OUT OF TUNE
Chapter 6: Kiss It All Better
I'd like to thank all of my reviewers right now, all 4 of you rock lol!!!
Mariel4000: thank you for all of your humorous motivation, I keep hoping for another review from you, they always make me laugh.
R_Winner13: I'm so glad to see a Quatre fan review, I must admit, I thought this fic might turn a lot of Quatre fans against me. And he will appear soon too, so look for that!
Adrelliehs: Thank you so much! I really didn't think that I was pulling Dorothy off just right and right now, she's a little OOC, but your comment made me feel a whole lot better!
And last, but sure as the lake of fire not least,
BrenRick: My original inspiration for this story in the first place! ^_~ My HHBL (you'll figure it out eventually!)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and I don't own the show, Gundam Wing, in which they star. ^_^
Dorothy's heart felt like it was in her throat, throbbing like mad. Her stomach muscles had twisted themselves into numerous tight knots writhing in the confines of her skin. The minimal distance from where Trowa had set her down to the door to their apartment seemed more like miles as she turned from the stairwell and began running. Her mind screamed at her to move faster, yet as fast as her legs went, she felt like she was moving in slow motion. She never entertained the thought of why she was so preoccupied in following Trowa's orders. She never thought about the fact that there could still be something waiting for her in the apartment. She just ran.
When she finally turned into the doorway, she breathed a sigh of relief to see that the vid-phone was still there. As she reached the stand she grabbed at the black book Trowa had made a point of setting next to the phone the day before.
"Une…where is…YES!!" The rushes of adrenaline that were now surging through Dorothy's body made her fingers clumsy but she managed to type in the code into the keypad.
"Pick up, pick up!" she cried at the screen as though it would answer. Suddenly, as if answering her prayers, the screen went blue and then picked up the signal. Lady Une's face appeared inside the screen behind a weaving of static.
"Miss Dorothy!" Lady's soft voice exclaimed. "To what do I owe the-"
"No time for that! Trowa is in trouble!" Dorothy screamed. Her cheeks were flushed a deep red, contrasting with her normally pale complexion. Lady's face turned off screen and Dorothy heard a small click. Then she heard a small gasp followed closely by Lady barking an order on another telephone.
"Yes! You heard me Maxwell! Get back over here to L3 NOW!!" And with that, there was a loud slamming sound and Lady's face reappeared on the screen. Her voice had changed from gentle to that of an angry mother giving a young child an order.
"Dorothy, I want you to lock your doors and windows, turn off all of your light, and don't make any loud sounds, do you understand me? Trowa will be fine, I've got him on my scanner right now and backup is on the way." Her voice returned to its gentle tone. "Thank you Dorothy."
And the screen went blank.
Numbly, Dorothy turned the vid-phone off. She slowly turned around as if in a daze. The adrenaline slowly drained from her limbs, leaving her empty except for Une's orders. Before she knew what had gotten into her, she heaved the stand over onto its side. She didn't care if it was a loud sound. She was sitting here, doing absolutely nothing except protect herself, while Trowa was doing God knew what. She felt like crying and screaming at the same time. It had been so long since she'd thrown a temper tantrum, in girl terms, and now she felt the urge to have one.
But, she reasoned with herself, now was neither the time nor the place. She flew into action, running softly through the kitchenette. She grabbed the door and used all of her self-control and closed it as softly as she could, bolting it twice. She turned to the light switches next to the doorway and flipped them down. Once she was done with her first mission, she threw off her heels and tossed them onto the couch with a soft thump. Then she grabbed a kitchen chair and placed it under the doorknob. She didn't want to take any chances.
Dorothy moved from room to room, closing and locking the windows. As she was about to leave her own room, she caught sight of herself. She was still in her silly dinner dress! As silly as it sounded to her later on, the first thought that came to her looking at her reflection was 'If someone comes through those doors, I won't be able to fight them in a dress!'
Grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, she exited her room, slipping out of her dress as she went. She passed by the bathroom, knowing no windows were in there. She dropped the dress outside the entrance of Trowa's door and wrestled into her sweatpants. She crossed to the window; her upper body still only clad in a bra, and locked the window. 'Thank God Trowa likes blinds on his window,' she thought seriously. She turned away from the window and pulled the t-shirt over her head. Now with her chores done and the house dark, silent, and empty, Dorothy felt free let her mind think of other things then her tasks. This wasn't a good thing for her however, because without a focus, her mind could begin wondering about the horrible things Trowa could have been facing.
Her gaze fell on the bed that was still mused up by her tossing and turnings from the night before. She distantly recalled scolding Trowa for not making it, even though it had been she who'd messed it up. She smiled gently as she remembered how he simply shrugged and asked what was the use, when he was just going to sleep in it tonight anyway…
And that was when the forbidden thought entered her mind. What if he didn't ever come back to sleep in this bed? Suddenly, painfully, Dorothy realized she missed Trowa.
***
Trowa growled as he pushed another stargazing couple out of his way as his quarry took him down yet another winding path in the man-made forest of the park. He raised his gun for the 3rd time that night and fired, the silencer muffling it's sound so as not to cause panic. He knew that he'd hit the boy, and it was the second time he'd hit him too. But the kid just kept running. In the far reaches of his mind, he compared the boy to the likes of Heero and to himself. However, the puddles of blood left in the intruder's path were steadily growing in size and Trowa was gradually gaining on the kid. His mind was dead set on catching the boy, a mindset that he was familiar too after years of training.
The blood led him down a steep side path that was no wider than the space taken up by his own feet. With the help of the moonlight he could just make out the shape of a bridge closing in ahead of him. And he could hear over his own panting breaths the sounds of someone moaning in pain. He knew he was finally closing the last few feet between them.
"Please, I'll go silently," the boy whispered hoarsely through pants. "Please, don't kill me, please…" he begged. His eyes had grown larger and were pleading with him to have mercy. Trowa's softer side, the side he'd struggled to retain and regain, made the pilot inside of him relent. The boy was tall and a little heavier; Trowa could now see why he'd mistaken him originally for a man. On closer inspection, he noted the boy wore an unusually white kerchief around his right arm.
"It's ok," he whispered, his handgun pointed at the boy but his finger was off the trigger and the safety was now back on. "I'm not going to use this unless you try to escape. And I'm a hell of a lot closer now then I was outside the park," he continued as he stepped closer to the hunched over figure. "Now, come on, get up and I'll take you back so we can get that leg looked at," Trowa said gesturing to the boy's left leg, where'd he'd been shot twice. As Trowa got even closer, he could tell that this kid was only about 13 or 14 and he didn't look any different from any other kid he saw on the street. 'But so did you, Heero, Duo, Quatre, and Wufei,' he reminded himself.
"They talked me into it, I swear, I didn't want to," the boy gasped. "Please mister, you gotta believe me!" Trowa paused. Hadn't this kid heard a word he said?
"FREEZE!!" Trowa shouted at the top of his lungs. The kid began sobbing.
"Please mister, you just gotta believe me, I'm just a poor little kid!!" Trowa eased the safety off and placed his finger on the trigger, squeezing firmly. A shot rang out despite the silencer at the boy's head.
"I'm so sorry, I want my mom!!" the boy continued, except now his voice was a metallic grinding that came from inside his stomach. This finally confirmed Trowa's suspicions. This boy was a decoy, only an android programmed to run and then beg to distract him. He crouched down in the middle of the bridge, slowly backing off onto solid ground. As he went, he turned slowly, inspecting the area around him. This wasn't just some ordinary bridge. Someone was waiting for him.
From somewhere behind him, a shot rang out. Trowa jumped in the air and turned a full 180 degrees in the air, his own gun pointed and already shooting at the man who'd shot him. As he landed, he heard the thump of someone heavy fall dead to the earth at the entrance of the bridge. A burning sensation crept along his cheek but he ignored the wound. His emerald eyes were now focused where the man had been and was now lying. He'd also heard a voice from that area.
As he watched and listened, he heard a twig snap from somewhere up above but he ignored it, blaming it on the breeze. His attention refused to be averted from the spot in front of him. With his attention centered on one spot, he didn't see the man jump from the tree overhanging the bridge until he was almost on top of Trowa.
He rolled away and up again onto his feet, his gun posed in the air. However, it did him no good because a roundhouse kick from his hunter sent the gun flying and an uppercut punch forced him to his back. Trowa just had enough time to put up his hands as a black boot came down in the direction of his throat. He held on to the shoe like a lifeline and pushed back with every ounce of muscle he had. He tried to kick the man above him but he felt his legs be pinned down as the man crouched down on top of him. A long, wrinkled face hovered just above his own. Trowa met the man's glare with his own causing the man to go into shrieks of laughter.
"Really think you'll get out of this kid?!" the man howled. Trowa couldn't help but laugh on the inside at how ironic this was; how the tables had been turned. His back instantly felt the cold from the newly fallen snow melting into the back of his turtleneck. The foot was now bearing down on his windpipe despite his attempts to thwart it. Trowa felt defeat slowly fill his mind as oxygen began to leave it. Even if Une had sent a sort of backup mission to help him, there was no possible way it could get there before he passed out. And that wasn't too far off he reminded himself. The third gundam pilot could already feel blackness swooping in to claim him.
As he began to forget where he was and slip into a new realm, his mind wandered aimlessly through memories and regrets. He remembered the first time he'd met his four best friends, that first meeting as they stepped out of their gundams onto the platforms created by their cockpit doors. He remembered how the sun glinted off the same sharp look in each of their eyes and remembered wondering if his own eyes matched theirs. And as his mind's eye turned to each face in the memory, he realized he'd never see them again.
Heero; he'd never see Heero finally admit his feelings towards Relena; he'd never have a deep conversation about life with him again. How he could use one of those right now he thought wistfully. The next face he remembered was Wufei's. For some reason or another, Trowa knew that he'd miss Wufei's serious most. Wufei had a way of keeping him focused and on task. Duo, on the other hand, kept him laughing. With a heavy heart, it occurred to him that he wouldn't get to see the birth of Duo's baby. And finally, Quatre. Quatre would be his number one choice to take care of Dorothy when he was gone…
'Dorothy!' his mind exclaimed. Like a light in a pitch-black night, the thought of Dorothy warded off his unconsciousness. As if he'd been underwater, the sound of the man's laughter returned to him. And his keen ears also caught the sound of numerous twigs snapping from the path above. This and the image of Dorothy with her eyes closed, her lashes picking up snow, her face glowing with pink from the cold of the evening was what gave Trowa the motivation to keep fighting.
With strength that he knew he'd already spent long ago filling his arms, he pushed back the man's foot just far enough to throw him off balance and allow Trowa to scramble out from beneath him. The man hissed angrily and made a lunge for Trowa but was caught from behind by a Preventer Trowa recognized as Lt. Lansing. Duo appeared closely behind from the dark with a large grin on his face.
"Way to be, Trowa my man!" he congratulated as he held out his hand to help Trowa up. Once Trowa was on his feet again, Duo pulled him into a hug. "Thank Dorothy when you see her for me…almost lost you there, buddy," Deathscythe's pilot whispered. Then he quickly pulled away, his smile back in place.
"Come on, I'll take you home. You've been through enough."
***
"You sure it was the new group?" Duo questioned. Trowa looked him in the eye, his emerald eyes intense and dark.
"Positive." And he stepped out of the car. Duo nodded to himself and was about to pull away when he heard a knock on his window. He rolled it down as Trowa leaned over.
"Thanks Duo. For everything." Duo smiled generously and nodded with understanding before he drove off down the street. With Duo gone, Trowa didn't wait a moment longer to bound up the steps to his home. With the energy of a hurricane, he grabbed the doorknob of his apartment and pushed. But it didn't give.
"What the-" He tried again but it was obviously locked. He didn't have time for this! He wanted to see Dorothy…
Making sure his silencer was on; Trowa aimed carefully and shot off the doorknob. He knocked it off completely with a swift kick, catching the offensive piece of metal in his hand. He heard the other doorknob fall and with it gone, the chair also fell away, leaving Trowa free to enter. The place was a mess but that wasn't what caused the horrible sinking feeling in his gut. It was Dorothy's dirty dress lying on the floor.
Images of a dead, mutilated Dorothy filled his mind as he ran to his room only to see Dorothy sleeping peacefully on his bed. The orange light from the streetlamps filtered by his blinds gave the bed an unearthly glow. Trowa, finally relieved of all of his last worries, let all of his aches and pains catch up with him as he walked over to where she lied.
"Dorothy," he whispered softly, just to say her name, as he gathered her into his aching arms. He ran his protesting fingers through her blonde hair, savoring the feeling of her light pressure against his shoulder. He knew he was probably leaving blood all over her from his clothes and from his still bleeding cheek, but he didn't care. He just needed her in his arms; make sure she was safe and real.
Dorothy felt the sudden warmth invade the cold that had descended upon her slumber. Her eyes fluttered lightly before opening completely to a most wonderful sight; Trowa's dark eyes shining back into hers.
"Trowa?" she whispered, hoping that he wasn't a spirit or a dream.
"It's me, I'm here," he whispered back. He looked a mess, his lip was broken and his cheek had a long gash cutting from his temple to the middle of his cheek. But he looked like some sort of fallen angel, representing everything forbidden and yet at the same time, everything gentle. It was hard to believe that the day's events had brought them this close when just that morning she couldn't stand being in the same room with him without screaming.
But her thoughts were quickly forgotten as another more important issue confronted itself.
"Trowa, follow me," she said quietly, standing and leading him to the bathroom. As she entered, still blissfully aware that Trowa was holding her hand, she grabbed the first aid kit she'd bought that day while grocery shopping. She sat down on the bathtub's edge and gestured for him to sit down on the toilet seat while she unwrapped the kit.
Trowa watched her as she undid the plastic covering of the kit, following her every movement. He never felt more warmth in his life as when he held her next to him and even now, when he was only a foot away from her, he felt her absence.
Dorothy pulled out a gauze pad and tape and set them next to the small bottle of rubbing alcohol. With one last final snatch at a group of cotton balls, Dorothy prepared herself to play doctor. She gave Trowa a smile as she gently dabbed at his gash with the alcohol. Trowa hissed lightly as a strong stinging sensation crawled its way up his face yet he smiled back at Dorothy.
"Big tough boy," Dorothy whispered with a light giggle. Trowa chuckled along with her and by the time she had completely cleaned his wound, he'd forgotten that he'd even had it in the first place.
As she made the finishing touches to his make-do bandage, his eyes once again sobered and focused in on her. The way her eyes were slightly slanted, like she was a European and Egyptian mix of a princess. His eyes traveled along her whole body frame and he smiled at her outfit. She looked ready to go to a gym class; quite the change from the sex goddess that had been sitting on his table not 4 hours earlier. Had it really been only 4 hours he thought. That couldn't be right, it had seemed-
His eyes fell upon where her sweatpants had ridden up above the knee. A nasty bruise was threatening to appear and caked blood was flaking off from the skin.
"What's that?" he asked gently, his hands cupping her knee. Dorothy looked down and remembered that she'd skinned her knee while running to the apartment.
"Just a scrape, that's all," she whispered. Trowa shook his head and grabbed a washcloth from the cupboard and wetted it down.
"Hold still, my turn to be doctor," Trowa said with a laugh as he began to wash off the blood. He kept looking from her knee to her face, making sure that he didn't hurt her. However, she just watched him do his work with a gentle smile. He cleaned her wound with the same tenderness she'd washed his with and bandaged it with a super band-aid.
And finally, just to make sure that it was all better, Trowa leaned down and kissed the wound just above the band-aid. Dorothy's eyebrow's shot up in surprise and she looked at him with disbelief. However, he only returned the smile as he placed her knee down again and got up. He had almost made his way out of the bathroom when Dorothy grabbed his arm and spun him around, wrapping her arms around his neck. She clung to him like a child, refusing to let go of him. But Trowa never wanted to let her let go of him; he wanted to stay like this forever. One of his arms snaked its way around her waist and the other lifted her face to meet his.
It was like the planets had finally aligned themselves for this moment to happen. Her body was pressed against his just so and their faces met like puzzle pieces. His lips met hers in a blinding moment of passion. She tasted like dreams and he tasted like a sunset and everything was perfect in their life. Screw the goddamn faction on earth, to hell with their jobs as Preventer and budding politician. None of that mattered. Only their lips meeting together at that moment.
When they finally broke apart, panting from lack of breath, Trowa placed the hand that'd been holding her chin over her head and pulled her down into the crook of his neck. Then he told her to hold on tight and he picked her up and carried her to his room where they fell asleep in each other's arms and their simple presence.
Snow wasn't falling on them, the stars weren't twinkling. Their light wasn't moonlight, but instead light from an orange streetlight. But both agreed that the kiss they shared just outside their bathroom doorway was the most romantic kiss they'd ever had.
Please R/R!
MadameHotaru.of.87
Chapter 6: Kiss It All Better
I'd like to thank all of my reviewers right now, all 4 of you rock lol!!!
Mariel4000: thank you for all of your humorous motivation, I keep hoping for another review from you, they always make me laugh.
R_Winner13: I'm so glad to see a Quatre fan review, I must admit, I thought this fic might turn a lot of Quatre fans against me. And he will appear soon too, so look for that!
Adrelliehs: Thank you so much! I really didn't think that I was pulling Dorothy off just right and right now, she's a little OOC, but your comment made me feel a whole lot better!
And last, but sure as the lake of fire not least,
BrenRick: My original inspiration for this story in the first place! ^_~ My HHBL (you'll figure it out eventually!)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters and I don't own the show, Gundam Wing, in which they star. ^_^
Dorothy's heart felt like it was in her throat, throbbing like mad. Her stomach muscles had twisted themselves into numerous tight knots writhing in the confines of her skin. The minimal distance from where Trowa had set her down to the door to their apartment seemed more like miles as she turned from the stairwell and began running. Her mind screamed at her to move faster, yet as fast as her legs went, she felt like she was moving in slow motion. She never entertained the thought of why she was so preoccupied in following Trowa's orders. She never thought about the fact that there could still be something waiting for her in the apartment. She just ran.
When she finally turned into the doorway, she breathed a sigh of relief to see that the vid-phone was still there. As she reached the stand she grabbed at the black book Trowa had made a point of setting next to the phone the day before.
"Une…where is…YES!!" The rushes of adrenaline that were now surging through Dorothy's body made her fingers clumsy but she managed to type in the code into the keypad.
"Pick up, pick up!" she cried at the screen as though it would answer. Suddenly, as if answering her prayers, the screen went blue and then picked up the signal. Lady Une's face appeared inside the screen behind a weaving of static.
"Miss Dorothy!" Lady's soft voice exclaimed. "To what do I owe the-"
"No time for that! Trowa is in trouble!" Dorothy screamed. Her cheeks were flushed a deep red, contrasting with her normally pale complexion. Lady's face turned off screen and Dorothy heard a small click. Then she heard a small gasp followed closely by Lady barking an order on another telephone.
"Yes! You heard me Maxwell! Get back over here to L3 NOW!!" And with that, there was a loud slamming sound and Lady's face reappeared on the screen. Her voice had changed from gentle to that of an angry mother giving a young child an order.
"Dorothy, I want you to lock your doors and windows, turn off all of your light, and don't make any loud sounds, do you understand me? Trowa will be fine, I've got him on my scanner right now and backup is on the way." Her voice returned to its gentle tone. "Thank you Dorothy."
And the screen went blank.
Numbly, Dorothy turned the vid-phone off. She slowly turned around as if in a daze. The adrenaline slowly drained from her limbs, leaving her empty except for Une's orders. Before she knew what had gotten into her, she heaved the stand over onto its side. She didn't care if it was a loud sound. She was sitting here, doing absolutely nothing except protect herself, while Trowa was doing God knew what. She felt like crying and screaming at the same time. It had been so long since she'd thrown a temper tantrum, in girl terms, and now she felt the urge to have one.
But, she reasoned with herself, now was neither the time nor the place. She flew into action, running softly through the kitchenette. She grabbed the door and used all of her self-control and closed it as softly as she could, bolting it twice. She turned to the light switches next to the doorway and flipped them down. Once she was done with her first mission, she threw off her heels and tossed them onto the couch with a soft thump. Then she grabbed a kitchen chair and placed it under the doorknob. She didn't want to take any chances.
Dorothy moved from room to room, closing and locking the windows. As she was about to leave her own room, she caught sight of herself. She was still in her silly dinner dress! As silly as it sounded to her later on, the first thought that came to her looking at her reflection was 'If someone comes through those doors, I won't be able to fight them in a dress!'
Grabbing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, she exited her room, slipping out of her dress as she went. She passed by the bathroom, knowing no windows were in there. She dropped the dress outside the entrance of Trowa's door and wrestled into her sweatpants. She crossed to the window; her upper body still only clad in a bra, and locked the window. 'Thank God Trowa likes blinds on his window,' she thought seriously. She turned away from the window and pulled the t-shirt over her head. Now with her chores done and the house dark, silent, and empty, Dorothy felt free let her mind think of other things then her tasks. This wasn't a good thing for her however, because without a focus, her mind could begin wondering about the horrible things Trowa could have been facing.
Her gaze fell on the bed that was still mused up by her tossing and turnings from the night before. She distantly recalled scolding Trowa for not making it, even though it had been she who'd messed it up. She smiled gently as she remembered how he simply shrugged and asked what was the use, when he was just going to sleep in it tonight anyway…
And that was when the forbidden thought entered her mind. What if he didn't ever come back to sleep in this bed? Suddenly, painfully, Dorothy realized she missed Trowa.
***
Trowa growled as he pushed another stargazing couple out of his way as his quarry took him down yet another winding path in the man-made forest of the park. He raised his gun for the 3rd time that night and fired, the silencer muffling it's sound so as not to cause panic. He knew that he'd hit the boy, and it was the second time he'd hit him too. But the kid just kept running. In the far reaches of his mind, he compared the boy to the likes of Heero and to himself. However, the puddles of blood left in the intruder's path were steadily growing in size and Trowa was gradually gaining on the kid. His mind was dead set on catching the boy, a mindset that he was familiar too after years of training.
The blood led him down a steep side path that was no wider than the space taken up by his own feet. With the help of the moonlight he could just make out the shape of a bridge closing in ahead of him. And he could hear over his own panting breaths the sounds of someone moaning in pain. He knew he was finally closing the last few feet between them.
"Please, I'll go silently," the boy whispered hoarsely through pants. "Please, don't kill me, please…" he begged. His eyes had grown larger and were pleading with him to have mercy. Trowa's softer side, the side he'd struggled to retain and regain, made the pilot inside of him relent. The boy was tall and a little heavier; Trowa could now see why he'd mistaken him originally for a man. On closer inspection, he noted the boy wore an unusually white kerchief around his right arm.
"It's ok," he whispered, his handgun pointed at the boy but his finger was off the trigger and the safety was now back on. "I'm not going to use this unless you try to escape. And I'm a hell of a lot closer now then I was outside the park," he continued as he stepped closer to the hunched over figure. "Now, come on, get up and I'll take you back so we can get that leg looked at," Trowa said gesturing to the boy's left leg, where'd he'd been shot twice. As Trowa got even closer, he could tell that this kid was only about 13 or 14 and he didn't look any different from any other kid he saw on the street. 'But so did you, Heero, Duo, Quatre, and Wufei,' he reminded himself.
"They talked me into it, I swear, I didn't want to," the boy gasped. "Please mister, you gotta believe me!" Trowa paused. Hadn't this kid heard a word he said?
"FREEZE!!" Trowa shouted at the top of his lungs. The kid began sobbing.
"Please mister, you just gotta believe me, I'm just a poor little kid!!" Trowa eased the safety off and placed his finger on the trigger, squeezing firmly. A shot rang out despite the silencer at the boy's head.
"I'm so sorry, I want my mom!!" the boy continued, except now his voice was a metallic grinding that came from inside his stomach. This finally confirmed Trowa's suspicions. This boy was a decoy, only an android programmed to run and then beg to distract him. He crouched down in the middle of the bridge, slowly backing off onto solid ground. As he went, he turned slowly, inspecting the area around him. This wasn't just some ordinary bridge. Someone was waiting for him.
From somewhere behind him, a shot rang out. Trowa jumped in the air and turned a full 180 degrees in the air, his own gun pointed and already shooting at the man who'd shot him. As he landed, he heard the thump of someone heavy fall dead to the earth at the entrance of the bridge. A burning sensation crept along his cheek but he ignored the wound. His emerald eyes were now focused where the man had been and was now lying. He'd also heard a voice from that area.
As he watched and listened, he heard a twig snap from somewhere up above but he ignored it, blaming it on the breeze. His attention refused to be averted from the spot in front of him. With his attention centered on one spot, he didn't see the man jump from the tree overhanging the bridge until he was almost on top of Trowa.
He rolled away and up again onto his feet, his gun posed in the air. However, it did him no good because a roundhouse kick from his hunter sent the gun flying and an uppercut punch forced him to his back. Trowa just had enough time to put up his hands as a black boot came down in the direction of his throat. He held on to the shoe like a lifeline and pushed back with every ounce of muscle he had. He tried to kick the man above him but he felt his legs be pinned down as the man crouched down on top of him. A long, wrinkled face hovered just above his own. Trowa met the man's glare with his own causing the man to go into shrieks of laughter.
"Really think you'll get out of this kid?!" the man howled. Trowa couldn't help but laugh on the inside at how ironic this was; how the tables had been turned. His back instantly felt the cold from the newly fallen snow melting into the back of his turtleneck. The foot was now bearing down on his windpipe despite his attempts to thwart it. Trowa felt defeat slowly fill his mind as oxygen began to leave it. Even if Une had sent a sort of backup mission to help him, there was no possible way it could get there before he passed out. And that wasn't too far off he reminded himself. The third gundam pilot could already feel blackness swooping in to claim him.
As he began to forget where he was and slip into a new realm, his mind wandered aimlessly through memories and regrets. He remembered the first time he'd met his four best friends, that first meeting as they stepped out of their gundams onto the platforms created by their cockpit doors. He remembered how the sun glinted off the same sharp look in each of their eyes and remembered wondering if his own eyes matched theirs. And as his mind's eye turned to each face in the memory, he realized he'd never see them again.
Heero; he'd never see Heero finally admit his feelings towards Relena; he'd never have a deep conversation about life with him again. How he could use one of those right now he thought wistfully. The next face he remembered was Wufei's. For some reason or another, Trowa knew that he'd miss Wufei's serious most. Wufei had a way of keeping him focused and on task. Duo, on the other hand, kept him laughing. With a heavy heart, it occurred to him that he wouldn't get to see the birth of Duo's baby. And finally, Quatre. Quatre would be his number one choice to take care of Dorothy when he was gone…
'Dorothy!' his mind exclaimed. Like a light in a pitch-black night, the thought of Dorothy warded off his unconsciousness. As if he'd been underwater, the sound of the man's laughter returned to him. And his keen ears also caught the sound of numerous twigs snapping from the path above. This and the image of Dorothy with her eyes closed, her lashes picking up snow, her face glowing with pink from the cold of the evening was what gave Trowa the motivation to keep fighting.
With strength that he knew he'd already spent long ago filling his arms, he pushed back the man's foot just far enough to throw him off balance and allow Trowa to scramble out from beneath him. The man hissed angrily and made a lunge for Trowa but was caught from behind by a Preventer Trowa recognized as Lt. Lansing. Duo appeared closely behind from the dark with a large grin on his face.
"Way to be, Trowa my man!" he congratulated as he held out his hand to help Trowa up. Once Trowa was on his feet again, Duo pulled him into a hug. "Thank Dorothy when you see her for me…almost lost you there, buddy," Deathscythe's pilot whispered. Then he quickly pulled away, his smile back in place.
"Come on, I'll take you home. You've been through enough."
***
"You sure it was the new group?" Duo questioned. Trowa looked him in the eye, his emerald eyes intense and dark.
"Positive." And he stepped out of the car. Duo nodded to himself and was about to pull away when he heard a knock on his window. He rolled it down as Trowa leaned over.
"Thanks Duo. For everything." Duo smiled generously and nodded with understanding before he drove off down the street. With Duo gone, Trowa didn't wait a moment longer to bound up the steps to his home. With the energy of a hurricane, he grabbed the doorknob of his apartment and pushed. But it didn't give.
"What the-" He tried again but it was obviously locked. He didn't have time for this! He wanted to see Dorothy…
Making sure his silencer was on; Trowa aimed carefully and shot off the doorknob. He knocked it off completely with a swift kick, catching the offensive piece of metal in his hand. He heard the other doorknob fall and with it gone, the chair also fell away, leaving Trowa free to enter. The place was a mess but that wasn't what caused the horrible sinking feeling in his gut. It was Dorothy's dirty dress lying on the floor.
Images of a dead, mutilated Dorothy filled his mind as he ran to his room only to see Dorothy sleeping peacefully on his bed. The orange light from the streetlamps filtered by his blinds gave the bed an unearthly glow. Trowa, finally relieved of all of his last worries, let all of his aches and pains catch up with him as he walked over to where she lied.
"Dorothy," he whispered softly, just to say her name, as he gathered her into his aching arms. He ran his protesting fingers through her blonde hair, savoring the feeling of her light pressure against his shoulder. He knew he was probably leaving blood all over her from his clothes and from his still bleeding cheek, but he didn't care. He just needed her in his arms; make sure she was safe and real.
Dorothy felt the sudden warmth invade the cold that had descended upon her slumber. Her eyes fluttered lightly before opening completely to a most wonderful sight; Trowa's dark eyes shining back into hers.
"Trowa?" she whispered, hoping that he wasn't a spirit or a dream.
"It's me, I'm here," he whispered back. He looked a mess, his lip was broken and his cheek had a long gash cutting from his temple to the middle of his cheek. But he looked like some sort of fallen angel, representing everything forbidden and yet at the same time, everything gentle. It was hard to believe that the day's events had brought them this close when just that morning she couldn't stand being in the same room with him without screaming.
But her thoughts were quickly forgotten as another more important issue confronted itself.
"Trowa, follow me," she said quietly, standing and leading him to the bathroom. As she entered, still blissfully aware that Trowa was holding her hand, she grabbed the first aid kit she'd bought that day while grocery shopping. She sat down on the bathtub's edge and gestured for him to sit down on the toilet seat while she unwrapped the kit.
Trowa watched her as she undid the plastic covering of the kit, following her every movement. He never felt more warmth in his life as when he held her next to him and even now, when he was only a foot away from her, he felt her absence.
Dorothy pulled out a gauze pad and tape and set them next to the small bottle of rubbing alcohol. With one last final snatch at a group of cotton balls, Dorothy prepared herself to play doctor. She gave Trowa a smile as she gently dabbed at his gash with the alcohol. Trowa hissed lightly as a strong stinging sensation crawled its way up his face yet he smiled back at Dorothy.
"Big tough boy," Dorothy whispered with a light giggle. Trowa chuckled along with her and by the time she had completely cleaned his wound, he'd forgotten that he'd even had it in the first place.
As she made the finishing touches to his make-do bandage, his eyes once again sobered and focused in on her. The way her eyes were slightly slanted, like she was a European and Egyptian mix of a princess. His eyes traveled along her whole body frame and he smiled at her outfit. She looked ready to go to a gym class; quite the change from the sex goddess that had been sitting on his table not 4 hours earlier. Had it really been only 4 hours he thought. That couldn't be right, it had seemed-
His eyes fell upon where her sweatpants had ridden up above the knee. A nasty bruise was threatening to appear and caked blood was flaking off from the skin.
"What's that?" he asked gently, his hands cupping her knee. Dorothy looked down and remembered that she'd skinned her knee while running to the apartment.
"Just a scrape, that's all," she whispered. Trowa shook his head and grabbed a washcloth from the cupboard and wetted it down.
"Hold still, my turn to be doctor," Trowa said with a laugh as he began to wash off the blood. He kept looking from her knee to her face, making sure that he didn't hurt her. However, she just watched him do his work with a gentle smile. He cleaned her wound with the same tenderness she'd washed his with and bandaged it with a super band-aid.
And finally, just to make sure that it was all better, Trowa leaned down and kissed the wound just above the band-aid. Dorothy's eyebrow's shot up in surprise and she looked at him with disbelief. However, he only returned the smile as he placed her knee down again and got up. He had almost made his way out of the bathroom when Dorothy grabbed his arm and spun him around, wrapping her arms around his neck. She clung to him like a child, refusing to let go of him. But Trowa never wanted to let her let go of him; he wanted to stay like this forever. One of his arms snaked its way around her waist and the other lifted her face to meet his.
It was like the planets had finally aligned themselves for this moment to happen. Her body was pressed against his just so and their faces met like puzzle pieces. His lips met hers in a blinding moment of passion. She tasted like dreams and he tasted like a sunset and everything was perfect in their life. Screw the goddamn faction on earth, to hell with their jobs as Preventer and budding politician. None of that mattered. Only their lips meeting together at that moment.
When they finally broke apart, panting from lack of breath, Trowa placed the hand that'd been holding her chin over her head and pulled her down into the crook of his neck. Then he told her to hold on tight and he picked her up and carried her to his room where they fell asleep in each other's arms and their simple presence.
Snow wasn't falling on them, the stars weren't twinkling. Their light wasn't moonlight, but instead light from an orange streetlight. But both agreed that the kiss they shared just outside their bathroom doorway was the most romantic kiss they'd ever had.
Please R/R!
MadameHotaru.of.87