Follow Your Heart
by
YamiHikari
Disclaimer- Too lazy to write one. the heat's REALLY getting to me, it's like 90 something here, and I don't like the heat! Look in the first couple chapters.
Author's Note- Perhaps I should put a deadline on the contest. then again, I don't think people really care too much, so I'll just take whatever comes in, and if your answer comes in too late, too bad, so sorry, I cry, but it's over. Cry yourself a river, build yourself a bridge and get over it! Sorry, I saw that on a sticker at Canobie Lake Park and it was funny to me. and my friends, so. there, I'm not weird!
- - - - - - - - - - -
Snapping the book shut, Tajima briefly considered throwing through and out the window. She dismissed the idea as a result of the summer heat and annoyance at the endless etiquette for formal dinners and parties. She had traded in her dark one-strap tank top and long pants similar to jeans for shorts and a sleeveless tee-shirt.
'I'm going soft,' she thought with some amusement. 'And I still haven't gotten to see if they're really the fighters they were supposed to be.'
Each time she had asked to battle a pilot in a one-on-one fight, she had been politely turned down with some excuse. A faint scowl flickered across Tajima's face, then disappeared. Perhaps she should try again, she was healed and bored of her studies of manners.
Rising close to soundlessly from her chair, Tajima went out to wander the halls. She wouldn't really have a choice on who she got to fight if they accepted her challenge, only Heero and Quatre were in the mansion, since the former had decided to stay rather than look for an apartment. Plus, he didn't seem to fancy the idea of looking for a job.
Luck was with her today, and she encountered Heero within the first five minutes she had set out from her room.
Heero's Prussian blue eyes glanced at her. 'Why would she be out here?' he wondered briefly, then stopped and leaned against the wall as she approached him. He didn't have to wait long for his answer.
"Fight me."
"What!?" His eyes widened and he jerked forward from his relaxed pose.
"I know you heard me. You're not deaf."
What astonishment he had shown when she had challenged him was now locked behind a mask of indifference. Instead of refusing her as they all had the first couple of times, he looked at her closely. Heero saw emotions flick across her face so quickly he had little time to identify them. Confidence, a steely determination, now a rising fury that he probably would not say yes with resignation mixed in with it.
Tajima had just given up on him agreeing, he had hesitated too long, and she almost started to turn away when she heard, "Yes."
Her feral smile that had fierce triumph blended in with it reminded Heero of a wolf, a wolf that had been kept in captivity too long and then finally released back into the wild. The only other thing he said, however, was, "Name your weapon."
She retreated into her room for a minute, then came back out holding her armguards. "Let's see how good you are with a new one. Left or right?"
"Does it matter?"
"Probably not. Just hold out the arm you're most comfortable with."
When he had set out his right arm, she snapped one on, then put the other onto her left, "Just to make things intresting."
In a large room where they had cleared away all furniture and breakable items, Heero and Tajima faced each other from opposite walls.
"Ready?" Heero asked, eyeing her cautiously.
She grinned mirthlessly, the easy confidence of a predator shining through her mask of nonchalance. "Been ready all my life."
A shadow of her self-assured smirk appeared briefly on his lips, then disappeared. He slid along the edge of the wall, wanting to test her reflexes and skill before he did anything else. But she attacked with a speed that took him completely by surprise. He barely had time to counter the blow and slice down with the dull, unpoisoned edge before she skipped nimbly out of range, then came at him again from another side. This time, he lunged back at her with the dull edge again, this time the blade connecting with the skin of her upper arm so hard that it split, and a stream of crimson began to flow down from the cut.
She used one of the fingers on her right hand to wipe away the blood, then licked it off casually. "First blood," she announced with a gleam in her eye. "But will it be the last?"
Heero didn't particularly like the look on her face. He was on his guard, ready, he believed, for what would come next. He wasn't.
She spun, and landed a side-kick that left him gasping for the air no longer present in his lungs, then assailed him with a flurry of blows that seemed to be blurs that flashed once, moved out, then in again. His mind was spinning, not only from the breaths she did not allow him to take, but from the many pains that came with each contact of her hand on his body. He fought his way through the haze and slammed his own hand into her in an open-handed block that sent her flying a couple feet back.
She skidded to a halt, and smiled, an odd light in her eyes. There was no recognition in them. "You are good. But," she swung her guarded arm back, "not good enough!"
The sharp edge sunk into the wall not even a centimeter away from his neck. Metal pressed against the front of his throat, keeping him trapped against the wall. She drew it out and licked the fine line of bright, vivid red off the sharp edge. Smirking, she fingered it for a second, then drove the blade straight at his head, a blow meant to split bone and flesh.
Heero straightened up, blood flowing freely from a deep gash on his left cheek. Considering the force behind it, he was lucky to be alive. Her eyes were now the fierce yellow of a wolf's, like liquid gold, like. pure, untainted, demonic fury that would know no bounds.
Those uncanny eyes regarded him casually, almost scornfully. "Not just good, but very good. It's almost a shame to kill you, but you will die!"
The entity that looked like Tajima and spoke with her voice and used her body to try and destroy whatever opposed it was not her, Heero knew that all her memories and her personality, everything that defined Tajima Ryuka was gone, forced into a place where they could not be recalled easily and perhaps not at all. And would she stop with his death? If he alone had to die, so be it, but he could not, would not let her kill more.
He turned to face her, features calm and free of the fear that many have of Death. By the look of this one, he had stared it in the eye many times and each time, had come out alive. It really was a pity. He was the only one who had ever lasted this long.
'I have to reawaken the memories. this has to work.'
He moved forward swiftly and kissed her on the lips. As he withdrew, Heero felt a twinge of pain that had to be the poison from the blade. Fighting it down, he saw Tajima's body stiffen suddenly. She shuddered, then dropped to her hands and knees, gasping, then passed out, the golden fury draining out of her eyes as they closed.
A dark fire seemed to be spreading through Heero's veins, but he ignored it and lifted Tajima carefully. He began walking back to her room, pain lashing out at him with every step he took. The fire had now turned into an inferno, a blaze of darkness that sought to paralyze and destroy.
'Five more steps. just five.' he thought hazily, vision obscured by a veil of thin shadow.
One. The pain! A furnace roaring, to swallow, to burn, to annihilate. Breathe. In. Out.
Two. Agony! White-hot lances of pain, spreading. Breathe again. In. Out.
Three. Torture. fading. Unbearable. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Heero collapsed on the floor of Tajima's room, breath a rasping hiss of oxygen trying to force its way through almost closed airways. The darkness took him. The rivulets of blood had slowed, and were now flowing sluggishly, almost reluctantly.
The copper tang of blood filled the air. "Unh."
Tajima struggled out of a pool of murky shadows, mixed with glints of shining gold that strove to imprison and control her. Gray eyes opened again. What was. why was. What happened?!
She tasted blood, smelled it. Grimacing, she sat up, limp arms falling off of her and onto the floor. Tajima swiftly turned, backing away from whatever was behind her. Her eyes widened with shock. "H-heero?!"
Frowning slightly, she touched her arm where it was cut. "How did."
Slowly, she began to remember some, and then comprehended. "No, no, no, you fool! You shouldn't have! I. shouldn't have forgotten..."
Tajima shoved something out from under her bed, then dove towards the item, which proved to be a safe, hastily turning the combination. 'Please please open. please.' A click. She rummaged through it until she found that one thing she was looking for, that one small container that could be the deciding factor between Life and Death. Fingers trembling, she opened it, then applied it to the deep gash on Heero's face and the fine line of red on his throat.
Nothing happened. He lay still, and she didn't know if he was breathing or not. Something was blurring her vision, and something that wasn't blood was streaming down her face, dropping onto his. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Tears, she remembered vaguely. Crying. That's what it was called, crying. Tajima's head dropped onto his chest.
"You can't be dead," she whispered hoarsely, fiercely. "You're a god. you can't die. you aren't. you won't."
Each denial was accented by a pounding of a fist against his ribcage, almost as if in a last-ditch effort to somehow make him breathe again.
A hoarse cough. "Cut that out. If I'm not dead yet, then I will be."
Her head snapped up. "You."
"What?"
"Bastard! Faker!" She pounded him again. "This was just for the attention, wasn't it!?" she demanded.
"Are you just trying to make me forget that you're a berserker?" he inquired lightly. "Because I'm not going to forget that easily with this," Heero touched the score on his face.
Averting her gaze slightly guiltily, she said softly, "I guess so. and. I'm. sorry. I tried to forget about it, and. I did. I nearly killed you too."
His blue eyes regarded her thoughtfully. "What are you hiding from?" he asked softly. "Your past? What you did? Or," he caught her face gently in his hands, "this?"
He kissed her again, slower this time, and when he broke it off, she was staring at him. "Why-?"
She was interrupted by a light knock at the door that caused her to hastily remove the armguards from both their arms and herself from Heero's vicinity. Quatre poked his head in, taking in all the information, Heero with that emotionless look on his face and Tajima standing up after shoving the safe under the bed. "Hey, dinner's ready. Was I interrupting anything?" he added with an almost unbearably smug look on his face.
"No!" they exclaimed together, then glanced at each other, then away, Tajima flushing, Heero just. well, being Heero.
"Really." Quatre did not look convinced. "Well, if you want anything to eat, you should come down." He withdrew and began heading downstairs.
Pointedly ignoring Heero, Tajima followed him. After brushing away the dried blood on his face, the Japanese pilot of Wing Gundam Zero rose, exited the room, shut the door and descended the stairs after them both.
- - - - - - - - - -
Author's Note- Okay, okay, I admit it, I drew quite a bit on The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley with that whole yellow eyes bit, though slightly changed and Midnight Predator by Amelia Atwater Rhodes again for the second kiss. *sigh* No, I don't own either of those ideas, need I even have bothered to say that? Oh, and haha, Quatre's got an attitude! LOL, you probably wouldn't have expected that from him, now would'ya? Would'ya? *getting stared at* . ah well, ja ne!
by
YamiHikari
Disclaimer- Too lazy to write one. the heat's REALLY getting to me, it's like 90 something here, and I don't like the heat! Look in the first couple chapters.
Author's Note- Perhaps I should put a deadline on the contest. then again, I don't think people really care too much, so I'll just take whatever comes in, and if your answer comes in too late, too bad, so sorry, I cry, but it's over. Cry yourself a river, build yourself a bridge and get over it! Sorry, I saw that on a sticker at Canobie Lake Park and it was funny to me. and my friends, so. there, I'm not weird!
- - - - - - - - - - -
Snapping the book shut, Tajima briefly considered throwing through and out the window. She dismissed the idea as a result of the summer heat and annoyance at the endless etiquette for formal dinners and parties. She had traded in her dark one-strap tank top and long pants similar to jeans for shorts and a sleeveless tee-shirt.
'I'm going soft,' she thought with some amusement. 'And I still haven't gotten to see if they're really the fighters they were supposed to be.'
Each time she had asked to battle a pilot in a one-on-one fight, she had been politely turned down with some excuse. A faint scowl flickered across Tajima's face, then disappeared. Perhaps she should try again, she was healed and bored of her studies of manners.
Rising close to soundlessly from her chair, Tajima went out to wander the halls. She wouldn't really have a choice on who she got to fight if they accepted her challenge, only Heero and Quatre were in the mansion, since the former had decided to stay rather than look for an apartment. Plus, he didn't seem to fancy the idea of looking for a job.
Luck was with her today, and she encountered Heero within the first five minutes she had set out from her room.
Heero's Prussian blue eyes glanced at her. 'Why would she be out here?' he wondered briefly, then stopped and leaned against the wall as she approached him. He didn't have to wait long for his answer.
"Fight me."
"What!?" His eyes widened and he jerked forward from his relaxed pose.
"I know you heard me. You're not deaf."
What astonishment he had shown when she had challenged him was now locked behind a mask of indifference. Instead of refusing her as they all had the first couple of times, he looked at her closely. Heero saw emotions flick across her face so quickly he had little time to identify them. Confidence, a steely determination, now a rising fury that he probably would not say yes with resignation mixed in with it.
Tajima had just given up on him agreeing, he had hesitated too long, and she almost started to turn away when she heard, "Yes."
Her feral smile that had fierce triumph blended in with it reminded Heero of a wolf, a wolf that had been kept in captivity too long and then finally released back into the wild. The only other thing he said, however, was, "Name your weapon."
She retreated into her room for a minute, then came back out holding her armguards. "Let's see how good you are with a new one. Left or right?"
"Does it matter?"
"Probably not. Just hold out the arm you're most comfortable with."
When he had set out his right arm, she snapped one on, then put the other onto her left, "Just to make things intresting."
In a large room where they had cleared away all furniture and breakable items, Heero and Tajima faced each other from opposite walls.
"Ready?" Heero asked, eyeing her cautiously.
She grinned mirthlessly, the easy confidence of a predator shining through her mask of nonchalance. "Been ready all my life."
A shadow of her self-assured smirk appeared briefly on his lips, then disappeared. He slid along the edge of the wall, wanting to test her reflexes and skill before he did anything else. But she attacked with a speed that took him completely by surprise. He barely had time to counter the blow and slice down with the dull, unpoisoned edge before she skipped nimbly out of range, then came at him again from another side. This time, he lunged back at her with the dull edge again, this time the blade connecting with the skin of her upper arm so hard that it split, and a stream of crimson began to flow down from the cut.
She used one of the fingers on her right hand to wipe away the blood, then licked it off casually. "First blood," she announced with a gleam in her eye. "But will it be the last?"
Heero didn't particularly like the look on her face. He was on his guard, ready, he believed, for what would come next. He wasn't.
She spun, and landed a side-kick that left him gasping for the air no longer present in his lungs, then assailed him with a flurry of blows that seemed to be blurs that flashed once, moved out, then in again. His mind was spinning, not only from the breaths she did not allow him to take, but from the many pains that came with each contact of her hand on his body. He fought his way through the haze and slammed his own hand into her in an open-handed block that sent her flying a couple feet back.
She skidded to a halt, and smiled, an odd light in her eyes. There was no recognition in them. "You are good. But," she swung her guarded arm back, "not good enough!"
The sharp edge sunk into the wall not even a centimeter away from his neck. Metal pressed against the front of his throat, keeping him trapped against the wall. She drew it out and licked the fine line of bright, vivid red off the sharp edge. Smirking, she fingered it for a second, then drove the blade straight at his head, a blow meant to split bone and flesh.
Heero straightened up, blood flowing freely from a deep gash on his left cheek. Considering the force behind it, he was lucky to be alive. Her eyes were now the fierce yellow of a wolf's, like liquid gold, like. pure, untainted, demonic fury that would know no bounds.
Those uncanny eyes regarded him casually, almost scornfully. "Not just good, but very good. It's almost a shame to kill you, but you will die!"
The entity that looked like Tajima and spoke with her voice and used her body to try and destroy whatever opposed it was not her, Heero knew that all her memories and her personality, everything that defined Tajima Ryuka was gone, forced into a place where they could not be recalled easily and perhaps not at all. And would she stop with his death? If he alone had to die, so be it, but he could not, would not let her kill more.
He turned to face her, features calm and free of the fear that many have of Death. By the look of this one, he had stared it in the eye many times and each time, had come out alive. It really was a pity. He was the only one who had ever lasted this long.
'I have to reawaken the memories. this has to work.'
He moved forward swiftly and kissed her on the lips. As he withdrew, Heero felt a twinge of pain that had to be the poison from the blade. Fighting it down, he saw Tajima's body stiffen suddenly. She shuddered, then dropped to her hands and knees, gasping, then passed out, the golden fury draining out of her eyes as they closed.
A dark fire seemed to be spreading through Heero's veins, but he ignored it and lifted Tajima carefully. He began walking back to her room, pain lashing out at him with every step he took. The fire had now turned into an inferno, a blaze of darkness that sought to paralyze and destroy.
'Five more steps. just five.' he thought hazily, vision obscured by a veil of thin shadow.
One. The pain! A furnace roaring, to swallow, to burn, to annihilate. Breathe. In. Out.
Two. Agony! White-hot lances of pain, spreading. Breathe again. In. Out.
Three. Torture. fading. Unbearable. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Heero collapsed on the floor of Tajima's room, breath a rasping hiss of oxygen trying to force its way through almost closed airways. The darkness took him. The rivulets of blood had slowed, and were now flowing sluggishly, almost reluctantly.
The copper tang of blood filled the air. "Unh."
Tajima struggled out of a pool of murky shadows, mixed with glints of shining gold that strove to imprison and control her. Gray eyes opened again. What was. why was. What happened?!
She tasted blood, smelled it. Grimacing, she sat up, limp arms falling off of her and onto the floor. Tajima swiftly turned, backing away from whatever was behind her. Her eyes widened with shock. "H-heero?!"
Frowning slightly, she touched her arm where it was cut. "How did."
Slowly, she began to remember some, and then comprehended. "No, no, no, you fool! You shouldn't have! I. shouldn't have forgotten..."
Tajima shoved something out from under her bed, then dove towards the item, which proved to be a safe, hastily turning the combination. 'Please please open. please.' A click. She rummaged through it until she found that one thing she was looking for, that one small container that could be the deciding factor between Life and Death. Fingers trembling, she opened it, then applied it to the deep gash on Heero's face and the fine line of red on his throat.
Nothing happened. He lay still, and she didn't know if he was breathing or not. Something was blurring her vision, and something that wasn't blood was streaming down her face, dropping onto his. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Tears, she remembered vaguely. Crying. That's what it was called, crying. Tajima's head dropped onto his chest.
"You can't be dead," she whispered hoarsely, fiercely. "You're a god. you can't die. you aren't. you won't."
Each denial was accented by a pounding of a fist against his ribcage, almost as if in a last-ditch effort to somehow make him breathe again.
A hoarse cough. "Cut that out. If I'm not dead yet, then I will be."
Her head snapped up. "You."
"What?"
"Bastard! Faker!" She pounded him again. "This was just for the attention, wasn't it!?" she demanded.
"Are you just trying to make me forget that you're a berserker?" he inquired lightly. "Because I'm not going to forget that easily with this," Heero touched the score on his face.
Averting her gaze slightly guiltily, she said softly, "I guess so. and. I'm. sorry. I tried to forget about it, and. I did. I nearly killed you too."
His blue eyes regarded her thoughtfully. "What are you hiding from?" he asked softly. "Your past? What you did? Or," he caught her face gently in his hands, "this?"
He kissed her again, slower this time, and when he broke it off, she was staring at him. "Why-?"
She was interrupted by a light knock at the door that caused her to hastily remove the armguards from both their arms and herself from Heero's vicinity. Quatre poked his head in, taking in all the information, Heero with that emotionless look on his face and Tajima standing up after shoving the safe under the bed. "Hey, dinner's ready. Was I interrupting anything?" he added with an almost unbearably smug look on his face.
"No!" they exclaimed together, then glanced at each other, then away, Tajima flushing, Heero just. well, being Heero.
"Really." Quatre did not look convinced. "Well, if you want anything to eat, you should come down." He withdrew and began heading downstairs.
Pointedly ignoring Heero, Tajima followed him. After brushing away the dried blood on his face, the Japanese pilot of Wing Gundam Zero rose, exited the room, shut the door and descended the stairs after them both.
- - - - - - - - - -
Author's Note- Okay, okay, I admit it, I drew quite a bit on The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley with that whole yellow eyes bit, though slightly changed and Midnight Predator by Amelia Atwater Rhodes again for the second kiss. *sigh* No, I don't own either of those ideas, need I even have bothered to say that? Oh, and haha, Quatre's got an attitude! LOL, you probably wouldn't have expected that from him, now would'ya? Would'ya? *getting stared at* . ah well, ja ne!