A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews! I'm glad you're liking this story…I was a bit afraid at the beginning because I was unsure about how to structure an AU fan fiction. I hope it won't disappoint you and you'll keep reading it till the end (and don't worry, I won't take ages to finish it…I'm only planning something like five or six more chapters…)
In any case, back to the fic…enjoy!!!
Chapter Eight
She had never been more afraid in her entire life. She knew that what she was doing was almost suicidal but, after hearing Midii's speech, she just couldn't do anything else.
It was clear that Midii loved, no, the girl worshiped Trowa. Relena had seen so much sorrow in the girl's eyes that it almost scared her.
And that's why she was there now, walking by herself, in the middle of the night, through a very dark forest, trying to find a place she'd only heard of…the truth is that she'd never been there before.
Every noise she heard made her heart skip a bit. She definitely had never been more scared in her life.
Finally, after what had seemed an awfully long time, Relena started seeing the lights of the city. The closer she was to her destination, the louder and faster her heart beat.
"Hey beauty…want some company?" asked a drunken man in French the minute she stepped on the first city's pavement.
Relena tried to ignore him but he grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him and said:
"I said if you were looking for company…but you are so rude…I think I'll teach you some manners…".
She was about to scream for help when the man gave up his grip and, shocking Relena, dropped unconscious on the floor.
"What are you doing here woman?" asked a very familiar voice.
"Wu Fei! Oh…thank goodness you're here…I…I…" Relena stuttered thanking the good fate for sending Wu Fei.
"I asked you a question woman, what are you doing here?" Wu Fei insisted not allowing her to fool him.
"I…I'm looking for Heero…" Relena confessed blushing deeply.
"What do you want from him?" Wu Fei replied narrowing his eyes looking at her suspiciously.
"I need to speak to him…"Relena said knowing that, unless she did so soon, she would never gather enough courage again.
"Why? You're getting married tomorrow…" Wu Fei said with no apparent intentions of telling her where Heero was.
"Precisely, I need to speak to him tonight…" insisted Relena getting even more nervous…
"I'm not sure whether I'm doing the right thing but…I guess it can't be helped…" Wu Fei said finally starting to move.
Relena was very happy that Wu Fei had decided to cooperate. She was beginning to have a huge headache so she really didn't want to start arguing, even less with Wu Fei.
"Thank you for saving me…" Relena said suddenly remembering she had not even thanked him, while trying to keep up with the Chinese man's pace.
"It's ok…I should have taught him how to treat a lady but the bastard was too drunk...it was a pity he fainted after just a kick…weakling!" Wu Fei exclaimed making Relena smile, he seemed more upset about the missed fight than about anything else.
"In any case you were very…timely…" Relena said trying to find the right word.
Wu Fei stopped in front of a small house.
"Is it here where you're staying?" Relena asked.
"Yes…this my house…please take off your shoes before going in…" Wu Fei replied opening the door.
Relena, after removing her shoes, followed him inside a small room with bare walls and the minimum furniture necessary, a low table, four cushions, a bookcase and a Buddhist altar. In the middle of the room, she saw Heero sitting on the tatami covered floor reading a book.
"Relena? What are you doing here?" Heero said with a shocked look in his eyes.
Relena was amazed seeing the brief flash of emotion in the normally ice cold eyes.
"I needed to talk to you…" Relena replied feeling suddenly very tired.
"I'll leave you two alone but, Heero, you better tell the woman that it is not very advisable to go out by herself at this time of the night…" Wu Fei said going to a room next door.
Heero just stood there without saying a word. Relena looked at him and, taking some air, was about to say something when Heero preceded her:
"Are you crazy? Coming here by yourself? Do you want to get killed or what?".
Relena was scared, she didn't want him to be mad at her but, again, she knew that what she had done was very wrong so, she choose to just lower her eyes to the floor and accept her responsibilities without arguing.
"I…I came here to ask you one thing…" Relena started timidly.
"What is it?" Heero asked. 'Well, at least he was curious to know, so that, in theory, would make things easier…', Relena thought.
"Why did you kiss me?" Relena asked with a very small voice causing Heero's jaw to almost drop but, in half a second, Heero regained all his self-control and said:
"Do you really need to ask?".
"Well, I have an slight idea…but, I rather hear your own voice saying it…" Relena said getting very annoyed that the headache would not go away.
"Because I'm in love with you…", Heero replied blatantly. Relena couldn't believe that he could say those words with no emotion whatsoever.
"Then, you will have to help me escape…" Relena said making Heero think that the girl had gone completely mad.
"What? What about the wedding?" Heero asked surprised.
"I can't marry him…I just can't…." Relena said on the verge of crying.
"Why not?" asked Heero his voice indicating that he was a lot closer to her now.
"For the same reason why you kissed me…" Relena said looking down pretending that the edge of her light green dress was the most interesting thing on the planet.
She felt a finger under her chin lifting her face. Then, Heero's soft lips touched hers and she found herself being held in his arms while he moved his lips over hers.
This time, she actually had to stop or else she would have fainted for real.
"What's wrong?" Heero asked looking at her full of concern.
"I…we need to leave…I don't want to be around here tomorrow…" Relena said.
"Are you sure? I don't have any ties here but…are you going to leave your family and your surname behind? What is a girl like you going to do?" Heero asked her trying to get her to be sensible.
"I've never been more sure in my life. I need to leave and I would like you to come with me….I will manage without my family…in fact, from the two people I considered my family, one is dead and the other is in America with her new husband…" Relena said resolutely and then she added, "and that is precisely where I would like to go…my best friend is a school teacher and I used to be her assistant…I could do that for a living…".
"To America? Why there?" Heero asked curiously.
"Because it's a new country and it offers everybody the chance to have a fresh new start…they don't consider your previous social position there…if you're good at what you do, you'll be successful…besides, it's the only place where I have someone…" Relena said with a mixed feelings.
"What about your brother?" Heero asked insistently.
"Well…he's lived without me for ten years…I don't think I'm going to be such a loss to him…" Relena replied sounding sure of what she was saying, then she added, "Why do I feel like you're just trying to find excuses?" .
"That's not true…the point is, if I'm going to take you to America, I want to be sure you know what you're leaving behind…and that you won't regret it later…" Heero commented telling her the plain truth.
"Alright then, you don't have to worry, besides, I even have some money that should help us to get there and start a new life there…Heero, please, take me to America, please?" Relena pleaded hoping she had convinced him.
"Yeah…why not…" Heero replied trying not to show how that the idea didn't seem that bad after all.
An hour later, and after having said goodbye to a very worried Wu Fei, Heero and Relena started riding to the Haiphong port. Heero had arrived to that port from his hometown of Nagasaki and he knew some decent people there that would help them to get to America.
Heero felt Relena's head pressing against his back and he smiled very slightly enjoying the closeness.
Relena didn't speak much during the three hours they had been riding. She was happy to hear Heero telling her that they were almost there, in fact, she was beginning to feel like her head would explode any minute now because of the horse's trotting, she was all sore and she was getting cold. Trying to get warmer, she pressed herself against Heero's back even more and, with one hand, tried to wrap her white silk shawl around her shoulders tightly. The blond girl thought that it was probably the dawn's moisture that had caused the temperature to drop dramatically.
"How can you be cold? It's very hot, even though is still night time…" Heero commented feeling Relena's shivers.
"I'm cold…I don't know why…" Relena said starting to feel a very unpleasant nausea.
Heero, hearing this, stopped the horse. The halt was so brusque that Relena thought that she would have probably fallen had it not been because Heero grabbed the two arms that the girl had wrapped around his waist.
Then he felt it. The heat. Relena was boiling hot. Heero did not hesitate for one minute and, carefully, tried to get off the horse while keeping her on it.
Heero looked around himself, they were in the middle of nowhere. Then he helped Relena get off the horse, trying to steady her by keeping her close to him.
As soon as he had done that, Relena pushed him away and ran to the side of the road. She started vomiting.
"I'm sorry…I don't know what's wrong with me…I'm so tired and…the head's killing me…" Relena said coming back and covering her mouth with her handkerchief. It was clear that she was feeling very poorly.
Heero made her sit down on the ground. Taking the small blanket from the horse's belt, tried to cover her as much as he could. Relena was sweating and she kept shivering although she was really hot.
Then Heero realised something that terrified him. Yes, she had all the symptoms: shivers, sweat, tiredness, headache, vomit and fever. He looked at her arms and then around her neck. He found what he was looking for. A mosquito bite. Unless Relena got some medicine soon, the malaria could end up killing her. Heero tried to get her up to put her back on the horse when he realised that she had passed out.
END OF CHAPTER EIGHT
