A zillion thanks to Mako-chan for being my ever patient beta.
Accidents - Part2
The large tub was full of scented bubbles. "A bubble bath? I'm not getting in a bubble bath." I scoffed. I was feeling a keen need to reassert my masculinity, and a perfumed tub full of foam wasn't going to do it.
My protests went unheard. Why wouldn't anyone listen to me now that I was a woman? Instead, he had Sally help strip me and dump me in the sudsy water.
However, I will freely admit that the bath wasn't Maxwell's worst idea. First, because I hadn't had anything better than a sponge bath since waking up. I was starting to feel disgusting. Second, the blood was making me feel doubly filthy. And third, the heat seeping into my cramping muscles felt very nice.
I was also glad for the bubbles because it hid my new female body from Duo's view. He had been trying to show a small amount of decency by trying to avert his eyes, but I still needed his help bathing. I couldn't lift my arms for more than a few seconds, and the tub was rigged with a harness to hold me up. Well, if he was going to stay, he was going to work.
"Maxwell?"
"Yes?"
"Would you be so kind as to help me wash my hair?"
Yes, I still had my hair. The protective helmet saved most of it, and it had grown while I was regenerating.
"I think I can handle that."
The feeling of strong fingers massaging my head and cleansing the greasy mess my hair had become was hypnotic. I started talking to keep from falling asleep. "Where are Quatre and Trowa?" I murmured. It'd been a while since either one had visited me.
"Helping Heero," he answered.
"Heero?" I asked, puzzled. My eyelids were getting very heavy.
"What? Forgot that you aren't the only one who's come back from the land of dead in a woman's body?" he asked, amused.
Actually, I had. Occasionally, I would ask how he was doing, but somehow I still kept thinking he was a man since that was how I last saw him.
"How is he?" I asked sleepily.
"She."
"What?" My eyes drifted closed while he used the shower wand to rinse out the shampoo.
"She. Heero has decided to stay a woman."
"He what?" I jerked in my harness and ended up getting a face full of water. That woke me up. Duo used a cloth to wipe off my face.
"Heero has come to the conclusion that his new body provides a perfect opportunity to start a new life."
"I always suspected his sanity," I muttered. He had to be crazy to consider being a woman an opportunity. Duo must have felt differently because his hands stopped massaging in the conditioner. He sighed.
"Look, Wufei. It's always been difficult for him to forget what he was during the war. It's hard for him not to see an assassin that could bend steel with his bare hands whenever he looked in the mirror. Now, he sees a woman –and a very attractive woman I might add- that can barely bend a willow branch."
He just had to add that bit about Heero being attractive, didn't he? I had the urge to grind my teeth together. "Maxwell, kindly never mention to me how attractive a woman Heero makes EVER again."
He chuckled. "You're just jealous," he joked as he resumed massaging my scalp.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, yes, I'm so disappointed I'm not as pretty as Heero." The fingers stalled for a moment and started back up a little more vigorously than before. About ten seconds later, they stopped again.
"I… uh… I'll just get Sally to help you finish up." And he fled the bathroom. I supposed it was just as well. The bubbles were disappearing.
It was a few weeks later when I got to see the new and improved Heero. Duo was pushing me around Quatre's estate grounds when we ran into Heero being wheeled around be Trowa.
Ugh, Duo was right. There was a lightness to Heero I'd never seen before. He looked – correction, she looked almost radiant. After everything else that had happened to me over the past month or so, the sight of lovely, happy, cheerful Yuy barley fazed me.
She-Heero smiled warmly at me. "Duo! Wufei!" she called out. "Wufei, it's good to see you're feeling better. I was starting to worry about your recovery."
Perhaps I was a little fazed. Damn creeped out, actually.
"Sorry to concern you, Yuy," I answered neutrally. I always knew where I stood with the old Heero. This new one left me a little off kilter. She looked up at Trowa.
"Trowa, do you mind if I talk to Wufei for a few minutes alone?" she asked him. He smiled at her and moved her wheelchair next to mine. Something about Barton's behavior set alarms off in my head.
Duo gently touched my shoulder. "I'm gonna go get something to drink. You want anything?" He left me to have "girl talk" with Yuy after taking my request for some juice.
I sat there for a few uncomfortable minutes, not knowing what to do or say. The girl that was once my friend and comrade looked at me and sighed.
Right before my eyes she transformed herself into a shadow of the man she once was. "You disapprove," she said. The dead, nasal neutrality that characterized Heero Yuy had returned to her voice, if at a higher pitch than before.
"I'm trying to understand your choice." Did my own voice change that much?
"I figured you of all people would understand. Remember when we fought and you asked me if I felt alive when fighting? Well, you were right. I was made for fighting and I was only alive when fighting, even though I no longer wanted to. How does a weapon stop being a weapon? I was never supposed to live through the war, but as the war progressed, there was a small part of myself wanting to live through it and see the world past it. I lived through it, but then I found a part of me that was having trouble living with peace."
"When I first woke up, I was angry. Angry to find I was still alive. I wanted to die in that explosion. I wanted the assassin codenamed Heero Yuy dead and buried. I had woken up several days before you, but I was so angry at being alive I refused to aid in my own recovery. I had no idea I'd been changed, and everyone assumed my lack of response was normal for what I'd been through. But then, you woke up and surprised everyone by demanding answers right away. Becoming female has given me the chance to be someone other than who I was trained to be."
She held up her new, slim, callus-free hands. "These hands have never had blood on them and never held a weapon. I can do things with these hands that I would never have attempted before."
I stared at her, stunned. I'd never heard Heero speak so much and I never expected him… ugh… her to have such a philosophical outlook on life. "You don't find being a woman uncomfortable?" Especially that whole menstrual thing.
She smiled. "Only how to act. I keep having to ask myself what Relena would do in a situation and try to emulate that. Like when I just saw you, for instance. I know the old me would have stayed silent and waited for you to say something first. Even then, I probably would have stayed silent and only would have nodded in recognition. This time, I initiated the conversation." Her tone suggested she was quite proud of herself for that.
"Are you certain you are happy?" If she was, who was I to judge what made her so? She nodded, another shy smile playing on her lips. "Then I'm happy for you, although I'm not certain Relena is the best role model for you. She's a little too perky for you. Perhaps Sally, or better yet, Noin. They are a little more sedate and closer to your temperament. That way there's less chance of you having a meltdown." I had to laugh at the face she made. I was forced to admit there was a definite charm about her. No wonder Trowa was doting on her.
A few minutes later, I found out Trowa wasn't the only one doting on her.
"There you are!" I heard Quatre say brightly from behind me. He walked up between us and squatted down next to my companion. It was almost an afterthought that he noticed me. "Wufei! It's good to see you out. Where's Duo?" he said cheerfully.
"He and Trowa left us to talk for a bit. He mentioned getting something to drink." I couldn't help but notice the flicker of irritation on his features when I mentioned the Heavyarms pilot.
"I see." He gave Heero a mischief filled smile. "I smuggled you in some contraband." He pulled a couple of candy bars out of his pocket and passed them to a very pleased looking Heero.
This was almost too painful to watch. Two of my friends were becoming enamored with a third because he had become a she. There was no way this could work out well. I was secretly trying to send telepathic signals to Duo to haul his braid back here and save me.
He must have somehow heard me, because he returned with my juice a few minutes later. And of course, he returned with Trowa. The tension between the two best friends was palpable. Trowa spied the candy bars and gave Quatre a pointed look.
"Quatre, Iria said Heero wasn't ready for rich foods. You want to make her sick?"
"She can save them for when she is ready," the blond retorted.
I'd have been amused if the whole situation didn't feel so awkward. I sent a glare to Duo that begged him to get me out of there immediately. He had no trouble getting the message.
"Okay!" Duo interrupted the tableau with forced cheerfulness. "I think Wufei has had enough fresh, recycled colony air for one day!" And we wheeled away as fast as we could while still looking polite.
"How long has that been going on?" I asked him. It was unnecessary to ask which 'that' I was referring to.
"Almost from the moment the two of you emerged from the regeneration tanks. I guess there's just something about her that appeals to Gundam pilots."
Didn't I already tell him not to mention to me what kind of woman she was? Unbelievable! She didn't have enough men fawning all over her? No, I'd reached my limit. If I had to sit there and watch Duo get all starry eyed over Heero, someone was going to get hurt. Maybe it was the glare I gave him or the white knuckled grip in the armrests of my chair, but the long haired man wisely chose not to mention Heero again for the rest of the week.
Jealous? What do you mean jealous? To be jealous would imply that I was even remotely interested in one of them, and that I was preposterous. I just didn't want to listen to my primary care giver endlessly spewing about how wonderful Heero was. Besides, we had far better topics to discuss. Topics like poetry, philosophy, and literature.
Got you with that one, didn't I? Since when does Duo talk about literature? Apparently, since the explosion.
In order to help out, Duo had quit his job at the scrap yard. He decided to use the time off to go back to school and become an engineer. With very little formal education, he had to take equivalency tests and challenge entrance exams. Sciences and math came as naturally to him as breathing, but he had no patience for the finer fields of learning. I offered to share my knowledge with him to help him.
"This is so stupid!" he yelled, throwing down the book he was reading.
"What is?" I looked up from my leg lifts, puzzled. I had reached the stage where I could stand freely for a few minutes, but walking still eluded me.
"Shakespeare! I have no idea how this crap has been revered for so many centuries."
I could only splutter in shock. Although Shakespeare wasn't a favorite of mine, I would never have called it crap. "Shakespeare used timeless themes that are just as pertinent now as when they were written. Which play are you reading?"
"Romeo and Juliet." He made a distasteful face. "Some great romance. If you ask me, it just sounds like two horny teenagers wanting to boink each other, and mummy and daddy don't approve."
"They are supposed to be deeply torn between the love they feel for each other and their duty to their family."
"Then, because they can't get their way, they off themselves. It's stupid. If the girl I wanted cared about me as well, I'd tell anyone who didn't like it to stick it where the sun don't shine."
"Ah, but that is my point! You understood that was what was happening even with the archaic language barrier. Do you see? The theme is still relevant even today." I could tell by Duo's face that I had won the argument, but he kept arguing for several more minutes out of principal.
We had some spectacular arguments over his school work. We could argue for hours over the meaning of a single line in a poem. It was great fun, almost like it was before my accident. One time, Quatre's sister, Iria, came storming in, yelling at Duo that I needed my rest. She was scared out of the room by twin scowls telling her to mind her own business.
Yes, I can admit without shame that I was very proud of him when he received top scores on his tests and gained entrance to an excellent school.
