Disclaimer: Don't own either Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon.
Thanks goes to Ashika for editing each paragraph so thoroughly. Thanks! ^^
Chapter 7: Threats and Fabrications
The cell phone next to him buzzed annoyingly into his ear, persistent and disruptive in the smooth darkness. He snatched it up and held it to his face, fumbling to press the correct button. The small screen lighted as he finally found talk and groggily held the phone up to his ear, sitting up and accidentally banging his head against the wall.
"Damn it, Yui! Pick up the-" screamed into his ear before his caller realized the call had been received.
"Treize."
"Colonel Khushrenada to you," the refined voice snapped in a clumsy attempt to cover up his previous blunder.
"Hn."
A sigh greeted his drowsy mind. "I suppose that's the best I can get out of you, huh, Yui?"
"Hn."
Another sigh.
"So, Yui. You wouldn't know anything about a dessert shop around the corner of your street, would you?" His boss's smooth voice was too nonchalant for his liking.
"Hn."
"Would that be a yes, Yui?"
"Why do you care?"
"Call it curiosity."
"Curiosity killed the cat."
Treize smiled to himself. "But satisfaction brought it back."
He was backed into a corner. "I have scoped out the surrounding area, yes. Why?"
"Nothing, nothing." A cough sounded in the phone. "And you wouldn't know why connections have reported seeing you and a certain blonde prisoner going for a midnight snack and then walking away from the city, would you?"
Silence.
"And you wouldn't happen to have an explanation for just WHY that connection has also told of the following day spent with previously mentioned prisoner eating and talking, would you?"
Again, silence.
"And of course you would be mortified to hear that the connection DARED to even SUGGEST that the two of you were sighted yet AGAIN yesterday, walking the streets of Calais, after said prisoner … dare I say it? … ESCAPED from the undefeatable Yui?"
He started cursing to himself.
Treize laughed casually. "But it would be downright idiotic to even THINK of believing that Agent Hiiro Yui would be so blatantly violating the rules set by the ESUN government." Threat laced with amusement in his voice. "Wouldn't it, Yui?" The last words came out gently and in a self-possessed manner, each syllable stressed upon with delicate care.
He gathered his wits and thought quickly. "Stop toying with me, Treize."
"No, not toying. More like threatening." A definite note of amusement was lying under his superior officer's voice.
"Threatening?" The word came out softly but under it were ten thousand meanings.
"Think of it as a warning, Yui. I've put up with your little escapades for long enough."
"Hn."
A low chuckle. "This government holdup with the lack of funding due to the current debate won't last more than a month or so. The hotel should hold well until then … I shudder to think what you would come to if you no longer had the hotel … let her go, perhaps? Tap into her funds, m-"
"Shut up, Khushrenada."
Another smattering of laughter. "Let's not forget who the commanding officer is here, Yui."
He rolled his eyes but mentally sighed in relief. The noose around his neck loosened. "Whatever. Just get your little toadies out of this country."
"No promises, Yui." He could almost hear Treize smirking at his own silent fuming. "Sleep well," the velvety voice taunted into his ear.
"Sweet dreams," he bit back and flipped the cell phone shut. Somehow, the sound of Treize's amused laughter never ceased to echo in his mind.
…………………
Her assigned room was downstairs now, moved because Hiiro had decided he'd rather not sleep leaning against a wall or on the floor. He had shoved a couch into position almost directly in front of her door, against the wall, but still close enough to its original position for a person to easily watch TV.
Usagi sighed as she rested her head on her folded arms and stared out the window from her seat in front of the small desk in the room. Darkness surrounded her and caressed her pale skin with its soothing fingers.
She stood up in a rustle of cloth and headed towards the door before picking the lock and swinging it open.
She almost laughed out loud as Hiiro scrambled to sit up from his lying position in order to glare at her blearily. He looked absolutely miserable.
"Relax, Hiiro. I'm sure that when you locked the door, you hadn't realized there wasn't a restroom in that room with me."
The half-defeated look on his face was priceless.
"I figured you'd pick the lock if you needed to get out," he defended.
"Yeah," she trailed, traveling towards the bathroom before completing and utterly changing the meaning of her reply right before closing the door - "…Right." His mind was left with the look of victory that brightened her face.
He growled, punched the pillow half-heartedly and sat up, running a hand through his hair. He chose to cross his arms over his chest and remain neutral as a flush of the toilet reached his ears and the door creaked open again. What he didn't anticipate was the slight sag of the couch as she sat down next to him.
"Mind if I join you?"
"Yes."
She smiled as if that was the answer she had wanted all along. Silence blanketed the moonlit darkness around them.
"Tell me about Innocence."
Silence.
"I know you're awake."
An exasperated sigh filled the silence between them. "Is this some desperate ploy of the government to get information?"
"Curiosity," he grunted.
"And would everything I say be on the record?" she scoffed.
He sighed. "Off the record."
"Promise?"
"Swear."
"All right then. I just LOVE telling people my life story in the early hours of morning," she laughed.
"Ever heard of Quatre Winner?"
He snorted.
"Yeah, well, I thought so," she shot back. "He's my brother."
He choked.
"Twin brother." At his raised eyebrow, she continued, leaning back into the sofa and grabbing a pillow to hug to her chest.
"It's common knowledge that our parents had difficulty producing an heir or even naturally having children. There was this story that came with Quatre and my birth that was repeated over and over again, at every Christmas social and Valentine's luncheon.
"My parents had tried with the test tube babies numerous times and came up with nothing - all girls, that is. So, while traveling to some vacation spot down in Miami, they were suddenly surrounded by fog and this church appeared out of nowhere. They had just gotten off of I-5 and made a wrong turn somewhere. Mom had been an avid Christian and though Dad never cared, they both decided to stop by the church to ask for directions."
She glanced towards him and smiled at his fixated glare at the blank screen of the TV. "The church doors were open and the instant they went in, a priest greeted them saying, 'My children, I have been expecting you.'
"Dad tried to explain that they just needed directions.
"'I have the directions you need.' The minister held up his hand, and they followed him into the sanctuary. Dad was still trying to explain that they only needed to get to I-5. Still, they followed. The church seemed to grow bigger as they walked until it was like St. Patrick's Cathedral."
Hiiro eyed her out of the corner of his eye. He could barely make out her face in the shadow from the moonlight. She stared ahead, repeating the tale like it was a legend, not just some dumb story her parents told.
"'You are troubled, my children?' the minister asked. Dad started to explain again about directions to I-5 but Mom began to cry. In the minister's arms, she repeated the whole pregnancy story, and as she spoke, light began streaming, red, green, purple, and gold through the stained-glass windows. The minister said, 'God has heard.'
"He sent them away without directions. But Dad found I-5 almost immediately, and they made it to their beach house. When they got home, Mom was pregnant. The miracle twins," Usagi indicated herself, "were born nine months later. Funny thing, when they tried to contact that church to make a donation, there wasn't any such church."
"My first ten years, I heard that story, like, a hundred times. Every holiday at the club, every family soiree. Dad and Mom, the perfect parents. And I bought into their story, so I was perfect too. Perfect grades, perfect at ballet. Until sixth grade. It all fell apart. I flunked math. Had to do summer school and couldn't go to this special ballet camp Dad had arranged." She looked out the window.
"You'd think my perfect father would be a little understanding, but he wasn't. He got so bent out of shape, screaming about school, about me, how stupid I was compared to Quatre, screwing up my chances like that. And finally, I yelled back, 'I don't want to dance ballet anymore ever! I hate it! I hate you!'"
"For weeks, I wouldn't dance. Dad tried punishment, bribes, telling me how much fun it was, comparing me with Quatre and his violin, all the usual parental blackmail. Then he grabbed my collar and told me I'd dance whether I wanted to or not. I ran upstairs, freaked out. He'd never gotten that mad at me before."
"That night, Mom and Dad argued. It was the first time I'd ever heard them fight -- can you believe that? I tried not to listen. But they were yelling so loudly, and at one point, Mom said, 'Give her space! She's not you.'"
Usagi stopped, staring at the ceiling. Seconds, almost a minute, passed.
Finally, Hiiro said, "What did he say?"
"Forget it," she sighed. "Not important. Just sewage under the bridge. Let's talk about something else." She reached for the remote control.
"Tell me."
Usagi looked at him with darkened blue eyes. "He said, 'I know she's not me. She's not even mine.'"
Hiiro fought the urge to squirm in his seat and looked away.
"First, I thought it was just something he said," Usagi smiled wistfully. "You know, 'cause he was mad at me. I mean, our lives revolved around each other, including Quatre. He was my DAD, for goodness' sake. But Mom didn't answer. That freaked me and Quatre, who had came into my room, out. She was always talking lawyer talk, about defending yourself, silence as an admission of guilt. But when he said that, she was silent. Finally, she laughs and says, 'So, she screws up and she's my kid?'
"But it was too late. Dad said, 'I know. I've always known. I can't father children, and I don't believe in miracles. So I had us tested. All three of us. Neither Quatre nor Usagi were mine.'
Silence.
"Quatre and I were in the hall by then, listening, ready to leap if the doorknob turned. But it didn't. Mom started sobbing, saying it wasn't true. But finally, she confessed. It was someone from her office, didn't mean anything. 'Can't you see, honey? It was the only way.' But Dad wasn't listening. He was out of there."
"He came back, of course. But everything had changed. I wasn't a miracle. I wasn't golden. Quatre might have been."
"And I knew neither Quatre nor I could screw up again. We had to stay ... perfect or it would all fall apart. He'd stop even pretending to be our dad. The ironic thing is, Dad and I got closer after that, closer than even him and Quatre. Mom went back to work that year, so Dad cut his hours to spend time at home, watch me dance, listen to Quatre play ... fulfill his expectations of what his children should be, even though we weren't his."[1]
More silence.
Usagi shrugged. "But in the end, I ended up running away, and Quatre ended up as the model child. Dad erased all records of an Usagi Tsukino so I was completely forgotten. My name as a criminal didn't even start traveling about until after Mom and Dad died. Quatre … I don't even want to know what Quatre thinks.
"So in the end I met up with Artemis and became part of Innocence, returning stolen valuables … for a fee, of course." She sighed and chanced another peek at his profile.
"That's some story," he finally replied.
"Off the record?"
"Off the record."
She smiled. "So tell me about you. To return the favor."
"Not much to tell."
"Tell me what there is to tell then."
"I don't know anything about my past up to age eight. A scientist, code-named J, raised me afterwards to become the perfect fighting machine. He then gave me a gundam, and I fought in the Eve Wars as a Gundam Pilot. After the war I took up a job as an agent in the FBI. And here I am."
"FBI?" she breathed, more to herself than to him.
"Yeah. You're quite famous by now."
"Thanks," she quipped dryly. "So did you ever find out about your family?"
"Yeah. Advanced DNA testing and a few connections in high places pulled a few strings to search for any relatives. My parents couldn't be found, but I had a brother who died a few years back in a shuttle explosion."
"Wow…So you're under Treize now?
"Correct."
"A Gundam Pilot, huh?" she smiled at him. "You know, Hiiro, the truth is beautiful, but so are lies." [2]
He blinked at the random statement.
She laughed at his expression. "Hiiro, I've never even MET Quatre Winner."
A growl bubbled up his throat as icy fingers clutched at his heart. A horrible sinking feeling filled his stomach as the emotional barriers around his heart were rebuilt at top speeds. "You … you…"
"Liar? She-devil?" she laughed. "Don't you know when I'm messing with you, Hiiro?" With that, she sauntered back into her room and locked the door from the inside.
Outside, he gaped after her, stood, and aimed a punch at the wall, grimly satisfied as the blow ended up denting and exposing splinters of wood through floral wallpaper. He sat down again on the couch and buried his face in his hands, ignoring the throbbing of his fist and his shoulder as warm crimson again seeped from his wound.
Words could not describe how much he hated her. And himself.
…………………
Notes:
1. Inspiration for story taken from Breaking Point by Alex Flinn. (It's so realistic, it's scary)
2. Quoted from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Obsessed: Thanks! Here's the next chapter.
Rheia: Thank you! ^^
Jupiter Angel: Sorry, sorry, sorry! ^^;;; Lemon? Err…Lol. ^___^
Ishtar: I'm so flattered! :D Here's the next chapter … somewhat longer. ^^
Lady Espelle: Really? Can you tell me why they confuse you … I want to do something about that. Lol. Here's the updating … am I better at it than you? Gee … All my stories come like that – the beginning an the end and then the middle. ^___~ Thanks for reading!
Jemjols: Hmm .. it was rather random but thanks! :D (for reading and for the quote :D)
Celestial DreamBlaze: Arty-chan … lol. I like using him a lot … him and Motoki. And we probably won't see how Hiiro would react until VERY late in the fic … Lol. The turmoil indeed. ^^
Hotchick1231: That was a cliffy? Lol … didn't really notice. ^^;;; Thanks for the review!
Serena Yuy: Even if Relena wins it I'm not sure Usa would be let off the hook … lol. The turmoil. sigh Here's the update!
