Authoress' Note: Hm, there's not much to say, other than I don't have anything against Sylvia in the series. I think it's pretty dumb, actually. I needed a character whose physical looks everyone knew but whose normal personality nobody cared about. Guess who was convenient? Please enjoy this latest installment (I got it out relatively quickly!) and send a review my way telling me what you think (critiques are blessed and flames stupid). Thanks, until next time!
Chapter Five of The Woman's Piano: The Lady's Lover
I'm running away, she thought sadly to herself, finishing a still life with perfection. The flow of color seemed to bring it to life, and it almost couldn't be described as 'still', because there was too much motion of detail involved.
After the incident with Treize, Relena had not been in school the next day, or the day after that. The third day was the charm, when she cheerfully handed Lady Une an excuse for her cold, and promised she would make up quickly in her studies, despite the lost time. It was amazing how much work she'd managed to accumulate so soon into the school year, and how two days of absence made the burden almost inhuman.
More amazing, however, was the ease with which you could avoid people, even if said individuals shared several classes with you. Homeroom was easy, because she spent the entire time talking to Lady Une, who, strangely enough, sought every opportunity to stop Heero from intruding, ranting about what teacher had assigned Relena what and how about the weather darling and my, have you done something to your hair – if anything, Lady Une was almost being too inadvertently helpful.
Relena did not know, like Treize did, that Heero Yuy's existence (of which the main details are still absent) was a direct obstacle to the actual operation of the Wing Zero machine. She did know, however, that dark powers were at work here, and that Treize would not abandon his mission to kill the boy, and that she definitely did not want, if anything, a repeat of Heero's visit to her humble home. And she wasn't staying there anymore, of course – Noin was keeping her in hiding, to the extent that, when some of Treize's thugs came inquiring, Relena hid anxiously in the broom closet until Noin had angrily pushed them out, yelling, "Tell the damn snake to come himself next time!" It wasn't intelligent at the time, and later both Relena and Noin agreed that Treize probably would, and be just as oily as usual.
Because of all this, a practical Noin did not want Relena to go to school.
"It cost a lot of money to create the Wing Zero, and there were many rich families that funded it together. And almost all of them still remember it, and want it for themselves, or destroyed. It's hard to tell who's who. I don't want you to get caught up in their bickering. From what you've said, it sounds like Treize already used you as a chess piece."
"I don't think I'd run into any of them at school," snapped Relena peevishly.
Noin just shook her head. "You'd be surprised. There's a girl named Catalonia, I forget her first name – and a nice young man named Quatre Winner. Both these children are high school age, and I'm almost positive they go to your school. Catalonia and Winner are both in this war, Catalonia more than Winner, but...ah, I can tell by your eyes that you know them."
A little horror struck, Relena looked away, chewing her bottom lip meditatively. Noin sighed.
"You can go, but please...be careful."
So, Relena had gone, with reservations and caution, and she stayed decidedly away from Heero, Dorothy, and Quatre. Quatre was easy; because she had never known him particularly well to begin with, other than to observe he was a docile, polite young man. As previously stated, she successfully eluded Heero and Dorothy in early morning, and by using her lunch period to stay in the art room, she thought she might actually escape them the whole day.
Assigned artwork was never quite as inspirational, but she felt strongly that she'd done this particular piece some justice, and felt a little happier at the thought. Lost in another world again, a furious frenzy of pencil strokes flying across the page in their effort for creation, she didn't notice Heero until several moments after he had arrived.
"Ah...Heero!" Relena smiled quickly, but the taciturn Heero just stared at the drawing.
That was fine. They shouldn't talk to each other anyway; it was too complicated now. She quickly dropped her pencil and backed up, the excuse just barely entering her brain before it made the transference to her mouth.
"I'm sorry, Heero, you have really shoddy timing, I have to go, I'll be late for class if I don't hurry –"
She had barely gotten a step further when he felt her hand around her wrist, not violent but firm, and the movement was so sudden and unexpected that she felt herself stop as if pinned, tied to her heart in the expanse of dusty art room.
"Class isn't for twenty minutes." He said, and his voice was level, completely unemotional. "Why don't you explain some things to me? Like why you've been avoiding me?"
"Will you leave me alone if I do?" returned Relena, proving that she could play this unemotional role just as well.
Neither his voice nor his words betrayed hurt, but she was beginning to know him too well to think otherwise. "Do you want me to, then?" His words sounded so flat. "Leave you alone?"
"I..." Well, perhaps she wasn't that good at the whole placid role. Her free hand went up to her face, a makeshift-hiding place within the coveted darkness of her shaking hand. "No..."
Slowly, her voice gained in strength, seeming to echo off the frail studio walls. "No, I want more than anything to be around you, but as you see, I can't. So...
"I'll talk to you later." This was an insanely idiotic statement yet understandable, especially in the confusing midst of the situation.
She felt him drop her hand, but heard no other movements behind her.
Then, "Come away with me."
"What?"
"Let's...just leave. Get out of here. I want you with me, Relena, and I can do that, I'm...fine with it."
A sigh of relief escaped, and she felt her entire body relax. "Okay," she said, and happily, every ounce of courage and assurance was behind it.
Warm hands appeared around her waist, drawing her to him, as he kissed the back of her neck fondly. Slowly, his hands tucked into the curve of her hips. She let herself slide against him and then, turned around and buried herself in his chest, his embrace.
They stood like that for a moment, and then Heero gave Relena their second kiss.
She wished for many more to come.
Dorothy, not watching but hearing enough from her post outside the art door, tapped her forehead speculatively. "I'll try, Treize, but this is getting difficult, and complicated. On the one hand, it's so easy, because he is close to her – but what do you do when she's close to him too?" She uttered a loud sigh projecting all the frustration that ailed her. "No, Relena will have to do it without knowing what she's doing. That's the only way..."
"Talking to yourself, Catalonia?" sneered a passing Sylvia.
"Oh, yes." replied Dorothy in cheerful tones. "It's quite fun, actually." She pulled back her arm, and punched Sylvia in the face. "Naturally though, doesn't compare to that. That was fun.
"So," continued Dorothy, neatly stepping over the sprawled body on the floor, "I guess what I'm saying is, I'll be the only one allowed to hurt Relena and Heero from now on, okay?"
When Heero and Relena came out hand-in-hand, they exchanged confused glances, but not willing to waste time, and definitely not wanting to take Sylvia to the infirmary, they did the same as Dorothy: stepped over the body, and contently went on their way.
It was kind-hearted Quatre who, after a dozen or so other students making the discovery, finally picked her up and made the long trek to a nurse's attention.
Normally, detention for a week meant sitting, very bored, in a confining classroom, and normally, this lasted until some inhuman hour of the day, when no more fun could be had, and homework sat on the student's foreheads for the rest of the night.
However, it was of Lady Une's opinion that this might not work in the delinquent's case of Duo and company. She submitted a suggestion to the principal, and because she was well-respected, and Duo and company were not, and the suggestion was actually rather brilliant, Duo and company found themselves within the position of a confining classroom until some inhuman hour of the day, except that now, there was the addition of work.
"The janitor that cleans this hallway is retiring, and until we find a replacement, it would be helpful if you could clean it for him." said Lady Une, smiling the whole time.
And rather soon, they were given an up close and personal look at the absolute pigs that posed as their fellow students.
"I just found two apples in the corner of a room." sighed Sally at one point, and from the bluish color of her complexion the rest of her friends guessed it had been sitting there for quite some time.
Wufei was brushing rigorously, eager to complete any task handed to him. "Stop whining and do your share." It was an infuriating quality of his, that eagerness to please those he felt were deserved teachers. Of which, only Lady Une and the principal ranked, and it was poor luck for the rest of them that they were the ones doling out the punishment. The result was a Wufei who was almost goody-two-shoes.
Sally would have ordinarily glared at him, but instead, she just rolled her eyes to her left, and nodded in that direction. Wufei took her cue and looked, and then brought his broom handle harshly against Duo's back, enraged.
"What are you doing, baka! Standing there sleeping on your broom while everyone else is doing work!"
Duo just cast a mournful gaze towards the window, where outside the sun was shining and he could see Hilde conversing happily with a group of girls he didn't know. "I don't even know why I'm here." He pouted. "I wasn't there when you guys set off the balloons, you know."
"Yes, but it was your idea..." pointed out Sally, stopping as another figure entered the room, tall and solemn as usual. "Oh, hey Trowa, did you finish the rest of that room already?"
Trowa had a dustpan in his one hand and a brush in the other, but his expression spoke of thoughts other than cleaning and dusting. "Both Relena and Heero skipped last period history class with Lady Une." He said, leaning against the doorframe.
Since he had stopped going out with Sylvia, she had become even worse, harassing anyone that got close to Trowa with the same passion formerly administered on Heero. Not only that, but she seemed to be everywhere, turning up quite randomly, always with a posse of girls that seemed constantly accusing and angry. One day was enough to drive a normal person insane, and although Trowa was a pretty strong individual, the stress seemed to emanate in silent vibes off his every movement.
Plus, everyone had been worried about Relena, and nobody had seen her, even when the roster said she was supposed to be in school.
It didn't take a whole lot of deduction to figure out what had happened.
"Wow...they just took off." Duo whistled. "Score one for Heero."
Sally, possessing a female's sensitive touch, noted that Trowa didn't seem quite as enthusiastic. Wufei went as far to observe that even despite the usual sullenness, Trowa was behaving oddly (but more importantly, not doing any work). Duo whistled and continued to know nothing, but he did sweep a little.
Trowa himself was not helpful for the remainder of the afternoon, too caught up in his thoughts, which involved a lot of a pretty blonde with wide blue eyes.
At that moment, the same pretty blonde had those pretty blue eyes focused on the punk before her. From somewhere far away, it struck her that they must really constitute as an odd couple. She was wearing a long lavender dress which, although not preppy or altogether innocent, did not seem appropriate paired with a young man in all black. Then again, Heero, who smiled even through his sullenness, didn't seem to suit the black, and to her anyway – and who mattered more than herself in this place here with this person at this time – nothing seemed more right.
I'm being rash and insane. You'd think I'd never poured over Romeo and Juliet numerous times, and drawn that balcony scene more times than that. I've barely known him for a week. What makes me think that I'm in love?
He smiled at her, the previous hostility and chilliness gone between them. They'd decided to just walk where fate took them, and coincidentally, it had taken them to a beautiful park, with fiery trees beginning to dot the cobblestone lanes flashes of orange and red. It was pretty as a picture, and Relena, obsessed with drawing as she was, was already thinking of incorporating it into a portrait.
He leaned forward and shyly kissed her forehead. "Is something wrong?" he asked in that familiarly kind, yet equally gruff, voice.
Well, said a kinder, more sentimental part of her, there is the fact that he's a loving, kind person...but not naïve! Intelligent, darker, so much that it scares me sometimes, but at the same time it reminds me so much of myself...but that loving part? How can I not love that back? Oh for god's sakes, don't analyze things, and most importantly, don't convince yourself you'll kill him by just loving him! You're not that powerful, no matter what you may wish.
"I'm fine," she said quickly. "Sorry. I was just wondering what to say if the school finds out about this. They will, I'm sure." Actually, she had been thinking about it. She'd also been thinking that if they called Treize, her guardian, he would probably give her an alibi by means of getting her in debt to him.
She still didn't have her mother's necklace.
"I've been a good student. I'll take my knocks as they come, but honestly, if I apologize, I don't think I'll get into much trouble."
He began to walk steadily ahead, and because they were holding hands, she followed dutifully, coming up at his side. "Yeah, me neither. I don't...regret it. So, what were we talking about?"
"I think: nothing. A good subject."
She agreed. "So, now that you've seen my house," They were being careful around that subject, but all the same, she really wanted to get to a point where they could pretend nothing had happened, "what's your home like?"
He laughed. "Smaller. Much smaller. My grandfather used to run a card shop in the front, and we lived on the top floor."
She digested this but somehow didn't feel alienated from his lifestyle. Their upbringing must have had some important similarity if they already had this much in common and kept coming back to each other like this. "Well, don't think I'm a rich girl or anything. I actually have no money to my name."
"Rich is sort of common around here. Quatre and Dorothy are too, but we don't treat them any differently." He shrugged.
"I heard that they were." As a little pause stretched in the conversation, a smile formed, and she couldn't help but act out the playfulness that extended from the joy in her heart. "Well then!" Her voice took on an air of indignity. "If I'm not going to be revered and worshipped as I deserve, I won't waste my time on you, commoner –"
Her sarcastic attempt was stopped mid sentence as he gently pushed her into the nook of a tree, and, hands running up the curve of her back, kissed her tenderly. "The lady has spoken." He said when he was done, beginning to turn away. "I'll leave."
"You know," said Relena, kissing his cheek, burrowing herself into his shoulders, and spreading her arms around him in a great bear hug, "there are actually women that would turn someone like you away. God forbid."
"A kiss on the cheek?" His smile twitched, irony evident. She kissed him unexpectedly and did not kiss when it was unexpected?
"What, so it wasn't like before. I was busy saving your life, you know. The situation doesn't demand the same urgency anymore."
"Saving my life? You must be egotistical, thinking I can't survive without you."
"I'm just maddening that way." She said, laughing, until it was cut short, when he kissed her better than she was sure she did while saving his life. Perhaps they were unseen snipers here, targeting for her, for all she knew.
And if they were, she was going to make the last few minutes of her life count. So she kissed him as he deserved, and decided he was not a commoner after all.
No, there never was anything common about Heero Yuy.