Chapter Six: Oh to be in love..

Dark emerald eyes fluttered open the next morning and were met by dark blue. "Did I sleep late?"

"Hai."

"Why didn't you go ahead and get up?"

"Because I wanted to stay." Heero put an arm around her and pulled her closer.

Chase smiled into the t-shirt that her husband was wearing and wrapped one slender arm around his waist. "Ai shittaru, Heero," she whispered. "You know that, ne?"

"Hai," he whispered into her hair. "I should never question it."

Chase smiled and sat up, receiving a frown from her husband at the sudden movement away from his embrace. She grinned down at him and swung her legs off the bed, standing. "Can't sleep the day away, ne? We've got a war to settle."

Heero chuckled from his place and stood as well. His dark eyes watched Chase move around the room and gather her uniform shirt and slacks for the day. The uniform for the Preventers that he had seen her wear every day for the past several weeks on the ship when she wasn't in her typical jeans and tank top.

"Are you just going to sit there all day, Yuy?" the slightly younger woman taunted. "Get moving, ne?"

Heero smiled and did as requested.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Chase-nee-san!!"

Chase was glomped upon entering the mess hall by a certain red headed teen with large blue eyes. She laughed and pried the girl off.

"You won't leave again, Chase-nee-san, will you?" the girl demanded.

"Iie, Mari-chan. I'm stuck here for a while longer."

"And you and Heero-kun made up, ne?"

It amazed Chase at the innocents beaming in the child's eyes. "Hai, hai," the green eyed pilot reassured her. "We've made up and are together."

"Yosh!" she exclaimed with a grin on her face. "They've got waffles this morning, Chase-nee-san!"

"Honto ni? I'll be there shortly, ne?"

"Hai!" That arranged, the girl darted off for the breakfast buffet.

Chase turned to where Lee Ares was standing sheepishly off to the side. His hair, though dark enough to be mistaken for black, made him stand out amongst the other people in the room, excluding Ryuujin and his light blue-tented hair. The American laughed, and then dismissed the thought that ran through her mind on the coincidence that the two had odd coloured hair.

"Ne, Lee-kun?" Chase called out to him, a smile on her face. "Did you sleep well?"

"Hai, Chase-san," the younger man said quietly. "Very well."

"I see Trowa-kun gave you something to wear besides your uniform. That was nice of him."

"Actually, these clothes belong to him," the former captain said, pointing to Quatre, whom was not much taller than the speaker.

"That's Quatre Winner. I guess he probably is close to your size, ne? Heero would be closer."

"Heero-san is your husband, ne?"

"Hai. For four years now. Wow.. That's kind of a long time, ne?"

Ares smiled and turned his attention back to the crowd of Gundam pilots. "Who's the one with the blue hair?"

"That's Ryuujin."

"Is there a reason Ryuujin-san has blue hair.?

"Is there a reason you have violet hair?" the young woman replied casually.

Lee Ares smiled. "I see your point, Chase-san."

"Ryuujin wa. Ryuujin da yo," Chase said with a shrug of her small shoulders. Her eyes turned serious. "Lady Une will want to speak to you about Tyler."

"I expected as much."

Chase nodded. "Where will he hit next, Lee-kun?"

"I'm afraid I don't know that information, Chase-san. General Tyler never told me of any of his plans until it was almost upon the time he wanted them done."

"Even the attack on the Atlantic?"

The mention of the ship they had attacked earlier that week sent chills up Ares' spine. Blood had never been a pleasant sight to him, and occasionally it had made him physically sick to smell it. After the Atlantic affair, he had been in bed sick for a day and a half. Now, even thinking of it made him want to hurl. The dead bodies, the children. He hadn't realized there had been so many children..

"Hai, Chase-san," he managed.

"Daijoubu ka, Lee-kun?"

He nodded and smiled slightly. "Daijoubu."

Chase began to inquire further, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and was met by a pair of ocean blue eyes looking down on her.

"Ne, Chase-chan, could I have a word with you?" Anna asked pleasantly. "If you'll excuse us, Ares-san."

Ares nodded as he watched Chase being half dragged out of the mess hall and into the hallway.

Anna stopped only when she was sure she was out of hearing range. "I've been dying to ask you-"

"What was with that?" Chase asked, cocking her head slightly. "I was in the middle of a conversation!"

"If you'd let me finish-"

"I was trying to get some answers!"

"Chase?"

"Eh?"

"URESAI!"

Chase blinked up at her friend, oblivious.

Anna sweatdropped. "Now, if you'll let me finish?" Her friend nodded. "Okay, Ares-san rode back in the Star with me. Anou. he seemed just a tad."

"Spit it out!"

A glare shut her up. "Anou. Is Lee Ares gay?"

Had the question come from anyone else, they might find themselves free floating in space about that time, but this was Anna asking Chase. The smaller of the two friends looked very serious for a moment, but then lost the self-control she was trying so hard to retain. A smile broke out on her naturally pale face and she started to laugh.

Anna glared. "Nani?" she demanded.

Chase grinned. "Nothing, Anna-chan. It's nothing at all."

"Well is he or isn't he?"

"Iie, Anna-chan, Lee-kun is not gay." The smaller woman stopped a moment, thinking. She blinked twice, and then looked back up at her friend. "Not that I know of anyway."

Anan sweatdropped as she stared at her petite friend. "Only you, Chase-chan. Only you."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Later that afternoon, Chase and Anna found their way to the observatory upon Jack's command. The two young pilots had smiled and taken him willingly, both liking the view.

Chase sat in the middle of what appeared to be nothingness as she stared out at the stars, glancing every-once-and-a-while at the young boy ran around, making sounds and then switching directions abruptly. Upon being asked what he was playing, he replied that he was "playing Gundam pilots" and he was in the Deathscythe Hell that his daddy piloted.

Anna took a seat next to her smaller friend and smiled, watching her son. "The ordeal at the Atlantic made me think," she said quietly.

"About Jack?"

"Hai. Duo too. It made me grateful."

"I suppose that would be one thing good that came of all that."

Anna nodded and tilted her head back, looking upward. "Did you ever imagine it would happen like this?"

"Iie. How could I?"

Anna smiled. "I guess no one could. Are you happy?"

"Hai. Happier than I ever was in our own world."

Anna returned her gaze to the small pilot at her side, who was fixated on something unseen in the star filled sky. She then saw her friend turn her emerald gaze on the small boy running around with his arms outstretched. "Do you ever wish you had a child?"

Chase blinked, turning to face Anna. "No."

"Doshite?"

"I'm happy as I am."

Anna nodded, taking in Chase's words. There was something more to that. Her friend had never been that simple. She never would be. "Do you think you and Heero will ever have children? It would be nice for Jack to have a friend like that, ne?"

Chase shook her head negatively. "I don't want a child, Anna. I never did, and I am certain of that now."

"Care to expand on that?"

The emerald-eyed pilot took a deep breath. "Before we came here, I knew I didn't want children of my own. Now that I'm here, doing what I do, I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I don't want to bring a child into this world. Not one with Heero's and my blood in it. Do you know what kind of problems that child would inherit?" She frowned thoughtfully. "I couldn't bare to leave a child behind while I went off to a battle. I'm not sure how you do it, but I know I couldn't. I'm not like you in that way."

"Then."

"Retire from it? Is that what you were going to say?"

"I've thought of it. Do you miss normality?"

"No. I could never stand people that were called normal. I was never one of them and they never accepted me. I would not be able to go back to a civilian way of life. It's not in my character any longer. I am an assassin now. That's what I'll do until I die."

"You'll get too old someday."

"I won't live that long."

Anna blinked, but otherwise, did not changer her expression. She simply kept her eyes fixed on her slightly younger friend.

Chase smiled, eyes sad. "Don't look at me like that, tamadachi. You and I are mortal, just like our husbands and just like our friends. We are all mortal. We will die. We knew this could kill us someday, and someday it will kill me. I'll allow it to someday. That is why I don't want a child. I don't want to leave a child without a mother."

Anna sat for a moment, absorbing the words. "You'll allow yourself to die someday?"

"Hai." Chase continued to smile sadly. "Let's just say I don't want to outlive certain people, ne?"

Anna nodded, taking the conversation as closed. Chase had her reasons for living, and if those were taken away, Chase was gone. It didn't matter if she was there physically or not. She would die inside. The small pilot had never been strong emotionally. She had always been unstable, but if something were to take away one of her pillars in her life, she would crumble and fall. Chase Yuy would find a way to die if someone special were taken from her.

"Aunty Chase!" Jack called out. "Lookit! Lookit!" he cried, pointing a small finger at a star shooting through the sky.

Chase smiled. "Hai, Jack-chan," she answered. "It's pretty."

Jack beamed.

Chase continued to smile at him as she stood. "I'll see you later, Anna-chan."

"Ja ne."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chase found herself wondering down the hallways aimlessly. She wasn't sure what she wanted, to be honest with herself. She wanted happiness. She wanted a life that she could live out with the man she loved. She wanted all of these multiple disasters to stop.

What did she want?

Her emerald orbs caught sight of the window out to space. She had always wanted to go traveling. She had wanted to get away and see things that she thought it would be impossible to see. She had always wanted to love like she loved here.

She looked up from her fixation on the window when she felt two arms encircle her. "You should be more aware of your surroundings, ai."

A smile crossed her thin lips. "I was thinking."

"About?"

Chase looked up at her husband, eyes locking with his. "Do you want a family, Heero?"

The Japanese man blinked. "This has never come up. Why now?"

"Anna-chan and I were talking.."

"I'm not sure I could handle a family at the moment. There's a war beginning."

"It'll end soon, Heero," Chase whispered as she turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. "When it ends, what do you want?"

Heero smiled slightly. "What do you want, ai?"

"I want." Chase trailed off, eyes locking with her husband's. "I want to always have someone to love. I want to always be loved. I never want to be alone again. I hate being alone."

Heero smiled and embraced her. "Then you'll never be alone, Chase- chan," he whispered into her hair. "I won't ever leave you alone."

"Promise?"

"Hai."

"I had this dream once," the small pilot whispered. "It was perfect. We were back in the cabin. All of us. We were all happy." She closed her eyes, remembering. "Jack was older, and he played with Mari and a little girl that had your eyes. She called me 'Mommy.'"

Heero smiled. "That can come true, if you want it."

Chase stopped for a moment. "What if it hadn't turned out this way, Heero?" she asked the question that had plagued her mind since Ryuujin had come on board the ship. "What if you hadn't asked me to marry you, or I hadn't finally said yes?"

Her husband blinked. "I don't know. I suppose Ryuujin or Trowa would be happier."

"I hate this." she whispered. "Why does one person have to be left for the other to love?"

Heero ran a finger along her jaw line, smiling slightly. "Because it's always been that way. You had to make a choice. Do you believe you chose wisely?"

"Hai. After this is over, I just want to be with you," Chase whispered. "I don't want anything more or less. I would be happy anywhere if I'm with you."

Heero gave her a small smile. "Anything for you, Chase-chan," he whispered as he kissed her lightly on the cheek. "I'd do anything for you, you do realize that, ne? Die for you. Live for you. Anything that you asked."

"I heard a song once in my world and the woman was saying that the only way she knew how to love would be to allow the man she loved anything he wanted. Even if that meant giving him up, because that was the only way she could truly express her love." *

"Ne, Chase! Heero! You won't believe who showed up.. Eh.. Gomen!"

The couple turned to see Quatre Winner standing with a deep crimson colour flushed across his face. Chase chuckled at the expression. "Dare, Quatre?"

"Dorothy!" the blond exclaimed, sounding excited, though still slightly embarrassed that he had walked in on a tender moment between the Yuys.

Chase smiled. "That's great, Quat. Why aren't you with her?"

"Oh. She said she had to freshen up and then she'd come eat dinner with me."

Heero lifted an eyebrow. "Just the two of you?"

Quatre blushed a bit. "Yes.. Well.. She's been helping out a lot with my corporations that I've inherited, so we'll be talking business.."

"Of course you will," Chase said with a sly look on her face. "You two have fun."

Quatre nodded with a sheepish smile. "Of course!"

Chase and Heero watched him walk off, a little lighter on his feet than he'd been in days. The two turned and smiled to each other before walking off, Heero's arm around his wife's shoulders.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Profile 06

Name: Chase Yuy

Age: 21

Height: 5'3''

Weight: 98 lbs

Hair Colour: Brown

Eye Colour: green

Gundam: Galaxy

Past: Chase was taken from the year 2000AD and thrown into 195AC along with her good friend Anna at age fourteen, nearly fifteen. She fought in the war along side the Gundam pilots and married Heero Yuy when she was seventeen.

A/N: Well that's the next chapter! Whoohoo! Go me! Please R&R! Oh, and also, the song that Chase is talking about is an Alanis Morrisette song. ^^ Off of "Under a Rug Swept"