Ten Things
Chapter 4 – The Way You Stare
Alternate Title – In Which Things Get Romantic
By: Eternal Rose
"Ne, whatcha doing Heero?" Duo asked, wandering into one of the mansion's many libraries to see that Heero was seated – surprise surprise – with his laptop up and running. Duo moved around to Heero's side of the desk, and leaned forward to read over Heero's shoulder. The laptop snapped shut and Heero's gun appeared in front of his face.
"What do you want, Duo?" The Prussian – eyed pilot asked, a touch of impatience in his voice. His point made, the gun floated slowly down to his side.
"Relax buddy, I was just wondering what you were up to. After the whole picnic thing, you kinda vanished on us." Duo flipped his braid forwards over his shoulder and began to play with the tail end of it. He idly pondered which version of Heero's practically monotonous non-responses would be headed his way momentarily.
"Hn." Ah, so mild annoyance with a tinge of amusement that won out this time. Comprehending Heero-speech was an art that, with time, Duo fully intended to master. He couldn't wait until the day when full sentences, rather than mere emotions, would appear from that single syllable. So short, and yet so intensely full of meaning when Heero said it. Very interesting indeed.
"So, Heero, did you get a chance to talk to Relena earlier?" And suddenly, the gun was once more aimed directly at his face. Angry eyes glared at him – Heero was, in point of fact, emoting almost more than Duo had believed possible.
"What business is it of yours?"
"It's all of our business when it affects how you perform on missions." Duo said. Heero's eyes frosted over a bit more, but Duo would not be silenced. "Listen, maybe you haven't noticed, but you haven't been the same since what happened last year. Ever since she –"
Duo flew across the room with such alacrity that, for a moment, one would have believed he truly was Shinigami, completely with wings for flight. Then his lack of control became apparent, and he smashed violently into the opposite wall. Heero towered over him from several feet away, his entire body coursing with power and rage. His Prussian gaze flared at Duo, while his face remained impassive. Duo took a moment to right himself, then glanced up at Heero. He immediately got to his feet and left the room as fast as his feet would carry him, saying not another word.
Heero stared after his friend for several moments, wondering how the braided baka had managed to inspire his rage once again. Only one person had ever had the power to inspire that depth of feeling in him since… The unbidden thought trailed off, leaving Heero in momentary misery. His shoulders drooped forward without his consent, and his rage dissipated. He sat down confusedly in front of his laptop computer, and reopened the file that he had been looking at before Duo entered the room.
"I miss you." He said softly, unintentionally. His hand reached up to touch the image on screen's face, and a silent pain filled his soul once more.
For many minutes, Heero did not move an inch. Then, with a light reluctance, he rose to his feet and went to rejoin the others. Before he left the room though, he made certain that her picture was once more carefully hidden among his files.
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"What happened, Duo?" Quatre asked immediately as Duo entered the kitchen. The self-proclaimed God of Death rubbed the back of his head in pain and annoyance. Then he shrugged and smiled at the cheerful blonde.
"Made the mistake of trying to talk to Heero about you know what. Nothing the Shinigami couldn't handle, though." Wufei snorted in response to Duo's simple statement. Quatre appeared more than a little shocked, but refrained from saying anything. Trowa, on the other hand, merely arched an eyebrow at him.
"You're still alive." The unibanged wonder commented. "Perhaps Heero isn't so resistant to moving on as we had suspected."
"Baka." Wufei declared. "I still find it hard to believe that Yuy would act so dishonorably towards the woman whom he looked out for throughout the entire war. She provided him with support and safety, even when Maxwell tried to kill him – "
"Hey, Wu-man, that wasn't my fault!" Duo interjected. "How was I supposed to know that he wasn't actually going to kill her?"
"She protected him even then." Wufei continued, seemingly deaf to the words of the Duo. "And he took care of her. Yet he still refuses to acknowledge that there are feelings between them! It's so..."
"Weak?" Trowa suggested calmly.
"Yeah!" Wufei responded enthusiastically, wondering why both Quatre and Duo suddenly started coughing. Duo sobered quickly, and turned to face the others.
"Look Wufei, maybe he has a good reason for behaving the way he does towards Relena." Duo said. "Maybe you don't have all the facts."
"And you do Maxwell?"
Surprisingly, Duo had nothing to say. He looked uncomfortably at his feet, and shifted his weight from side to side. The other pilots exchanged glances, curiosity sparking inside each one.
"Duo?" Quatre, ever the tactful one, began. "Is there something that you haven't been telling us that may impact this conflict?"
"Eh…" Duo attempted to delay. Thankfully, Heero chose just that moment to walk into the room. The dangerous, life – threatening anger that had radiated off of him before had faded. Heero seemed more or less like himself, for which the others were immensely grateful. When Heero appeared anything less then stoic, things had a tendency to get blown up in huge massive explosions, like when something gets left in the microwave for too long and the whole thing just goes up with a huge BOOM!
Heero walked calmly across the room, and retrieved a glass from a cabinet. He went to the sink, and filled his glass halfway with water. He pivoted slowly, seeming to consider something for a moment.
"What?" He finally asked, the slight undercurrent of a growl rippling through his voice. He glared at the silent others who had neglected to say a word since he had joined them. Unsurprisingly, none of them had a decent response for him. Heero again looked at his glass, then downed it in a gulp and walked from the room, several sets of eyes following him.
"Do you think he's on his way to tell her that what happened last year was all just a huge mistake and that he really does love her?" Duo asked with a lilting voice as soon as he was certain Heero was out of hearing range. Wufei groaned, and Trowa shook his head.
"That might be a bit optimistic, Duo." Quatre replied, his expression pained. He gave the braided one a sad little smile, before shaking his head. "I'm not sure why, but the feelings I get from him aren't anger. It's such a sad aura… almost loneliness."
Trowa blinked in surprise, and Quatre gave him a little nod. "I know that it sounds weird, after all, Heero's always like companionship the least of any of us. Still there's something there whenever he's around that feels so lost and empty that I just can't compare it to anything."
Duo glanced guiltily about the room, and then began to head towards the door. He slipped out unnoticed, and took off in the direction Heero had headed – towards the gardens. Little did pilot 01 know what awaited him there – the fair Relena. It promised to be an interesting conflict, and one that Duo had promised himself he wouldn't miss. He picked up his pace and got to the gardens ahead of Heero, giving himself just enough time to hid away before the other pilot entered.
Sure enough, Heero Yuy walked through the entrance way of the garden. The first thing that he was truly aware of was the scent of flowers that attacked him from every corner of the quaint garden. Roses bloomed in plentiful supply, and Heero willingly paused to breathe in their scent.
The unknown emotion that flashed across his face did not escape Duo's careful attention. It bordered on… pain, almost. Duo grimaced slightly, wishing that he wasn't the one stuck with keeping Heero's secret a… well… secret. He, the most gregarious one of the pilots, was ill-equipped for this task. Duo pulled himself from his thoughts as Heero stepped deeper into the paradise-like surroundings.
Relena sat unawares around the corner from where Heero stood. In her lap rested a book, a collection of her own poetry. She twirled her pen lightly with her left hand, debating where to start her next poem. Something told her that the driving incident could make an entertaining read, and so she drew her mind to those precious moments of wild freedom, speeding down roads without a concern for what would happen next.
Her pen had just touched the page in front of her when the man of her dreams rounded the corner and stood before her. His hair whipped in the soft spring breeze, as did her own. The crimson flowers behind him highlighted the light hue of his face, the blue of his eyes. His green tank top melted into the garden wall behind him, making his entire being seem like an ethereal part of nature. She gasped.
Heero, for his part, was equally frozen by the appearance of Relena before him. The wide-brimmed hat that capped her head glittered slightly in the sunlight, causing it to appear as a halo. She was seated on a white bench, curled up so that her knees came to her chest, with a pen in her hand. She looked so adorably child-like and innocent that before he could stop himself his eyes had widened perceptibly and his heart rate increased.
Prussian eyes met the endless skies of blue, and for a long moment neither of them could shake off the spell created by the other's presence.
"What are you doing here?" Relena asked suddenly. Her eyes tore themselves away from Heero's, instead staring at the ground. "I thought that you were inside using your laptop."
"What am I doing here?" Heero repeated. For a moment, he appeared to actually consider the question. Duo crossed his fingers hopefully, and waited for Heero to launch into the explanation that Relena had deserved for sometime. Instead, he could only look on in disappointment as Heero's expression swiftly snapped back into place. His voice came out cold and harsh. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't your bodyguards be here? This kind of behavior endangers your life needlessly."
"You know what, Heero?" Relena said, her voice shaking slightly. "I don't really think that's any of your business. After all, it's my life to endanger, isn't it? I seem to remember you threatening to take it away from me on more than one occasion, but that doesn't mean that you get to control it."
"Relena…" Heero's voice trailed off after that single word. The girl glanced up at him, and could read the gentle pleading in his eyes. She sighed inwardly. He may not love her, but he certainly cared for her. She gave him a small smile.
"Don't worry, Heero." Relena said. She read the protest in his eyes and continued. "The guards are patrolling the perimeter so that I can get some peace and quiet, have some time to myself. Of course, if that bothers you than you're more than welcome to stay here and keep me company."
"Yes, yes, yes!" Duo said under his breath.
Heero considered for a moment, and then seated himself on the ground near her. Relena nodded her head, and turned back to the poem she had been working on. She stared down at the page before her, writing nothing for a couple of minutes, and then looked back up again.
"Why are you staring at me?" She asked innocently. Truthfully, Heero's eyes had not moved from her the entire time that he had been in the garden.
"Because I like looking at you." Heero responded absently. The response triggered in him by these Edenic surroundings abounded. He looked focus on the surface, but beneath that the seas of his mind churned with a hundred thousand memories that in no way revolved the blonde haired girl sitting before him. A second later Heero realized what he had said, and quickly looked away.
Relena closed her notebook, and studied the man before her. She rose elegantly to her feet, clasping the book and pen to her chest with her left hand.
"Thank you for staying with me." She said quietly, reaching a hand forward to brush his cheek. Heero's turbulent eyes looked up and once more met her clear ones. She withdrew her hand. "I'm going to go in now, you can stay here if you like."
Heero immediately stood and moved towards the house. As he moved past Relena, he accidentally bumped against her. She spun slightly, facing him. The two were frozen, trapped once more in each other's eyes, there bodies almost painfully close. The connection between them stopped time, giving them an eternity to remain the only two people in the universe.
It was then that Relena, with great daring, joined her mouth once more to Heero's in a soul-searing kiss. Heero seemed stunned, his eyes continuing to watch hers. Then they closed softly as he passionately responded to the gift she offered him.
From several feet away, Duo looked on and cheered.
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End Chapter 4