Disclaimer: Characters don't belong to me.
Author's Notes: Thanks for all the feedback, as usual. :::Big Smile::: Hope you keep sticking with the story!
****
Your Wildest Dreams
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Report."
"Sir, everything went according to plan, as you've presumably heard on the news. The jet went down according to schedule and while they might not be advertising it yet, everyone on board is assumed dead."
"Assumed dead is a long way from officially dead."
"Yes, but sir…even if someone did survive the crash, no one could make it very long out there."
"Hmm. What's this I hear about a private search party?"
"I…um…I haven't heard anything about that. A private search party, you say?"
"Started out of Johannesburg this morning. How can you possibly be on top of the situation and not know anything about this?"
"Well…I…"
"Stop babbling. I have no time to hear excuses. Assemble a party. Head out immediately for the estimated crash site before this half-assed rescue team stumbles on to it. I want confirmation that the Peacecraft bitch is dead. And if you find any evidence to the contrary, track her down and kill her."
"Anything else, sir?"
"You have your instructions. Go."
****
Relena woke up wanting two things: a hot shower and an even hotter cup of coffee. What she got was to see Heero's face immediately and a piece of chocolate that he pressed into her hand.
Altogether, not a bad alternative.
"Good morning," she said, taking her breakfast from him.
He nodded, his usual reply to such greetings. "When you're ready, we'll get going."
Relena unwrapped her chocolate and bit into it as she watched him tear into the uniform jacket he'd been carrying with him since he abandoned in the morning before. "What are you doing?"
Once he had a dark olive green strip of material in his hand, he wet it with a bit of their precious water supply. "It's time we cleaned ourselves up. We should be grateful the scent of blood hasn't attracted predators yet."
"Unless you count the two lions last night." She swallowed and licked her lips. "Would you like some help?"
Heero looked at her for a long moment. His handsome face was marred with several cuts and bruises that she was just now noticing. "Fine," he agreed, shortly.
She took the cloth from him and carefully rearranged herself on the branch. There was just enough pre-dawn light for her work by. Relena reached out and gently brushed the wet material across a dried patch of blood on his stubbled cheek.
"We were lucky," she said after a moment. "I'm sure I'll never know why we walked away from that crash."
Heero was rigid, motionless as she cleaned his face. "No, you won't."
"Maybe it was more fate than luck." He said nothing, and Relena tilted her head to one side, watching him. "Do you believe in fate?"
"My beliefs are irrelevant."
"Listen, I don't care what you believe in. You can believe in Bigfoot for all I care. But I really would like you to talk to me. I spend every waking minute of my life talking to people; I'm going into withdrawal."
He closed his eyes as she ran the cloth over them. Her touch was a forbidden luxury. "I would think you'd enjoy the reprieve."
Relena pulled her hand back, having mostly finished her job. "Yes, but Heero…you should know by now that you're the one person in the world I actually want to talk to." There was a long silence between them, as silent, at least, as the African dawn could be. "Will you help me now?"
He took the slightly bloody cloth from her and applied fresh water to it, trying to keep his movements as steady as possible. Perspiration had done away with a lot of the blood on her face, but the cut was still open and ugly. It was going to take more than a piece of wet uniform to fix her up to his satisfaction.
Reaching into their precious bag of supplies, he pulled out the first aid kit. It contained antiseptic bandages, but only a handful. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any cause to use them after this.
Relena let out a little gasp when he pressed the little medicated wet-nap to her wound. "It stings," she explained.
"It's working, then." His fingers brushed against her bare skin, and he had to wonder if only he felt the shock. Touching Relena was as forbidden as being touched by her; even after so many years of training himself to remain cold around her, she could still affect him so much.
Crash landing in the African wilderness was turning out to be a pain in his ass.
"There," he said a moment later, after securing a bandage over the wound. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"
She shook her head. "You? And don't lie."
"I dislocated my shoulder in the crash," Heero found himself admitting. "Popped back in place on the raft while you were sleeping."
"Shouldn't you still keep it motionless?" Without realizing it, she put her hands on his arm. "Let me carry the bag, Heero. Give your arm a rest."
"I can handle it."
"You don't have to do everything yourself, Heero," Relena quietly reminded him.
Heero looked down at the ground. "Let's start out now. Before the sun gets too hot."
It would be useless to argue with him, so Relena simply let him help her climb down the tree. She landed on legs woozy from a night spend straddling a branch. Heero was already a few paces ahead of her when she called out to him. "Heero!" He turned back around. "I need to…um…" She pointed to the bushes, hoping he would get the message.
He did, if the unprecedented sudden coloring in his cheeks was any indication. Turning his back to her, he cleared his throat. "Um…as I said before. When you're ready."
Relena put a hand to her forehead, almost as embarrassed as him. This particular problem hadn't come up the day before, perhaps because she'd barely drunk anything in those first twenty-four hours. She'd often imagined being stranded on a desert island with Heero. Basic human functions such as this had never factored into her fantasies.
When her business was taken care of, she rejoined him. The blush still hadn't quite faded from her cheeks, but he had apparently recovered. "I want to cover more ground today than we did yesterday."
"I won't lag behind," Relena muttered, dryly.
"That's not what I…" Heero stopped and looked up at the pink-orange sky. "Look, I don't talk, because I'm not good at it. I never have the right words, so I just…keep quiet. You were right yesterday; it's better if I don't even try."
She put her hands on her hips. "There's a tremendous difference between joking about cobras and having a normal conversation. Honestly…I just like hearing your voice. No matter what you choose to say."
He lowered his chin in order to look into her eyes. "Why? Why me, Relena?"
"I'm not entirely sure we get to choose who we fall in love with. But even if we do, I still would have picked you, Heero." Relena shrugged. "Just because."
"You'd be happier if you'd picked someone else."
"Don't you mean *you* would be?"
Heero shook his head. "I don't think that's what I said."
"Then what are you saying?"
He hesitated for what seemed like half of forever. Finally, he turned and started walking.
Her heart crumpled a little, but it was a tough organ. "Keeping quiet again, Heero?" she wondered out loud. She watched him walk away, a dark spot against the brightly colored horizon. "Or are the words just not what I want to hear?"
****
The first day of their mission had been a complete failure. If the plane had crashed anywhere in Zimbabwe, they had somehow missed it. Of course, it was very hard to search the ground closely from the height of a prop-jet, Duo reasoned. Still he supposed he'd had high expectations, given that all four pairs of eyes searching the savanna had been highly trained ones.
They rested the night at the safari company's extensive lodge on the Chobe River. The long day had done Quatre in; he'd retired to the room he was sharing with Trowa as soon as they'd all downed a quick meal of local specialties, most of which Duo hadn't been able to identify. Wufei and Trowa sat on the porch, smoking cigars; he hadn't pegged them for smokers, but whatever floated their boats.
As for himself, he was busy hooking up a portable communicator. He just hoped the satellites were all working right, and he could get through to Hilde on L2. A few minutes later, when her pretty face appeared on the screen, he grinned widely. "Babe! God damn, I miss you!!"
"I miss you, too, sweetie. I didn't know if you'd have communicator access." She was wearing his favorite nightgown, the blue satin one with the low V-neckline. The inside curves of her breasts were visible and he could feels his mouth start to water. Hilde snapped her fingers. "Hey, Maxwell! My eyes are up here."
He blinked. "Sorry!"
"How did it go today?"
"To put it mildly, it sucked." Duo sighed loudly. "There's just so much empty space here, babe. I had no idea! Africa always looks kind of small on the map. And purple in some areas!"
Hilde covered her mouth, but he could tell that she was giggling at him behind her hand. "I'm sure you'll have more luck tomorrow."
"I hope so." He paused. "I wish you were here."
"Me too."
Duo sat up a bit straighter. "You know what would help me sleep tonight?"
Hilde shook her head. "Haven't we learned this lesson already, Duo? Communicator sex is never as sexy or as easy as it seems to be."
"C'mon!! I'm out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by guys!! I probably ate monkey meat for dinner tonight, and I have to sleep in mosquito netting. The least you could do is flash a little something to give me good dreams!!"
She looked to both of her sides for a moment, as if checking to make sure she was alone in the house. Her fingers crept up to the straps of her nightgown and with a quick motion, she pulled, baring her breasts.
"Oh yeah, baby. Take it all…"
Hilde tugged her nightgown back into place. "Leave 'em wanting more. That's my motto." Duo's groans of protest were loud and long. "Whiner. Think of how great it'll be when you get back here. Not only will you have found Heero and Relena, but you'll be all frustrated and fun." She winked.
"If we find Heero and Relena."
"You will." Her voice sobered. "Duo, did I tell you how proud I am of you for doing this?"
He shook his head. "You're proud of me?"
"Always. But even more so now. Not many people would uproot their lives to save someone else's." Hilde kissed the tips of her fingers and pressed them to her screen. "I love you so much."
Duo imitated the gesture. "Love you, too."
"Go to bed. Don't let the bugs bite. Literally."
He smiled, the boyish grin that made her stomach flip. "I promise. I only like biting when it's you doing it."
She arched an eyebrow seductively before shutting down communication, and Duo slipped underneath the netting, stiff, but happy. He would find Heero and Relena and bring them home safely. They deserved to have what he and Hilde had. Everyone did.
****
To Be Continued
Author's Notes: Thanks for all the feedback, as usual. :::Big Smile::: Hope you keep sticking with the story!
****
Your Wildest Dreams
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"Report."
"Sir, everything went according to plan, as you've presumably heard on the news. The jet went down according to schedule and while they might not be advertising it yet, everyone on board is assumed dead."
"Assumed dead is a long way from officially dead."
"Yes, but sir…even if someone did survive the crash, no one could make it very long out there."
"Hmm. What's this I hear about a private search party?"
"I…um…I haven't heard anything about that. A private search party, you say?"
"Started out of Johannesburg this morning. How can you possibly be on top of the situation and not know anything about this?"
"Well…I…"
"Stop babbling. I have no time to hear excuses. Assemble a party. Head out immediately for the estimated crash site before this half-assed rescue team stumbles on to it. I want confirmation that the Peacecraft bitch is dead. And if you find any evidence to the contrary, track her down and kill her."
"Anything else, sir?"
"You have your instructions. Go."
****
Relena woke up wanting two things: a hot shower and an even hotter cup of coffee. What she got was to see Heero's face immediately and a piece of chocolate that he pressed into her hand.
Altogether, not a bad alternative.
"Good morning," she said, taking her breakfast from him.
He nodded, his usual reply to such greetings. "When you're ready, we'll get going."
Relena unwrapped her chocolate and bit into it as she watched him tear into the uniform jacket he'd been carrying with him since he abandoned in the morning before. "What are you doing?"
Once he had a dark olive green strip of material in his hand, he wet it with a bit of their precious water supply. "It's time we cleaned ourselves up. We should be grateful the scent of blood hasn't attracted predators yet."
"Unless you count the two lions last night." She swallowed and licked her lips. "Would you like some help?"
Heero looked at her for a long moment. His handsome face was marred with several cuts and bruises that she was just now noticing. "Fine," he agreed, shortly.
She took the cloth from him and carefully rearranged herself on the branch. There was just enough pre-dawn light for her work by. Relena reached out and gently brushed the wet material across a dried patch of blood on his stubbled cheek.
"We were lucky," she said after a moment. "I'm sure I'll never know why we walked away from that crash."
Heero was rigid, motionless as she cleaned his face. "No, you won't."
"Maybe it was more fate than luck." He said nothing, and Relena tilted her head to one side, watching him. "Do you believe in fate?"
"My beliefs are irrelevant."
"Listen, I don't care what you believe in. You can believe in Bigfoot for all I care. But I really would like you to talk to me. I spend every waking minute of my life talking to people; I'm going into withdrawal."
He closed his eyes as she ran the cloth over them. Her touch was a forbidden luxury. "I would think you'd enjoy the reprieve."
Relena pulled her hand back, having mostly finished her job. "Yes, but Heero…you should know by now that you're the one person in the world I actually want to talk to." There was a long silence between them, as silent, at least, as the African dawn could be. "Will you help me now?"
He took the slightly bloody cloth from her and applied fresh water to it, trying to keep his movements as steady as possible. Perspiration had done away with a lot of the blood on her face, but the cut was still open and ugly. It was going to take more than a piece of wet uniform to fix her up to his satisfaction.
Reaching into their precious bag of supplies, he pulled out the first aid kit. It contained antiseptic bandages, but only a handful. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any cause to use them after this.
Relena let out a little gasp when he pressed the little medicated wet-nap to her wound. "It stings," she explained.
"It's working, then." His fingers brushed against her bare skin, and he had to wonder if only he felt the shock. Touching Relena was as forbidden as being touched by her; even after so many years of training himself to remain cold around her, she could still affect him so much.
Crash landing in the African wilderness was turning out to be a pain in his ass.
"There," he said a moment later, after securing a bandage over the wound. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"
She shook her head. "You? And don't lie."
"I dislocated my shoulder in the crash," Heero found himself admitting. "Popped back in place on the raft while you were sleeping."
"Shouldn't you still keep it motionless?" Without realizing it, she put her hands on his arm. "Let me carry the bag, Heero. Give your arm a rest."
"I can handle it."
"You don't have to do everything yourself, Heero," Relena quietly reminded him.
Heero looked down at the ground. "Let's start out now. Before the sun gets too hot."
It would be useless to argue with him, so Relena simply let him help her climb down the tree. She landed on legs woozy from a night spend straddling a branch. Heero was already a few paces ahead of her when she called out to him. "Heero!" He turned back around. "I need to…um…" She pointed to the bushes, hoping he would get the message.
He did, if the unprecedented sudden coloring in his cheeks was any indication. Turning his back to her, he cleared his throat. "Um…as I said before. When you're ready."
Relena put a hand to her forehead, almost as embarrassed as him. This particular problem hadn't come up the day before, perhaps because she'd barely drunk anything in those first twenty-four hours. She'd often imagined being stranded on a desert island with Heero. Basic human functions such as this had never factored into her fantasies.
When her business was taken care of, she rejoined him. The blush still hadn't quite faded from her cheeks, but he had apparently recovered. "I want to cover more ground today than we did yesterday."
"I won't lag behind," Relena muttered, dryly.
"That's not what I…" Heero stopped and looked up at the pink-orange sky. "Look, I don't talk, because I'm not good at it. I never have the right words, so I just…keep quiet. You were right yesterday; it's better if I don't even try."
She put her hands on her hips. "There's a tremendous difference between joking about cobras and having a normal conversation. Honestly…I just like hearing your voice. No matter what you choose to say."
He lowered his chin in order to look into her eyes. "Why? Why me, Relena?"
"I'm not entirely sure we get to choose who we fall in love with. But even if we do, I still would have picked you, Heero." Relena shrugged. "Just because."
"You'd be happier if you'd picked someone else."
"Don't you mean *you* would be?"
Heero shook his head. "I don't think that's what I said."
"Then what are you saying?"
He hesitated for what seemed like half of forever. Finally, he turned and started walking.
Her heart crumpled a little, but it was a tough organ. "Keeping quiet again, Heero?" she wondered out loud. She watched him walk away, a dark spot against the brightly colored horizon. "Or are the words just not what I want to hear?"
****
The first day of their mission had been a complete failure. If the plane had crashed anywhere in Zimbabwe, they had somehow missed it. Of course, it was very hard to search the ground closely from the height of a prop-jet, Duo reasoned. Still he supposed he'd had high expectations, given that all four pairs of eyes searching the savanna had been highly trained ones.
They rested the night at the safari company's extensive lodge on the Chobe River. The long day had done Quatre in; he'd retired to the room he was sharing with Trowa as soon as they'd all downed a quick meal of local specialties, most of which Duo hadn't been able to identify. Wufei and Trowa sat on the porch, smoking cigars; he hadn't pegged them for smokers, but whatever floated their boats.
As for himself, he was busy hooking up a portable communicator. He just hoped the satellites were all working right, and he could get through to Hilde on L2. A few minutes later, when her pretty face appeared on the screen, he grinned widely. "Babe! God damn, I miss you!!"
"I miss you, too, sweetie. I didn't know if you'd have communicator access." She was wearing his favorite nightgown, the blue satin one with the low V-neckline. The inside curves of her breasts were visible and he could feels his mouth start to water. Hilde snapped her fingers. "Hey, Maxwell! My eyes are up here."
He blinked. "Sorry!"
"How did it go today?"
"To put it mildly, it sucked." Duo sighed loudly. "There's just so much empty space here, babe. I had no idea! Africa always looks kind of small on the map. And purple in some areas!"
Hilde covered her mouth, but he could tell that she was giggling at him behind her hand. "I'm sure you'll have more luck tomorrow."
"I hope so." He paused. "I wish you were here."
"Me too."
Duo sat up a bit straighter. "You know what would help me sleep tonight?"
Hilde shook her head. "Haven't we learned this lesson already, Duo? Communicator sex is never as sexy or as easy as it seems to be."
"C'mon!! I'm out here in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by guys!! I probably ate monkey meat for dinner tonight, and I have to sleep in mosquito netting. The least you could do is flash a little something to give me good dreams!!"
She looked to both of her sides for a moment, as if checking to make sure she was alone in the house. Her fingers crept up to the straps of her nightgown and with a quick motion, she pulled, baring her breasts.
"Oh yeah, baby. Take it all…"
Hilde tugged her nightgown back into place. "Leave 'em wanting more. That's my motto." Duo's groans of protest were loud and long. "Whiner. Think of how great it'll be when you get back here. Not only will you have found Heero and Relena, but you'll be all frustrated and fun." She winked.
"If we find Heero and Relena."
"You will." Her voice sobered. "Duo, did I tell you how proud I am of you for doing this?"
He shook his head. "You're proud of me?"
"Always. But even more so now. Not many people would uproot their lives to save someone else's." Hilde kissed the tips of her fingers and pressed them to her screen. "I love you so much."
Duo imitated the gesture. "Love you, too."
"Go to bed. Don't let the bugs bite. Literally."
He smiled, the boyish grin that made her stomach flip. "I promise. I only like biting when it's you doing it."
She arched an eyebrow seductively before shutting down communication, and Duo slipped underneath the netting, stiff, but happy. He would find Heero and Relena and bring them home safely. They deserved to have what he and Hilde had. Everyone did.
****
To Be Continued