shed his confining jacket and pulled the tie off from around his neck. Kicking off his shoes and unbuttoning the top two buttons of his white collared dress shirt, he sighed in relief. It felt great to get out of that darned monkey suit! He looked over at Serena, who had moved to the kitchen in her wedding dress.

"Serena?" She looked over at him, a glare evident in her eyes. "Do you want something to change into?"

"Change into?" She blushed and glared harder.

"Sweatshirt? Sweats? Get out of your dress?" Her gaze softened slightly. She had thought he had meant something completely different. Hiiro wouldn't be the first to ask her to 'slip into something a little more comfortable' and truly mean 'slip into nothing at all'. But he hadn't meant it that way at all. He truly seemed innocent at times like these. Just like… God, no! Not now…

"Sure." She whispered. If Hiiro had noticed her pale face, he said nothing and merely nodded. She followed him to his room and waited for him to pull some clothes for her. They looked as if they would be a little big, but they would do.

"I'll leave you to change." He told her, shutting the door to his room behind him as he left.

She was sad and angry, and afraid. He had read the sad and angry in her eyes, and he could smell her fear. After spending years learning to read enemy bluffs, he had learned to read people as well. And being able to smell fear was a natural instinct he had honed to help him in battle. But now… now he was using it to learn more about the woman he loved.

The teapot whistled and he took it off the stove and added the strong herbal teabag to the hot water. Taking out a couple of teacups from one of his cupboards, he filled them with the steaming tea and set out sugar, cream, and honey. Serena soon emerged and he had to smile. Her new clothes made her look so young, but the makeup was such a contrast.

She had chosen to wear a giant red sweatshirt and a pair of his old jeans. The sweatshirt fell to almost mid thy, while the jeans had been rolled up so many times that they now reached her knees. Her feet were bare, and her hair was loose from its confines. For the first time ever he saw her with her long blonde hair down.

"Is the tea ready?" She asked him quietly.

"Yes." He handed her a cup and offered her one of the condiments he had brought out. She surprisingly declined all of them, choosing to drink the tea straight instead. He dropped a spoonful of sugar into his, stirred it, then sipped.

"Serena? How are the living arrangements going to work?" He finally had the courage to ask.

"Living arrangements? I don't know." She rubbed her temple. "No offense Hiiro, but sleeping with you is out of the question."

"I meant living. I have no intention of sleeping with you at the moment." He told her monotonously.

"Shut up!" She burst out suddenly. "Just stop talking! I hate you!" Hiiro blinked. And then, for the first time since he had met her, he snapped.

"You hate me? Why? You've told me you hate me so many times I'm beginning to believe it! What did I ever do to make you hate me? Go ahead, tell me, I'd love to know!" He slammed his fist down on the table and ran his other hand through his hair, nervously.

"That! That is why I hate you!" She screamed, standing up. Crossing her arms across her chest protectively, she shuddered. "I hate you because I do!"

"That is the worst excuse I've ever heard, and trust me, living with Duo, I've heard some bad ones. But you can't even give me a reason!" His voice wasn't yelling, but it was on the brink. More, it was loud and controlled. He still knew how to contain himself when he needed to.

"You have no manners!" Serena screamed at him, her face turning reddish purple. She couldn't handle this third degree right now- she was so close, right on the edge…

"No manners? That would be why I open doors for you, offer my hand to help you out of the limo, give you rides home, oh yes, I have no manners!"

"You tease me!"

"To protect myself from your vicious barbs!"

"You're a slob!"

"Who's working on cleaning up!"

"You're a murderer!" Silence. She had crossed the line, and they both knew it. But this time, there would be no going back, no apologizing, and no stopping.

"So what if I was a killer? I did what I had to do because I thought I was doing the right thing. Would you rather have OZ in power? Or the White Fang ruling you from space? Would you rather have Marimeia's autocracy? What would you rather have- any of those, or the freedom you have now? So I had to do my job. I didn't know anything else! I was raised that way, and if you see it fit to judge me by that, then you are not the pacifist you claim you are!"

"Stop talking!" She held her hands against her ears and shook her head. Hiiro stood, glaring at the blonde woman. She couldn't shut this out, it needed to be said and dealt with.

"Serena! Look, we can't run away from this anymore! You need to come to terms with this. I'm your husband now, not some man you work with and only see eight hours a day. Last time we had this conversation you ran away too. Don't run." Hiiro looked at Serena, his eyes imploring her to listen to him. He raised his hands and placed them on both sides if her face.

"You don't understand! I hate you!" She sobbed, pulling away from him.

"Do you?" His voice dropped to a low tone, and his sad eyes fell.

"Yes! My god! I hate you! I hate you! You killed! Don't you see? Took a life! With your own hands!" She sobbed. Instead of turning and pointing at him, though, or screaming directly at him, she fell to the floor and hugged her knees. "You took a life! Killed! You saw him screaming as you dug the knife into his heart! You saw his eyes bug out in pain; you saw his mouth begging you not to push the knife in any deeper. You heard the skin tear, felt the knife going through the muscle and hitting bone! You saw tears and blood- God, so much blood! You saw his mouth gurgle and red, sticky, warm blood drip down his chin! God, you heard him screaming like a baby! You killed him!"

Hiiro stood, shocked by her words. Who had he killed like this? She was describing death by a knife… Never during the war had he used a knife to kill someone, he was sure of it- he preferred the gun, and always put his enemies down as quickly as possible, never making them suffer. But her words- they were so detailed, as if she knew exactly how the man had died. As if she had held him in her arms and done the deed herself… herself…

"I killed him?"

"You killed him! You with that kitchen knife!" Serena's screams of accusation dropped to whispers, and she held out her hands and looked down at them. "With your own two hands and that knife, you killed my brother…" His eyes widened.

"Serena… I never…" He breathed. Dropping to his knees in front of her, he took hold of both of her hands and lifted her chin up. Tears streamed down her face in clear rivers of salty water. Her makeup had smeared, and she had black circles below her eyes. She looked sickly… "Serena? Did you kill your brother?" He asked her very carefully.

"It, it was… I didn't have a choice!" She yelled. "You have to believe me! He tried to kill us! He tried to kill Mother and I! It was self-defense, I swear!"

"You killed your brother." Hiiro stated robotically. All this time- she had been calling him the cold-blooded murderer, the killer, and now the tables were turned! It was her who was the real, sick murderer. She had killed her own brother, and then had the nerve to blame him! Why? Why would she do that?

"I didn't want to kill him! But he tried to kill us! God… he had the knife, and he was coming for us… and then he dropped it, and I picked it up, and oh God…" Serena kept muttering, rocking back and forth and weeping. "I picked it up and turned around, and he was there… it was an accident!"

"Why? Why did you blame me? Call me those names when you were just as bad as I?"

"I'm a killer! A worthless murderer! I know it! I never should have blamed you… I killed my own brother! I took his life! Life! I did it! I'm sick. I don't deserve to live!" She bawled, hot tears streaming down her cheeks and chin. Her eyes could no longer focus on anything. Instead, everything was black, and her self-loathing ate at her heart. She was lower than the scum of Earth. "I deserve to rot in hell for my crimes! God I'm a bad person! I'm a killer…"

"Why…" Hiiro repeated to himself. How could she have blamed him for something she had done as well? She had said she hated him for it, for doing it… wait. She had said he was responsible for the death of her brother. But she had really meant herself, that she was responsible for his death. So when she had said she hated him, she had meant she hated herself. She had never hated him… only herself! She had projected her crime on him to deal with it!

"I'm so sorry! It was an accident! Self-defense! He tried to kill us! I'm so sorry!" She cried. Serena could take it no more. She had panicked. The one secret that she had tried so hard to hide from everyone had gotten loose. She had finally cracked from the pressure of bottling it all up inside and spilled it all to Hiiro. Projection…

"Serena, it's alright. It's going to be alright." Hiiro tried to awkwardly comfort her. He had never had to deal with this sort of situation before and didn't quite know how to act. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her and she sat and spilled her tears onto his cold linoleum floor. His heart began to ache for this woman. He couldn't understand why he wasn't angry; why he didn't hate her for all the pain she had caused him. He didn't know why, but it scratched at the back of his mind. Because he loved her, and he could never hate her for anything.

After a while had passed, and her tears had more or less subsided, Hiiro managed to pick Serena up off the floor and lead her to his couch. Sitting her down, he made sure she was comfortable before going back into the kitchen. Quickly he reheated their tea and brought it into his family room. Handing Serena her cup, she accepted it with a subtle grace and sipped it. As she did so, she closed her eyes, and a new tear trickled down her face. And she had thought she had no more tears left…

"I thought you were done crying?" Hiiro mocked her lightly. She looked at him with a pained expression.

"I will never be done crying." Guilt continued to naw at her stomach.

"Tell me the whole story." Hiiro asked her quietly. He needed to know.

"I- alright." She heaved a large breath and swallowed hard. "It was the Christmas break of my second year in graduate school. I was home for two weeks, and Father was away on a business trip. Sammy, my brother," Serena gulped as she said his name and fought back tears. "He had just gotten home for a break from duty. He had joined the Alliance five years earlier. He and I, we had never been really close, but never distant either. We were the typical brother and sister I suppose. But every time he came home for a break after he joined the Alliance, he seemed more and more violent. I guess this time we did something that pushed him over the edge, and he just, snapped.

" It was so sudden I still don't know what set him off. All I remember is him, coming after my Mother and I. We ran into the kitchen, and he followed us. I think he picked up the kitchen knife and threatened to slash our throats, and then Mother threw a pan at him. He dropped the knife, and I drove in top of him and tried to hold him down. But he just too strong. He, he flipped me and ended up on top of me. He hit me hard, and I don't know what really happened after that- I was seeing stars. All I know is that I somehow managed to pick up the knife while he was busy with my Mother, and when he turned around- he walked into the knife. But I… I didn't stop… I didn't stop… I just kept pushing the knife in deeper, and no matter how much he begged me to stop, I just kept going. I was so scared, and so angry… that I killed my brother."

"If he walked onto the knife, it wasn't your fault."

"I could have stopped, pulled the knife out, done something! I could have called an ambulance, or something! But I killed him…" This time the tears that fell were not accompanied by heavy sobbing. They fell as she silently lamented in her guilt.

"Quatre told me your brother was killed by OZ when they attacked the Alliance bases."

"That's what we told everyone. The police knew the truth, but they didn't press charges because it was self-defense. Not even Father knows the truth."

"You hate me?"

"No." She whispered. "And yes." His eyebrows raised.

"Explain."

"Hiiro…"

"I need to know this Serena. I deserve an answer, you owe me this much." She nodded, agreeing with him. He did deserve to know.

"You never did anything I didn't do. I don't like killing, and I do try to uphold pacifist beliefs, but after my own past, I could never really judge anyone for killing."

"You judged me."

"Not just because of that. Hiiro, the reason I picked you to blame is because… you look and act so much like my brother that it reminded me of him constantly. At first I thought you were rude, but then I realized you were just so much like him… and I'm still so mad at him, but I also feel so guilty for what I did…"

"I look and act like him?" Hiiro's eyes widened.

"Yes. Sammy looked just like you, except he had greener eyes and was much bigger. But your personalities… the same dry sarcasm, the same care and precision in everything you do, the same cool exterior… everything reminded me of Sammy and what happened. You still do."

"But I'm not him. I would never hurt you."

"How do I know that?" She glared. "He was my brother. Sammy promised never to hurt Mother or me, and look what happened! How can I possibly trust you?"

"I love you."

"He loved me too!" She blinked. "You love me?"

"I love you." Hiiro nervously ran his hands through his hair. "Don't ask me why. You've told me you hate me from day one. But I somehow… it's you. Your strong attitude, your bravery to voice your opinions, the way you concentrate so completely on one thing at a time, the way you argued with me, and then the way you can turn around and fall asleep on your desk as innocently as possible. You're beautiful, smart, and have a sharp tongue. I love you."

"How can you love a killer?" She asked softly, eyes filled with wonder, confusion, and fear. And was that… longing he saw?

"I'm a killer too." He reminded her gently.

"Sammy loved me too. Will you turn on me like he did?"

"No. I have control of my emotions."

"So did he! You don't see it my way! Hiiro, you're a trained soldier, just like he was! You have strength and training, where as I am defenseless and weak. I would not be able to defend myself unless I had a weapon, and last time I held a knife as a weapon, look what happened. Sammy seemed normal, but he cracked. You could too! Then where would I be?"

"I already cracked. After the last Eve War, the battle with the Barton Foundation. Did you know I tried to kill Marimeia? I shot her. But the gun had no bullets. I already had my breakdown. And then I decided I needed to find my humanity. So I did. I left."

"And did you find your humanity?"

"Not all of it. But I have to tell you, if I had not found some of it, I would not be talking with you right now, I would be grunting. It took me three years to make this much progress Serena. It takes people time to change. They can do it, but it takes time and effort."

"Can I trust you that you'll never have another breakdown again? Can I trust myself that I'll never have breakdown?"

"I will never give you a reason to have a breakdown. And if you do, I will easily defend myself, and trust me, I will just as easily forgive you for having it."

"Why?" She whispered.

"Because I love you. I tried to stay mad at you. I tried to ignore what I felt. But it didn't work, so I stopped bothering to try and just went with it. I can't stay mad at you."

"But Hiiro-" He had had enough. Cutting her off abruptly, Hiiro gently grasped her jaw in his hand.

"Serena, I love you, and we are married. We can put everything behind us. You can forget your brother, and I can forget the war, and we can live normal lives. We can be a happily married couple if you let us be. It will take effort, yes, but isn't it worth it? We can make this work." She nodded.

"We can, can't we?" She whispered. He smiled and ran his thumb over her lips.

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

"Hmm?" She barely upturned the corners of her mouth in a sad smile.

"You're beautiful." When her faced flushed a deep rose color, he laughed for the first time all night. He meant it too. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, puffy eyes, tear stained cheeks, running mascara, watery eyes, and all.

"Serena?"

"Yes?"

"Can I show you something?" She nodded, and he leaned forward, letting go of her. She immediately felt the loss in warmth, and didn't like it. Now that she had let everything go, gotten it off her chest, grieved and cried, she felt a release she had never known. And Hiiro had given it to her. How ironic that the very man she had claimed to 'hate' and had feared for so long could make her feel so euphorically happy.

"This is my list." Hiiro told her; taking out the paper he had written the night he had had his humanity revelation. "When I was trying to find my humanity, I wrote this. It's a list of everything I ever wanted in a normal life, everything I wanted to do. See, I decided that even though I had killed those people in the war, that I had done it for a reason, and that they had died for a cause they believed in. So I wasn't going to waste their deaths by not living my life to it's fullest. This list is as full as my life could get." Hiiro handed her the list, and watched her azure eyes as she read the list.

"One: Get a nice apartment. Two: Get normal clothes. Three: Watch a real football game. Four: Eat five pounds of chocolate." Serena began to giggle at the first couple of items on the list. They were things she had always take for granted. "Eight: Date. Nine: Get married. Hiiro, so far you've got everything done that's on this list."

"Read on." He implored her.

"Ten: Have a first kiss. Hiiro, you've never kissed anyone?" Serena looked at him in shock.

"No." He reddened. She laughed. She really and truly laughed and smiled brightly. His heart jumped into his throat. She was happy!

"Well, we can fix that rather easily." He blinked, and before he knew it, her soft, full lips were pressed against his. It only took him a moment to realize what was going on and to completely give in to the whole goodness of her kiss. When she pressed against his lips harder, he began to press back with equal pressure, and his thoughts left his mind. All he could see was Serena. All he could feel were electrical shocks coursing through his veins, as if she were setting him on fire. His blood warmed instantly and his lips began to press harder against hers. So sweet, so soft, so warm, and so good.

Serena didn't truly know what possessed her to kiss Hiiro in the first place, but the moment her lips met his, she knew she wanted more. As he began to respond to her, she gently pushed him harder, wanting him to release in her feelings she had never felt before. A floodgate of passion and absolute bliss surrounded and enveloped her. All she knew was Hiiro's sweet mouth, pressing against hers. She could not reason or think, because she was so focused on how absolutely perfect he really was. When she felt his lips part slightly, she did the same, and soon their tongues began to mingle and dance as well.

Finally the two had to break for air. They sat, forehead to forehead, staring into each other's eyes. Neither wanted to be the first to speak, the first to break the magic spell that had settled upon them. Finally Hiiro opened his mouth. Then he shut it quickly, and moved back in to kiss Serena again.

This time their hard passion had diminished to a softer, sweeter kiss that only last a few seconds. Pulling away from him, Serena kissed his lips with small butterfly kisses, then pulled away fully, smiling softly.

"That was an amazing first kiss." Hiiro smirked.

"I have to admit- it was the best kiss I've ever had…" Serena blushed. "No one else ever made me feel so…"

"Like you were on fire?" She nodded blushing. "I felt the same." This time he smiled a real smile. "I love you Serena Kennington."

"Serena Yui if you don't mind." She told him gently. He smiled.

"Of course." *

~~~Ok, be honest! How many of you knew I was going to put in a large twist like this? I only saw one review that noticed anything (2 Person Wide Coalition -lol)! But I hope you liked it. Actually, I was crying while writing this chapter. I must have been very emotional or something, it takes a lot to make me cry. PLEASE REVIEW! Much love, Vixen~~~