ChibiMe: The plot thickens even more. But will our heroes find Quatre before he cracks, wanders out and goes Zero System on the first person he sees? And is there a chemistry of any kind at all between Sylvia and Heero? If there is, that damn author's taking his sweet time in getting to it…

The World's In Your Eyes, by Kaoru Saotome

The pickup bounced merrily along, its three-tons-plus of mass roaring along the almost deserted highways of the French countryside. Heero bounced with it; Sylvia, however, was used to the truck's odd motion and remained perfectly seated, even when a nasty pothole in a particularly decrepit stretch of tarmac threatened to flatten Heero's skull against the cab ceiling.

Sylvia's in-car music collection was an oddity. It consisted entirely of pre-Colony music such as early Blues, Rock and other such genres. Unfortunately it also included other, slightly later genres such as Death Metal; it was this screaming nonsense that was making the truck bounce on its suspension more than the road's uneven surface.

Heero, by coincidence, was also fond of most of the genres in this collection. His main dislike, however, was the one currently playing at volumes unknown to popular man.

The disc was on a small turntable; with the push of a button, a different disc could be instantly accessed. Heero reached for the button, and the music changed.

"BORN IN A BURIAL GOOOOOOOWN – "

Click.

"All the leaves are brown…"

The soldier sat back. This was a little more bearable. Sylvia, startled out of her driving reverie by the change, scowled slightly and pressed another button – this time on the easy-access control pad fitted into her steering wheel.

"I'd been for a walk, on a winter's – "

Click.

"You ain't nothin' but a hound dawg…"

Click. Heero had returned to his button-pressing.

"Raindrops keep falling on my – "

Click. So had Sylvia.

"Jeremiah was a bullfrog – "

Click.

"This is getting ridiculous." Heero's voice was flat. He'd turned the radio off.

"I agree…I have an idea. You don't know which discs are in. Let's say whatever button you press, apart from the ones you already know – we stick to. Okay?"

"Fine." Heero pressed the penultimate in the row of buttons. Immediately the cab was filled with the crooning of David Bowie. They both relaxed – Sylvia grinning widely, and heero falling back into his seat with a satisfied smirk.

After a while, Sylvia began to sing along with the music.

"She'd sigh like Twink the Wunderkind, and turn her face away…" she looked to her side, and glimpsed Heero actually sitting with his eyes closed for once. Usually he was totally alert, all senses open. But, for once, he'd relaxed. She didn't know how privileged she was to have seen that. She returned her gaze to the road.

"She's uncertain if she likes him…" she continued.

"But she knows she really loves him…" That hadn't been her…it was a soft, almost insidious voice with a hint of pain behind it. A voice she knew well.

Sylvia turned. Heero, singing? That deserved a double take. But still, bad driver though she may be, she had to keep her eyes on the road. She decided to let her reflexes handle the road while she considered the enigma with which she had just been presented. She thought she knew heero, and then he went and threw her a complete curve.

"It's a crash course for the…" Heero trailed off, opened his eyes and looked at Sylvia. He didn't know why she'd stopped. She turned after a moment, to wonder the same of him. Their moment of eye contact lasted a scant second before Sylvia broke away. She told herself it was to keep her eyes on the road, but simultaneously she knew there was a much less orthodox reason: Heero's eyes frightened her. It was said the eyes were the window to the soul; in that case, from what Heero's eyes told her, he had a mind like a steel ball. Those eyes were almost lambent when he wasn't staring at you; but, like those pictures that changed with one's angle of view, the eyes changed when they were directed at you. From the side, they were endless pools of azure power. When he was angry, sky-hued lightning coruscated across his baleful glare. But full-on, it was like looking at two chips of blue marble or granite. There was a reason people called that gaze a Deathglare; and it wasn't because of its threatening nature. It made the user appear totally soulless, as if any conscience or human kindness behind those eyes had long since melted away to leave a killer mind.

Heero watched her for a couple more seconds, then turned to look out of the window. They stayed like that for another hour; Sylvia occasionally humming along with Mr Bowie, and Heero watching the scenery go by and estimating their position using various landmarks and signposts.

Eventually Sylvia could stand it no longer. She was a communicative soul, deep down; stonewalling was not her specialty. She looked at Heero from the corner of her eye.

"So, Heero…I lost track of you after we met last time. What happened between then and our next meeting?"

Heero looked at her. Hard. For quite a long time. Then he replied.

"That's like asking someone to explain the entire Rosetta Stone in one sitting," were his words. "A lot of things happened. I went back to killing people, earning myself enemies and murdering them, ruining the families of soldiers whose only crime against me was to be told to stand in my way."

Oops. She'd hit a nerve. Sylvia rewound a little.

"Well…my grandmother told me you visited her and that she got in touch with the Vice Foreign Minister. Ms Dorlian seemed very close to you."

"I guess I was her guardian for a while."

"But she was old enough to look after herself…she had no legal guardians, That would have come up in the news."

"You don't understand. I mean I protected her. A lot of people were out to kill her…and she was the only person to ever see my face without me wanting it to be seen. Then when Duo turned up, and shot me…I guess I figured she had to live. The Fates wanted it. So I made sure she stayed alive."

"Duo…who's he? Was he the one in the truck when you met me at the graveyard?"

"No. That was Trowa. Duo was Pilot 02. He's in America now, unless he went to visit Wufei – pilot 05 – in China. Those two were the strangest friends I ever met."

"So Duo used the black Gundam?"

"Yes…its name was Deathscythe." Since they were melted down, and the war was over, it was safe to speak of such things. It was public knowledge anyway.

"And Trowa?"

"Pilot 03. Heavyarms…the red and white one."

"And Wufei?"

"Shenlong. With the spear and extending arm."

"So Quatre had the other one…with the two blades…"

"Yes. Sandrock."

"What happened to those Gundams anyway?" asked Sylvia. Heero almost didn't tell her…but, he figured, what the hell.

"We destroyed them. Sent them into the Sun."

"Hmm…from your tone, no one else knows that. I guess I'll keep it secret." She smirked at him, taking her eyes off the road briefly. "And if I tell anyone, you can kill me."

Heero blinked. This was going to be a long trip.