A/N: Hmm not as long as I wanted but it felt right, sorry this is so short, I'll see you soon with the next installment, just remember the more feedback I get the faster I'll post. This is my first Fic, well I was aiming for a three-chapter "Trilogy" But it looks like it's gonna be Four chapters. Start thinking, and let me know if you're interested in the sequel. Thanks.
Credits and Disclaimers - Some parts of this story were inspired by poetry collected from classic literature, while I was writing I found a piece by Cummings that struck a cord and I decided to slip it in as my primary inspiration. I don't own our bishounen GW pilots, or anything else so, please, read and enjoy, content in the knowledge that I am not a thief.
- Somewhere -
Somewhere I have never traveled, gladly
beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence:
In your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
Or which I cannot touch because they are too near.
Your slightest look easily will unclose me
Though I have closed myself as fingers,
You open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(Touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose.
Or if your wish be to close me, I and
My life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
As when the heart of this flower imagines
The snow carefully everywhere descending;
Nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
The power of your intense fragility: whose texture
Compels me with the colour of its countries,
Rendering death and forever with each breathing,
(I do not know what it is about you that closes
And opens; only something in me understands
The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands.
by E.E. Cummings
"Naishin Juubun Gunsotsu"
The Innermost thoughts (of a) Perfect Soldier
Chapter Two - Starlight & Dreams
"Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts,
when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on."
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY - "Music When Soft Voices Die," 1824
Still Duo's POV
**I don't know what happened to change the way I see you, I only know that it did, and if I could find out what happened, I wouldn't change a thing. You drew me in from the start, and I was slowly forsaken, I would fight it, but at what cost? Something in me understands and looks the other way, the look in your eyes speaks more words than a thousand pictures. So when storm tossed seas clash with amethyst shores, I give and fall into the deep, I would never want to be anywhere that isn't by your side anyway. I wonder if you understand the power that you have over me? When I'm with you I feel that my soul has been washed clean by a thousand hands of cooling rain, you chase away my nightmares. I will never leave you even if the physical distance is great, I will be there, I need to be there, there are some comforts that a man should never have to do without, you are mine. The only single person or object that I simply can't do without. **
As the docking connection between the shuttle and the L3 customs satellite was established, Duo unfastened himself and stretched enjoying the intoxicated feeling that comes with reduced gravity, pivoting to comment on it to his friend. Blinking the braided ex-pilot smiled, there Heero sat slouching down in his seat his notebook computer closed and powered down on the trey in front of him, sound asleep. He had forgotten how much Heero detested traveling when a stranger was handling the controls, 'Hell, most of the time, he tries to sleep even when I'm the one piloting. And he TRUSTS me.' Shaking his head he moved to the seat next to Heero, leaning over the other boy, he studied how his friend's face relaxed in sleep looked so young, chocolate locks seaming to have relaxed with him and partially obscured Heero's beautiful features.
Hesitating only briefly, Duo touched his friend on the shoulder trying in vain not to startle the other boy, suppressing a sigh when Heero's stormy eyes snapped open and his vulnerable features hardened into the deadly mask of the Perfect Soldier. Duo smirked as always a little relieved when the icy chips in his eyes thawed in recognition. "Rise and shine, handsome. We're here."
Heero's eyes narrowed at Duo's facetiousness, and straightened feeling his muscles protest he gave a quick look at his wrist watch before gathering up his computer, legal-pad, and other effects. They proceeded for the fourth time in thirty hours, to follow Duo into the concourse.
"Seriously, Hee-chan doesn't it just feel right being back in outer space? I feel so heavy on earth, but that might be because L2 has a lot of problems with its generators."
"Hn, no. I feel it too, and L1 has fairly well established facilities."
Going through customs was a joke, but to the unassuming traveler it was probably reassuring, Duo could tell that like himself Heero was getting a rush and sense of homecoming with the taste of the re-circulated oxygen. Spontaneously he tossed an arm around the other boy as the approached the waiting limo, tossing jovial grin and a wave at Abdul, he shoved Heero in head first before clambering in behind him.
Turning to face his stoic companion Duo laughed softly, almost to himself before saying, "I'm really looking forward to this week, ya know? I hope it'll be just like old times. You know just the five of us, working on some token project together." Tilting his head back against the black leather upholstery, Duo wasn't expecting a response, so he wasn't disappointed.
Back to Heero's POV
**Paralyzed, I curse myself staring into those amethyst depths, the comfortable veneer of the Perfect Soldier I hated so much fall into place, my eyes I know are the last feature to betray me as I force my body to comply with my wishes. Uncertain, I fall into my familiar position, watching his back as he guards mine, partners. I feel the caress of the ocean air against my skin, kissing, teasing, and taunting until I give in and let the invisible wings rap around me in an intimate embrace as I fall like an angel rushing to meat my fate. The escape was exhilarating, the feelings beyond description, at long last I knew I could rid myself of all the sorrows and responsibility, I could give in, just that easily. I felt it then the resistance and I twisted in the breeze, I couldn't do it, this one mission was all the world needed from me. So for my redemption, I would stay, I would fight, for only I could deliver the peace of uniting the Earth sphere and colonies.
It wasn't fare to expect this much from me, I heard that chilling whisper in my mind, but I knew the cold response the soldier mechanically shot back at the whisper, 'Life isn't a game, and it's rarely fare' the voice spoke coldly but not without understanding. I can see it so clearly those deep blue eyes of the little girl staring back at me holding out that flower, in the devastation after her death I had permitted my creators to destroy what little was left in me to care. So I was alone, how can someone be alone when they are surrounded by so many? You might ask, and to which I would respond, that when you care you make mistakes, and mistakes are unacceptable. So now I live behind that accursed mask, powerless. I fight it, but I can no longer deny it, I do care, you have made me care again, only now all I care about is putting a light in the shadowed indigo of your eyes. Now I fear, that if I lose you, I will lose myself, with no will to live can a man survive? Can a soldier fight? I don't know, but it seems I going to try. **
Heero sat on the park bench gazing up at the building laden sky of the circular colony, in his solitude he was relaxed and calm; then he heard in the sharp crack of the detonator just before the upward colony curve to the left of the park exploded with a white gold light that seamed to suck all the color from his surroundings. There was another explosion from within the first as the heat combusted the fuel tank of a near by car, but Heero didn't notice, he didn't move, standing stock still right where he had jumped to his feet in time to see the first explosion.
Where as he should do the sensible thing and flee the area, but no he ran toward it, his heart racing. Duo had been at a Preventor meeting in that building, he jumped and sprinted across the tops of a few cars, not caring that he couldn't breathe for the smoke, 'damn, why was it taking this long, he should have reached the building by now' Heero thought viciously. Leaping lightly into the air he began to push through the scalding and twisted metal of the once revolving door, feeling his skin begin to blister, he pushed through without caution. Freezing as he spotted that unmistakable yard-long chestnut braid, and as if in slow motion moved to push the rubble off his partner, his only friend. First he saw blood and flesh where his right arm should have been was a pool of crimson, then turning Duo's face to see him, he saw one violet eye, and the right side of his face charred black and bits of bone visible through what raw flesh was there . . .
Choking and gasping on a scream the Perfect Soldier sat bolt up right among the tangled green silk sheets and the ivory down comforter, feeling ill, and as though every muscle and tendon in his body had been pushed to the breaking point and then some. Heero forced down the nausea standing dizzily he moved into the navy and white tiled bathroom throwing on the light he turned his gaze to his palms, where the flesh looked tender and raw.
When he came to again, he was staring into concerned onyx and emerald eyes, something felt hard and unyielding beneath him, shifting his gaze about the room it only took him a second to realize that he had passed out on the tiled bathroom floor.
"Daijoubu?(1)"
Shifting his gaze, Heero merely nodded to Trowa.
"What happened?"
Sitting up, Heero glanced at the Chinese pilot. "I had a dream, which was just a little okkanai (2)." Rolling his shoulders, he climbed to his feet noting that the palms of his hands felt numb.
"What does that mean?" WuFei queried. Glancing at Trowa, who also was plainly ignorant to the words meaning.
After a few minutes of Heero ignoring the question while washing his face, mouth, and hands. It became apparent that Heero was done answering questions, when the Japanese boy asked quietly, "How did you find me? And why did you come looking?"
Trowa nodded acknowledging Heero's right to his secrets, "Quatre's office is two doors down from here, WuFei and I were looking at some papers when we heard something and came looking."
"We got here just in time to see you hit the floor Yuy. I thought you had been shot." WuFei finished for Trowa.
"Arigatou, I appreciate your concern."
A/N: So what do you think? I love Reviews. I'd like to thank Violet_Eyes for the Great Review. Also I'm working on the sequel, even while I'm fighting to finish this up, you get back to me if you're interested, and I'll post a teaser for you after the final instalment, just a hint, what I have in the works is the Short Story 'Eyes of a Soldier' that Heero mentioned in the Prologue.
Japanese Translations:
(1) Daijoubu
safe (an), all right, O.K.
(2) Okkanai
frightening, huge
-Follow the Leader-
She walks down the sidewalk wondering
Lost in thought as the cars they pass her by
Wondering whose life this is and why
All of the things she had moved on
There's things she cannot quite understand
They're so happy following tradition
And she just can't
Lungs are breathing, Heart is pumping
This means she's alive but they say
Something's wrong with her feeling this way
Afraid to find years (?), come out and see
Those same people following her lead
Hoping that what she has is now what they all need
When she looks at them now she just smiles
As misled souls trample untold miles
When if they just followed their hearts they could be
Gifted for the rest of their trials
Lungs are breathing, Heart is pumping
This means she's alive but they say
Something's wrong with her feeling this way
Can you feel it, can you feel it
Can you feel it, can you feel it
Can you feel it, can you feel, feel it
Can you feel anything, can you feel anything at all
(A Song) By: Unsung Zeros
A/N: Pretty much how I see Relena AND Heero in this world that I created for them. No, I don't own GW, I just wish I did.