Three days ago, I got the news. Lady Une was very nice to tell me herself that the two of them are missing, and even nicer to send me home from work early.

I haven't had the heart to go back to work just yet. I haven't gotten out of bed, and my stomach is complaining. I haven't left the apartment and my ravenous stomach has visions of a refrigerator filled with food gone rotten. The milk must be sour and the eggs spoiled, by now.

But I can't quite bring myself to get out of bed.

There was a knock on my door yesterday, a timid one. I ignored it. If they really cared, they would not have left so easily. It must have been Hilde.

She has good intentions, but she lacks the heart to carry them through.

It hurts to sleep, because closing my eyes brings images of his ebony hair, and opening them I feel his eyes upon me. I think I may be going crazy from it. I never knew it was possible to miss someone so much.

There is a pounding on my door, much more insistent than the knock I remember before, and I make a move to answer, but find I'm too tired to get out of bed. "Who is it?" I call weakly, not having noticed how weakly until now.

"Sally!" the voice on the other side of the door is worried, concerned, and though it has obviously been speaking English for a long time, I can still detect a slight accent to the name. For half a second, at the sound of my name called urgently by the voice, I dare to hope that it is the man have fallen ill for, but as my name is called again, I realize it can't be him. Someone much less beloved, and more familiar.

There is the noise of a thud, and the door is knocked open. Leave it to Heero to find the most direct path into any situation. He appears in the doorway shortly after the noise and the glare on his face is a very serious one.

"Hi," I offer weakly, turning slightly and pulling the covers up over myself.

"That's all you have to say," he states the obvious, as always. He's either got the best observational skills or too dense to think through his words before using them. On careful reflection, I find that it must be the former.

He's too skilled and pensive for it to be as simple as a lack of attentiveness, although in the past he was unfeeling enough to let it simply be that. He crosses to the bed and yanks the covers off of me, exposing my barely clad body to the chill in the air and I let out a startled yip and glare at him.

Our blue eyes meet and after a clash, I fold. His eyes are harder than mine are. He is stronger than me. "Get up," he says simply.

I hesitate, unsure of how to say to him that I don't think that I can, and again I wonder what Duo must've felt when faced with the same stony glare and the same unmoving wall that he can make himself. And then he reaches forward, and I realize he is not unmoving, just without a forgiving nature.

Like a tsunami.

He grabs me roughly by the wrist and drags me into a sitting position. "Heero!" I snap, slapping at his wrist with my free hand. "Let go."

"Make me," he says with a challenging look in his eye. He was never this demanding of me before. Perhaps what happened on L1 was a mistake. Perhaps I never should have…

"Why are you acting this way?" I ask, feeling sick to my stomach and slightly dizzy. I did not know this was what it felt like to be wasting away, that death could feel this slow and unforgiving. "Leave me alone."

There is a growl in the room and for a moment it doesn't seem to be coming from him. And then, as he jerks me closer to him, one steely strong arm latching around my waist to drag me to my feet, I hear it from his throat, and feel the rumble of it in my chest that's pressed against his. "Foolish woman," he snaps at me, eyes dangerously dark as he stares into mine, the slight difference in our heights not enough to impede his dominance over me.

"How-" I start to protest.

"You've given up on him." He helps me easily to the bathroom, mostly carrying my weak body. "It's a mistake I made with Duo, and not one that I intend to let you make with Wufei."

My breath catches in my throat. "Heero… there's nothing… nothing left to give up on," I feel tears stinging my eyes, and he falls silent. "No survivors, Une said."

Gently, he lets go of my wrist, a slight chuckle in his voice, and brushes the tears from my eyes, almost tenderly. "And since when was Lady Une ever the authority on a Gundam pilot?" he asks softly. "Take a shower and get dressed… we've got to talk."

***

Mind reeling, I let the warm water of the shower cascade over my face, breathing deeply and carefully into the stream of liquid as it brushes away the fatigue and sweat of the past few days. Nothing like Heero to restore my faith enough to keep me moving on.

He did it during the wars, and apparently he hasn't given up that post as easily as he's given up fighting. Or appears to have given up fighting. With the density of muscle he still has in those arms, and that chest… I have to wonder. It certainly wasn't him we were fighting on either L1 or L2, or anyone he was working on… but the possibility that he's still fighting exists.

I can't ignore that.

But-

A thought strikes me.

That would be betraying Duo, whom, from what I can tell, has sincerely given up fighting as an option. My thoughts stray and I find my closed eyes feel as though they are being touched by gentle fingertips.

***

I open my eyes and find a dimly lit room. The last thing I remember is an explosion and the noise of footsteps running down the corridor outside the room. And then a brilliant flash of light and nothing but darkness. I can barely make out the shapes.

"So you are awake," a familiar voice says.

I blink and turn my head, looking for my new captor, but realize several things almost at once. There are no bars in this room that I can make out, and no captor would put me to bed, much less be mindful of my eyes. "A friend," I say weakly, and sink back against the pillow. "Who?"

"I'm completely shocked you don't remember my voice, Fei," the speaker says, "you spent a full two years trying to get me to shut up. I thought it was something you'd never forget."

***

I hear a voice and tilt my head, hoping to hear the distant one of a man I've never spoken truthfully to, but am only slightly surprised to hear Heero asking if I am all right and what I need to get ready.

"A towel," I reply, "and a little peace and quiet from you."

He chuckles, and I wonder, again, how Duo could've left him, as human as he's become. I turn off the water, raking my hair over my shoulder, and reach for a towel, wrapping it securely around myself before tucking my hair in another one and wiping the mirror off with a hand.

The steam on the glass from the water disappears, revealing my reflection, and I take a step back. The despair seems written on my face… etched in by three days of inactivity, and I am surprised at the change in my appearance. There are bags under my eyes, and my cheeks appear thin. My hair looks paler than I am used to, and my skin as well.

But my eyes…

Heero has put hope back into them, with his very presence… with his… care.

I shake the water from my hair and braid it quickly, going through the motions and dressing in the jeans and tee-shirt that Heero put into the bathroom for me after I got into the shower. I try my hardest not to look into the mirror as I head back out to talk with the stoic Japanese man.

***

"You…" I blink my eyes, finding it hard to see properly through them to make out the details of what I am sure must be a familiar face.

"The one and only," the same cocky voice says, and I find a smile tilting my lips. "Had yourself in quite a pickle that time, huh Fei?"

"Trowa, is he-"

"Resting comfortably, unharmed." I see a pair of pale hands reach up and toy with the end of what looks like a long brown rope that I am certain is a braid. "We're on our way to somewhere you can get those eyes looked at properly… I'm afraid I might have permanently damaged them, despite my heroic intentions."

"Being alive is better than otherwise," I say, relaxing on the bed, closing my weary eyes thankfully. "Does anyone know what really happened?" I certainly do not. As much as I would love to claim omniscience, I cannot, and will not.

"Reports have simply stated the place was attacked, and no survivors have been found." The voice is coming closer, and I hear the rustle of clothing as he kneels next to the bed. His fingertips are slightly cool as they gently brush across my eyelids. "Is there someone I should notify in your case, Fei?"

"Sai Lei," I say softly. "I do not want her to think that-"

His fingertips drift from my eyelids to rub gentle circles into my temples, and his voice almost makes me question his intent in saving us, "I'll see to it she gets the message… there's someone in London I've been meaning to contact for a while now." And as simple as that, he slips his hands from my face, and I hear the noise of his footsteps as he crosses the room, the gentle whoosh of the door telling me the sensors have opened it, and the scent of the sterile room decreasing to let me know the air flow has increased.

"Try to get some rest, Fei… it's been a long trip."

Indeed it has, I think to myself, yawning slightly. Tiring as well… especially with his presence. In truth I never disliked him… it was just too easy to let him steal the energy from a room for me to be calm and comfortable with him in the room… the same as with Heero, only for different reasons.

With Heero it was like the force of two mountains pushing against one another… there was no room for give on either side. We were too alike.

And, I think that now, so are they.