Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai and Sunrise. Not me. Please don't sue.

Undercurrents

By Cinpii

Chapter Four: En passant

Relena sighed as she flopped down into her new bed, closing her eyes and mentally going over her day so far. She knew she was going to have to get up sooner or later, it'd be rude to have Heero cook dinner all by himself, but she really needed a time out. The bomb Heero dropped on her when she inquired about his father's whereabouts was too much for her already stressed out psyche to bear.

"Unggh." Relena moaned. She couldn't believe her bad luck.

"So, umm, where's your dad?" Relena asked innocently as Heero was giving her the grand tour. "Does he work on Sundays?"

Heero looked at her strangely. "Didn't you know?"

At Heero's unexpected reply, Relena looked up with a sense of foreboding. She was getting the feeling that there was even more bad news coming.

"No, what's wrong?" she asked, concerned and slightly apprehensive.

"Grams slipped and fractured her hip. Dad flew to Japan just yesterday. He's taking care of her until she gets better."

She had to pause for a second for the awful revelation to sink in.

"I – I hope she gets better soon," Relena said belatedly, though with no small amount of feeling. She really, really wanted Grams to get better. If Mason was gone, than that meant…

"It's just you and me for now."

"Nggghhhh!" Relena moaned again, slapping her forehead with a hand. She rolled over and buried her face in the thick comforter, bunching fistfuls of it in her hands. She was alone with a stranger. Sure, she had expected that from the beginning, but there was always the comforting fact of having an adult around. Mason was to serve as a kind of buffer. Besides, Relena trusted adults. But a guy?

She was going to live alone, un-chaperoned, for an undefined period of time. With. A. Guy.

Who knew what kind of pervert he was. Relena bit her lip, raising herself onto her elbows. All those surging teenage hormones… and Heero looked pretty strong, if he wanted to force her to do something…

Curse clumsy old people and their fragile bones. Who knew how long it'd take for his grandmother to get better? Relena frowned. Even if Heero was totally harmless, it'd just be… weird. And he was way too cute for her liking. It made an uncomfortable situation even more awkward. She did not need an infatuation. It would make things ten times worse. She'd be so jumpy and self-conscious around Heero that she'd never relax. And just knowing that his room was next to hers… oh boy. Relena blushed furiously. She wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

Steamy images of a sweaty Heero ripping her clothes off and pushing her against a wall lambasted her mind. Like a sleazy romance novel, she would struggle against him, but that would only turn him on even more, and cause him to become more aggressive with his advances. She could see him gripping her arms, trapping them to her sides as he kissed her forcefully. She would whimper and tremble and beg to be let go, but he would be cruel and hard and drag her to a table where they would have hot, animalistic sex over and over until–

Relena hacked and wheezed, beet red from the naughty scene that traipsed through her consciousness.

She felt flustered, over heated, and thoroughly embarrassed. Those romance novels were going straight to the donation bin. Her imagination didn't need anymore fuel; Heero himself was enough to send her fantasies spinning out of control.

Cursing Heero's good looks and the effect it was having on her, Relena got up and stomped around her new room, unpacking her things with gusto.

I'll just, I'll just think of him like a brother or something. Yeah! You don't salivate over your brother. That's totally disgusting.

Firmly resolved, Relena finished in record time. Everything in her closet was where she wanted them to be. Her sweaters and jeans were neatly sorted by color, as were all her other clothing, and they were all sectioned off into their specific categories, hanging neatly on their white plastic hangers or stacked on the upper shelf.

Turning around, Relena attacked the dresser, and then the desk that was placed in front of the window. She finished by placing a little picture frame by her container of writing instruments. Smiling, Relena brushed off her hands and proceeded to march downstairs to find Heero.

"Heero?" Relena inquired, ducking her head into the study before making her way into the dining room, which would lead her to the kitchen.

She could tell when she was on the stairs that he wasn't in the living room. The bright fluorescent lights were on in the kitchen, but Heero was nowhere to be seen. Knowing that he wasn't upstairs, Relena could only guess that he was outside, in the basement, or in the garage.

The entrance to the basement was under the stairs, and Relena didn't think Heero would be in there. The door to the garage was shut, so she assumed he wasn't in there either. Relena peeked out the kitchen door instead. All she saw were the faint outline of the looming trees.

The Yuy's backyard was literally a forest. It was barely 5:30 and it was already completely dark. She could hardly see through the dense foliage and numerous tree trunks. Life on the East Coast would take a little adjusting. In California, it didn't get dark until 7pm in September. It didn't help at all that the porch light didn't seem to be working. Relena opened the door and took a step outside.

"Heero?" she called aloud. Walking the length of the porch, she called again. She could barely see a figure walking towards her, so she didn't see the axe in the person's hands, either.