Perfect Beauty

Perfect Beauty

Chapter 7

Heero and Kanani slipped out quietly from the school, taking the back way through the gardens. With the moon and stars as their light, they wove their way through the flowers and the bushes to the hillside where they were only hours before. "This is it Kanani, the way out. There's no turning back now. Please try to stay close," he said as he held her hand tightly. They side-stepped their way down the steep hill, both trying their best to keep from falling. Just before they reached the bottom, Kanani's foot got caught in a hole and her ankle twisted. She sufficed a yelp by biting her lip hard and then continued on, she didn't want to slow them down none. Heero had no idea she was hurt as they walked rapidly through the thick brush into town. She tried to ignore the sharp pains that shot up through her leg, but it was almost impossible to do so. All she wanted to do was cry, but she marched on, this was the last thing she needed to happen.

As they cleared the brush, they came upon the outskirts of the town and paused for a brief moment. Kanani was somewhat relieved at the stop as she lifted her ankle slightly off of the ground to relieve some of the pressure. "We will stay in an inn tonight and leave by train first thing in the morning," Heero said as he glanced down the street at a local lodge.

"Ok," was all she said. She was afraid that if she said anymore, Heero would be able to detect the pain in her voice.

They both walked towards the lodge where Heero managed to get them a room on the top floor. Since there were no elevators, they had to climb up a few flights of stairs to get to their room. Kanani's lip was sore and practically bloody because of her constant biting, she couldn't stand the pain much longer, she had to sit down. They finally got to their room at the end of the hall and as soon as Heero opened the door, Kanani threw herself on the bed, relieving herself only slightly of her agonizing pain. She peeled off her outer clothes and went into the bathroom to change into her pajamas. It was then while she was in the bathroom that she let the tears flow freely. Kanani splashed her face with some cool water to calm herself down a bit and then walked out of the bathroom.

Heero had already changed and was wearing just his draw-string pajama bottoms. He had folded back the sheets of the bed and was getting ready to settle down. Kanani looked over at the nightstand beside the bed and saw Heero's gun. "Prepared aren't you?" she said quietly as she took a seat on the bed.

"When there's a life on the line, you can never be too prepared," Heero said as he looked at her, her face looked tired and worried. "Don't worry Kanani, everything is going to be all right," he said trying his best to reassure her.

She just smiled slightly as she brought her legs up on the bed, her face grimacing in pain. Heero looked at her and then saw her ankle, it was black and blue and swollen to the size of a cantaloupe. "Kanani, what happened?" Heero asked wide-eyed.

"Oh it's nothing, don't worry about it," she said acting as if nothing was really wrong.

"Dammit, when did this happen?" he asked, his voice filled with underlying worry.

"When we were walking down the hill. My foot got caught in a hole and I twisted it," she said coyly as she stared down at the bed.

"You mean to tell me that you walked all of the way here with a sprained ankle? Why the hell didn't you tell me?" Heero said rather angrily.

"I didn't want to slow us down," she said softly.

Heero looked at her, his eyes began to soften as he realized what she had done for him. He kneeled down in front of her and gently lifted her chin up to meet his gaze. "You know you could have hurt yourself even more by doing that. I'm not angry at you Kanani, I just wish you would have told me," Heero said soothingly, his voice putting her at ease.

"I'm sorry," she muttered.

"Don't worry about it, now let's get some ice on it and elevate it for tonight, we want to get some of the swelling down before tomorrow," Heero said as he stood back up. "I'll go down to the lobby and get some ice, stay here."

"I don't think I will be going anywhere," she replied.

Heero turned and smiled slightly and headed out the door to get some ice. When he got back, he had a bag of ice and a packet of pain killers. "Here take these, they will help take away some of the pain," Heero said as he handed her the pills and a glass of water. He pulled a towel from the bathroom and used it to secure the ice onto her ankle. He then grabbed a few cushions from the chair in the corner of the room and used them to prop her ankle up on the bed. She laid her head back onto the pillow as Heero settled down next to her. "The swelling should go down by morning. We need to get a good night's sleep, we have a long day ahead of us," Heero said just as he reached to turn off the light.

"Thank you again Heero," Kanani whispered in the dark.

"No thanks needed. Goodnight," he replied.

"Nite." The pain killers soon took affect and Kanani was out like a light. After she was asleep, Heero followed her cue.

During the wee hours of the morning, Kanani woke up as nature had called. 'Damn, how the heck am I going to get out of bed without waking him up,' Kanani thought as she analyzed the situation. Her bladder was in dire need of a releasing and she couldn't wait until morning. She slowly lifted her ankle off of the pillow and carefully swung it over the edge of the bed. She threw her other leg over the edge of the bed and sat up, preparing herself to stand up. The only problem was that even though the swelling went down in her ankle, the slightest touch sent sharp pains up her leg. She couldn't wait though, she had to go to the bathroom and she wasn't about to wake up Heero to ask him for help. Kanani decided to brave the pain once more and stood up to go to the restroom. The minute she stood up, her ankle gave away causing her to fall forward on to the floor with a loud thud. "Dammit," she cursed silently as she grabbed her ankle. Kanani popped her head up to see if Heero was awake. Seeing that he had not stirred, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you ever think of asking for help?" Heero muttered sleepily.

Heero rolled over and turned on the light by the bed. He saw Kanani sitting indian style on the floor holding her ankle as she tried to hold back the tears that were just waiting to flow. Heero sat up and looked at her sleepily, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she said trying to hide the pain.

"Why didn't you just wake me, I could have helped you," he said, with a slight grin on his face.

"I don't need help to go to the bathroom, I'm not an invalid you know. Plus you always complain of me waking you up," she retorted.

Kanani then got on all fours and crawled to the bathroom. Heero was trying his best to suppress a smile, she sure was stubborn, and she wasn't about to ask for help. She nudged the bathroom door shut with her head and began the difficult task of getting up without putting any pressure on her ankle. Heero listened to her as she cursed softly as she tried to maneuver herself off of the ground, he was becoming quite amused by all of this. After many futile attempts, Kanani was able to relieve her discomfort and go back to sleep. She saw the slight glow of light from underneath the bathroom door, Heero was still up and waiting for her to get back to bed. 'Damn, he must be really getting a kick out of this,' she thought as she opened the door and saw Heero sitting on the edge of the bed just staring at her. "Are you sure you don't want any help?" he asked her with a smug expression on his face.

"Yes I'm sure," Kanani said as she tried to stand up again. She stood on her one leg and still not having learned her lesson, she put her other leg down and her ankle gave out again but instead of hitting the floor, Heero caught her around the waist in mid air. "You just don't give up do you?" he said as he turned her around, his voice filled with amusement.

Kanani looked up at him and her face turned beet red from embarrassment. She looked away as Heero then picked her up in his arms to get her off of her feet. Heero looked down at her and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," Kanani replied in defeat as she looked up into his deep blue eyes. They both sparkled brilliantly with kindness and caring but were partially covered by his unruly hair. She smiled and gently lifted her hand up to brush his dark brown locks away from his eyes. Her hand softly caressed his face as she brought it back down. "Thank you Heero."

He looked down at her and smiled slightly. "Don't worry about it. Now let's get some sleep ok?"

Heero carried her back over to the bed and laid her down carefully as he propped her foot back up on the pillows. He laid down beside her and shut off the light. "Are you comfortable?" Heero asked her as she finally settled down.

"Yeah, I think so. I just hope I am able to walk in the morning," she whispered.

"Don't worry about that now, I will think of something. Get some sleep," were Heero's last words to her as he shut his eyes. After a moment of silence, Heero looked back over at her and saw that she was asleep again. 'Strange how she gets to me. Every time she touches me I feel warm. Does this mean I truly care about her or am I just disillusioned? Now I know why they told me to vanquish my emotions, they have caused me nothing but trouble and confusion. But these feelings have to mean something, but what?' Those were Heero's last thoughts just before he drifted off into slumber.

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Kanani was awakened by a gentle nudging at her side. She opened her eyes to see Heero already out of bed, dressed and ready to go. "How are you feeling?" was the first thing that he asked.

Kanani moved her ankle slightly and a dull ache encased her ankle. "It still hurts, but not like last night. Hey look, the swelling has gone down," she said as she pointed her ankle up at him.

"Good, do you think you can walk at all?"

"I don't know, let me try standing up first," Kanani said as she slowly swung her legs over the side of the bed. She put her good foot down first and then her bad one. As she stood up, she could feel the pain pulsate throughout her ankle once again. "Heero, it still hurts," Kanani said as she sat back down on the bed, gently massaging her partially swollen ankle.

"Well for now, I'm going to just have to wrap your ankle tight for support. You should be able to walk on it long enough to get on the train. When we get on the train, I'm going to ice your ankle again until the swelling goes down completely. I don't want to take anymore chance, especially when it involves the IRA," Heero said as he slipped his gun in the back of his jeans underneath his jacket. "Get dressed and I will wrap your ankle, we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Kanani nodded and hobbled over to the bathroom to get dressed. As soon as she got back out, Heero dressed her ankle with medical tape and an ace bandage. "There, that should do for right now. Are you ready?"

Kanani looked up at him and nodded. "Good, let's get going," Heero said as he took her hand to help her up off of the bed. With her backpack slung over her shoulder, the two left the hotel and headed to the train despot. Kanani paused in front of the train and asked Heero, "Where are we going Heero?"

"Belgium."

"Belgium?"

"It's a small country right in the middle of Europe. It is the last place they will be looking. It should buy us plenty of time until we get everything taken care of. Let's go, we need to board our train," Heero said as he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her up in to the train. Kanani took one last look at her old home before turning her back and following Heero.

Heero had their own private cabin towards the back of the train so they could both get some rest. He helped Kanani inside the cabin and onto the small couch. He propped Kanani's foot back up and iced it again. "Comfortable?" he asked as he sat down across from her.

"Yeah," she said wistfully as she looked out the window just as the train began to move.

"Just get some rest, it will be awhile before we reach our destination. I will keep an eye out ok?"

Kanani just smiled slightly and shut her eyes, the journey has now begun.

TBC