Heero's eyes went wide. Whatever the hell she wanted to talk about couldn't be good news. She had this serious look that he had never seen on her before, one that looked quite odd on her, as a matter of fact.
"I saw that mark on Hellen-chan's cheek. What the hell happened?!" She was angry, very angry. All this time, she had thought Heero wouldn't abuse her friend in any way, but she was wrong. She was never wrong before.
"Hellen-chan was getting hysterical. That was the only way to calm her down. She wouldn't listen to reason so force was required." The Wing pilot had slipped back into the familiar calm of war with his alter persona as the Perfect Soldier.
"No matter how crazy a situation gets, it doesn't mean that you have to slap her!" Her shaky hand pointed at the door of the aforementioned, her lips trembling at her words. "You're stronger than her, so just hold her down or something! I mean, look what you've done! You've slapped her! You've marred her unbridled image of you being the greatest human being on Earth!"
"Are you finished?" Heero's head hung low, eyes shielded by his bangs, his tone calm and dangerous. Umi could only nod slightly. "Hellen-chan doesn't think I'm perfect, not in the sense you think anyway. She _knows_ that I am not perfect. I am a disgusting creature, ruining thousands of lives every passing day. She loves me out of pure lust. I don't even believe it myself when she said it, no matter how earnest it was. I can't even believe it when I say it myself. Do I love her? I think I do. But I'm not sure. I may never know until I can figure out the mess called my life and learn these feelings."
"But can't you see that she's head-over-heels for you?! She's so goddamn honest that it would make Jesus Christ look ashamed!" Frustrated, she plopped down onto a chair and slumped onto the table. "Why can't you people just be normal?" She was practically sobbing. Umi slammed her fist hard onto the table. "Goddammit! Why can't I have normal friends?!"
"Look, Umi, you don't understand about Hellen and me. We're different. We don't belong here. It's like we're from a completely different world and dropped on Earth by mistake. It's impossible to understand us."
"I don't understand you people…you claim to love her, but you are always scaring the living daylights outta her. I guess that's what love tends to do, ne?"
"I don't know, Umi. I grew up without love. I don't know what love is." With his head head hung low, Heero walked out of the dorm room quietly. He needed some fresh air fast.
When Duo woke up, he had a strange sense. There was something very wrong, something missing. He looked around. He smelled nothing, he saw nothing, he heard nothing. No, check that last thought, he heard sobbing. Giving a speedy glance at the clock, it read 12:00 AM, three hours later. He walked outside his room while quickly tucking his hair into a pony tail. Then, he saw Umi crying into the table, her arms folded under her and her face hidden in the pile of limbs.
"Umi-chan…daijoubu?"
She quickly registered Hellen's voice and wiped her eyes, answering just as quickly with a "Hai, daijoubu."
Moving with the speed and grace given to him by years of street life, Duo sat down by her. "Come on, I know something is wrong. Just tell me." She shook her head vigorously. "Onegai?" He said that line so dripped with honey and warmth that she could not refuse.
"It's Heero-kun."
Duo looked puzzled by this. What could his Japanese friend have done to the poor girl to made her cry for such a long time? "I know he's difficult to be around, but you guys can work through that. Hee-chan's a nice guy."
"How can he be?! He doesn't even act like he loves you at all! How do you stand it?"
"Knowledge comes with a price, Umi-chan, it's best you don't know."
"Oh yeah? Then prove it."
"Prove what?"
"That he loves you."
"Nani? How?"
"Tomorrow is the auditions for 'Romeo and Juliet.' They're looking for couples with real chemistry so that they don't screw up the scenes. I'm auditioning with my koi tomorrow. We won the audition for 'Sleeping Beauty' last year and the audition for 'Much Ado About Nothing' the year before that. If your love can beat ours, then I'll accept that he really loves you."
"Wow, I did _not_ know that."
"Know what?"
"How did a girl like _you_ even manage to get a boyfriend?" A pillow flew at his face and laughter ensued after that, tragedy forgotten. In his mind, Duo knew that even getting Heero to agree to this was going to be a task that proved his love. Or at least part of it.
"No."
"Onegai?"
"No."
"Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"No."
"Hellen-chan, it's useless, just give up already."
"No! Hee-chan loves me enough to voice it to the world! So _please_ Hee-chan? Do this for me?" He batted his eye lashes a couple of times at the Wing pilot, hoping his ploy would work.
The Japanese boy had to agree. What else could he do? He tried to work all morning and that was impossible since his partner had been bugging him all morning about it. He hadn't really wanted to accept this challenge of their love, afterall, he wasn't sure of himself. With a final sigh, he nodded his head.
"Yay! See, Umi-chan? You just gotta do the right thing to get Hee-chan to agree! Now, when exactly is this audition?"
"It's in an hour, so we should hurry and get over to the auditorium and practice our lines."
"Hai! Hee-chan, go put our costumes in the bag please?"
As he picked them up, he noticed something. "Tights?!"
"Okay, we have our cast."
Duo was bubbling with nervous energy. Throughout the whole entire ordeal, he had been a nervous wreck, wondering one minute to the next whether his feelings for Heero were showing or not. Somehow, he just knew, just _knew_ , that the Japanese boy was probably also depending on this to prove their love.
What if he doesn't pick us? Then Heero will go weird and wonder if he made the right choice. And I may lose him again…maybe even forever. His heart pounded as the director flipped through his list and monotonously mentioned the people who were to be casted as the other characters.
"…and the person playing Juliet will be Hellen Maxwell, so Umi Takaishi, who was also vying for that spot, will be playing the nurse. Heero Oda will be playing Romeo. I congratulate all who made their wanted parts and all who failed, try again next year. That will be all, see you actors and actresses tomorrow at 4:00 sharp, after your classes end."
"You made it Hellen-chan! Wow, that's so great!"
Her congratulations and that of many other passerbys was almost left unheard by the Shinigami pilot. He had only heard that he and his koibito had made it. They had made it. They had proven worthy. Their love had proven worthy. His grin grew almost manic and his eyes shone with their excitement. His body was brimming with energy at that one little announcement.
In a soft whisper, the Japanese boy said exactly what he was thinking and whisked him away in his arms in preparation for the day. "I love you."
All he could do was nod.
The following weeks were a flurry of activity. The two barely saw each other except at rehearsal everyday. And even then, they were ushered away by either costume designers, set designers, the make-up crew, the director, or other players of the show. Their classes had been changed to revolved around the time needed by the director to create his masterpiece. The only time they had were the nights together and even then was it hard to show it, with the mission and all. But when they were too tired to do anything, both reveled in the warm embrace of their love.
Then the time came. The performance was tomorrow night. It was truly when Heero would tell, show, recite his love for one crazy American pilot to the world. The mission was almost done, the only part left being to kill the infiltrating spy. Someone in this school knew their true identities. Someone in this school was out to kill them. So they had to do it before he or she did it.
Heero laid on his bed alone, staring at the dimmed ceiling. He was supposed to be sleeping but he had so much on his mind. He had an assassin and love to deal with. The latter was more pleasant to deal with but also more of a handful. So which to do first…
"Boo!"
The Wing pilot nearly jumped at the sound, but then recognized the heart-shaped face before him. "Fuck, Duo. You almost scared the shit outta me. With those new orders about the killer, I wouldn't be so damn cocky if I were you."
"Haha! Don't worry, Hee-chan! He'll never catch us! We're Shinigami and the Perfect Soldier! We _can't_ die even if we wanted to!"
With that childish reassurance from his koi, Heero smiled. No matter how bad things were looking, at least he'd die with Duo by his side. "Hai, hai. Oyasumi."
"Awww…you're going to sleep already? But I wanted to _play_!"
"Duo no baka! We need our energy for tomorrow's show!" The violet-eyed boy pouted cutely at his lover. "I promise, I'll make it up to you _afterwards_, ok?"
"OK!" The American could hardly contain his glee and started to cuddle into his partner for the night. "Oyasumi, Hee-chan."
Two minutes from the opening act, Duo was no where to be found. And Heero was starting to get worried. Where could he be?!
After a long search from everyone in the student body, he was still missing. Umi was cast as his replacement and quickly got dressed in his costume.
It began fine, but after a while, when Romeo was supposed to have developed feelings for Juliet, the dark boy got impatient. He just couldn't act out this scene with Umi. It _had_ to be Duo who he acted it out with, otherwise, it would be wrong! Just plain WRONG! Then, suddenly, between scene breaks, a boy, who Heero knew from his math class, ran up to him holding a note.
"Oda-kun! This note was found on your dorm room!" He snatched the paper from the boy's grasp and read it with lightning speed.
I F Y O U W A N T T O S E E D U O M A X W E L L A G A I N , G O O U T S I D E F O R A B I G S U R P R I S E was scrawled sloppily on it.
Angrily, Heero crumpled it up. He began changing into his customary green tanktop and spandex when a voice stopped him.
"Heero-kun! Where are you going?"
"Hellen-chan is in trouble. I have to go save her." The venom in his voice was clear and Umi had nothing to use to stop him, not that she wanted to. This was serious. Hellen-chan was in trouble. She almost felt sorry for whoever it was that was to meet their untimely demise under the hands of Heero Oda. But then again, almost was the operative word.
End Part VIII