Keemew2: Chapter three!
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Blind Valentine
Ch.3-The End?
General…
Rated PG-13
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Relena watched Trowa with more then just a little amusement as he spent the last ten minutes (well, okay. One minute) head first in the trash bin, ejecting snacks he had managed to snag during Relena's carnival rampage from his recently weakened stomach.
"Dare I ask if you are all right Trowa?" the young noble woman asked softly, trying not to allow her amusement to show through.
The sound of retching followed.
Relena pinched a piece of cotton candy off her cone and placed it in her mouth, allowing the sugar to melt on her tongue before she continued, then licked the residue from her digits.
"I find it rather strange, really" She murmured "I thought, as a gundums pilot, your constitution would be stronger then this."
This triggered a response from Trowa as he slowly removed his head from the bin and forced a glare. One, I might add, that didn't faze her as most glares seem to fail to do.
"Heavyarms never spun out of control in a never ending cycle of chaos either." Trowa muttered, "And even if it did I would not have ridden on six times in a row, or allow someone to talk me into it."
Relena smiled sweetly and handed Trowa a drink she had grabbed while he threw up, one he took up greedily and drank with vigor.
"Thanks." He murmured dully.
"Your welcome. You don't have to stay you know." Trowa gave her a look of surprise, "I can handle my brother," She assured him, "and Hiiro's harmless." Trowa continued to stare at her, "Look, I'm sure they won't get mad at you if you leave me here. I've been working with Hiiro, he's better now. He doesn't draw his gun as quickly anymore, he thinks first." Relena stared into the silent, unblinking green eye of the stoic brunette. "Okay, now you're starting to freak me out Trowa."
"Sorry." He mumbled, turning away. "So, now what? Can we go look for Quat-?" the word barley left his lips before it caught on his tongue. HE stared into the milling crowd, startled, as he caught the fleeting image of a familiar blond. The sudden glimpse was enough to send memories he once thought buried deep within soaring high through the air.
22words of memory22
Can't you look sad? You killed the men who used to be your comrades.
And you're going to keep on acting like this, killing your own heart, aren't you?
How long do you plan to were that mask that never cries?
Your more free than I ever will be.
Good bye, No Name.
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Trowa started to walk toward the blonde, or at least where she had been.
"Trowa?"
Trowa looked over his shoulder to see Relena staring at him in confusion. EH didn't know what to do, he couldn't let the blond get away but….
"I think I…I will be right back Relena, don't move." And he was off before Relena could think twice about what he had said.
"Trowa, wait!"
She watched, bewildered, as he rushed off through the crowd, losing sight of him almost immediately. She stared in confusion only a moment longer before she huffed and crossed her arms in irritation.
"Stay here?" she repeated, "And do what? Wait for someone to attack me?" She turned around with a frown and looked at the ride behind her and, as she stared, her frown began to turn into a smile. "Well, I guess I could go on you one more time." She said to the ride she had ridden five times already.
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Trowa ran, fast as he could through the milling crowd, looking left, right, ahead and behind. He looked all over, trying to find the blond. He pushed, prodded; thrust himself through the crowd with a growing urgency he wasn't used to feeling.
It has to be her! Trowa thought distractedly, keeping his eyes pinned on the crowd. It has to be! He could have sworn it was her it looked just like her from the brief glimpse he had gotten.
Middi.
It had to be her. Who else could have that same Marigold blonde hair?
Yes, yes. He only had a glimpse of the face, but it had to be her. Why else would he pick her out of a crowd like that? Only his angel of death could have given him such an impression, he had to find her!
There!
He saw her. Trowa stopped short, barely registering as someone bumped into him. He stood there, numb.
How long do you plan to were that mask that never cries?
Trowa started forward. She wasn't moving anymore; she had stopped at a line, waiting for a ride.
You're more free then I ever will be.
Trowa was confused. He wanted to go over to her, to talk to her. To confirm that it really was her! But the closer he got the more hesitation he felt. The more he wanted to turn around, pretend he'd never seen her.
Goodbye, No Name.
"No." Trowa whispered. "No, not this time." He clenched his hand into a fist and walked, quickly, up to the woman standing in line and placed a hand on her shoulder, intent on getting her attention. He watched, as if in slow motion, as her head slowly turned, looking upwards, towards Trowa, with wide, startled eyes.
And the most beautiful eyes he ever saw looked straight through him, boring into his soul. Swirling within a mist of silvery blue lay wisps of delicate colors that drew him deeper into their depths. Colors that strengthened and weakened as the swirling danced gracefully within the confines of her iris. He couldn't help but notice as greens merged with gold's, pinks danced with purples, an aurora of color lying right before him!
And yet…somewhere in the back of his mind Trowa recognized the fact that these were not the eyes he was looking for.
The mist suddenly vanished to be replaced with a bright, twinkling blue that seemed to laugh merrily with amusement, a soft giggle accompanying the change of eye color.
Trowa was released from the mesmerizing eyes once they changed and he found himself staring at a young woman that not only resembled the woman he had mistook her for, but actually looked as if she could be a twin sister, if not all together identical. The strange resemblance was uncanny to Trowa and he felt rather innerved that anyone else could look so much like the woman he had thought was here.
But then again, she may not even be still alive.
"Forgive me." Trowa stated evenly. "I mistook you for another."
"S'Okay." She replied with a smile, "I don't mind. Names Petunia. Petunia Roseinbloom. You?"
"Trowa." He stated, then as an after thought, "Barton."
Trowa began to turn, but the sound of her exited chatter stopped him.
"No, way! Trowa Barton? The Trowa Barton? Friend and comrade of Duo Maxwell?"
Trowa raised an eyebrow.
"No way! I knew you looked familiar! Well, by your description really, but still! Oh, man, Duo talks about you often! I think you are soo cool! Well, he doesn't think so; actually he thinks you're a real stick in the mud sometimes! But the way he talks about you and your relation to Mr. Winner and the circus! Oh, wow! I've always wanted to meet you! All of you! He promised me he would introduce me at some point, ya know, but personally I think he purposefully forgot all about the promise. Man, you can never trust a thing that guy says sometimes!"
Trowa stared, amazed, as she jabbered on and on about things Trowa knew absolutely nothing about. She reminded him, somewhat, of Duo, but at the same time was far worse then he could ever dream to be. The thing about it, though, was he didn't want to tape her mouth shut like he usually wanted to do with Duo. He found himself staring at her, transfixed just by her voice. A very pretty voice, indeed. A soft alto that had a tendency to get loud, but he didn't seem to mind much.
Relena.
Trowa's mind abruptly turned to his purpose of the evening and he looked back the way he had come. He never should have left her alone, anything could have happened. He was being far too careless tonight.
"I have to go." Trowa was quite blunt in the matter, cutting her off mid-sentence. HE turned away from her and started for Relena.
"Huh. Duo was right." She stated, her arms crossed, as she watched Trowa blend into the crowd. "You are pretty rude." She chewed the inside of her cheek, briefly, before coming to a conclusion. "Fine. I'll be rude too." She rushed into the crowd, her eyes searching where she had seen him go, and spotted him fairly quickly as he hurried back to his evening's charge. She grinned mischievously as she began to stealth walk through the crowd, being sure she kept herself inconspicuous, but was still able to follow the tall brunette easily. She was amused to note that he didn't even notice her, quite enjoying herself.
And then he stopped.
He seemed puzzled and she watched as he looked around himself, double-checking the rides name. He seemed rather agitated, but not visibly so, really. HE scanned the crowd for a moment then looked upwards with a start as someone shouted his name. He appeared to let out a baited breath then leaned against the rail, satisfied he had found who he was looking for. Curious, Petunia sauntered over to him, the mischievous feel still held within.
"She your girlfriend?" she asked with that same grin. For a minute he appeared to be frozen. He didn't move, didn't even turn to look at her. Then, slowly, he turned his head to acknowledge her presence, just as Petunia stared upwards to get a better look at the woman on the ride. When she realized whom it was she almost squealed with excitement.
"NO WAY!" She cried, "That's-" But Trowa's hand was over her mouth before she could ever finish the sentence, turning her and thrusting her against his chest.
Trowa bent his head down to her ear, his warm breath making her skin prickle as he whispered. "Who?"
As he removed his hand for her to speak she answered just as quietly. "So it is her. What is the lady of the ministry doing here of all places? I'm guessing, by obvious choice, of course, that it is supposed to be a secret she's here?" When Trowa didn't answer her she turned around to see him looking at her, a mask of indifference on his face. She grunted. "Duo said you might do that whenever I talked to you. Whenever anybody talks to you."
"Duo has told you a lot?" She wasn't sure if it was a question or not.
"Yeah." She said cautiously, "I know about your war experience if that's what you mean. And no I didn't hear that from Duo. I heard that from my dad. You might have heard of him, you being a gundam pilot and all, his name is Doctor G." She gave him an evil little grin as she said that last thing. Trowa just continued to stare, as if he were in an interrogation. And then he surprised her.
"What?"
"Yeah." She replied, hiding her surprise at his knew interest. "He's my old man. Don't get the wrong idea or anything, though. I'm nothing like him. I'm a test tube baby he was using as an experiment. Well, I gotta go. I have someone looking for me. Bye!"
Petunia turned sharply on her heel, dashing off before Trowa finished processing what she had said. He was a little confused; this woman knew things about him that no one should know. And she got her information from both Duo and Dr. G. Neither idea was a good one, both of them should know never to tell anything about any of them.
Just how much did Duo and that old man let slip to the girl? Was it worth his time to worry about it, or should he trust in Duo's integrity for keeping secrets? He was, after all, a fellow gundam pilot. He'd been through just as much during the war, and in his past, as everyone else.
But that wasn't the only thing lingering in Trowa's mind, however. Her eyes seemed to keep him entranced even though she was no longer near him. Eyes that seemed burned into his memory. Eyes of a silvery blue mist that seemed to solidify into a bright blue color that seemed to reflect her merriment. They were strange eyes, not quite human. She had mentioned she was a test tube baby but so was Quatre and his sisters. So that can't have anything to do with it.
Trowa was still pondering the girl when Relena's ride stopped for a second time. She had gotten back on it without ever getting off and finally decided she had enough of the particular whirl-about-ride. When she reached the trouble young man she noticed he was deep in thought
"Trowa?"
the tall brunette looked down at the shorter young woman, acknowledging her presence.
"IS something wrong?"
"No, nothing." Trowa replied a little distantly, "Let's find Quatre."
"All right, but it may take a while considering we left them over an hour ago." She glanced at her companion. He was staring ahead of him, keeping an eye out, but she was pretty sure he was still listening. "We may want to head back to the boat ride and retrace our steps from there, don't you think?"
Nothing.
"Trowa, please stop doing that."
"Huh?" Trowa raised an eyebrow, slightly confused.
"Nothing." Relena replied irritably,
"Oh, sorry."
They made their way to the boat ride and walked the expanse until they reached the end. Once there Relena looked around, not quite sure where to start next.
"Hmm…." She glanced Trowa out of the corner of her eye and smiled slightly. "We could always split up. You know, cover more ground?"
"No."
"Fine then. We head towards the games. Neither one of us saw them as we walked through the rides, so that is essentially the logical choice."
Without replying Trowa headed off in the direction of the games, holding Relena by the arm so as to keep her with him. Relena lurched forward with the sudden movement and stumbled to keep up at first.
"Trowa, I am not going to run away."
"So?"
Incredulous Relena hurried her steps in order to keep up with the pilot and they left the rides behind them, entering the games. They didn't really see any sign of either Quatre or Dorothy as they walked and Relena found her thoughts wandering, thinking about the entire night thus far.
"Trowa, may I ask you a question with out you getting offended?"
"Nothing you say would offend me." Trowa replied without looking back at her.
"I don't really know about that."
"Ask."
"What has brought about the changes in you?"
"Excuse me?" Trowa stopped and turned to look at Relena, obviously confused.
"Well, during the war you were so cold and detached." Relena continued, "You were different. You hardly ever spoke. You've changed since then. You still don't speak a lot, but more then before. And you're not cold anymore. You're still a little detached, however. That hasn't changed, but you seem to have more emotion. Or something of the like."
"No offense." She added quickly.
Trowa cocked his head to the side slightly and examined Relena's form. He seemed to contemplate her request in order to formulate an answer. Finally he relaxed his stance slightly and closed his eyes, ready to answer her question. He looked up towards the night sky for a moment, then down at the young minister.
"The only thing I can say," Trowa began, "is that Quatre and my sister have helped me with that. I wouldn't have been able to tap into my repressed emotions with out either of them, especially Quatre. There is something about him, something special, that seems able to council others." Trowa looked deep into Relena's eyes, his forest green ones capturing Relena's in an intense gaze. "He would prefer, however, to keep that a secret until he's ready to tell people about that himself."
Relena, understanding reflecting in her own sapphire gaze, smiled softly as she nodded. She also had a suspicion that something else had been involved, that Quatre was special to Trowa for another reason, one that would be wrong of her to ask about.
Her heart skipped a beat as the sound of gunfire rang across the park, igniting frightened screams and shouts from around them.
"Gunfire in the parking lot!" Someone yelled, "People are trapped on the other side of the gate!"
"Gunfire!" Relena repeated, "What is going on?"
"I'm not sure." Trowa replied, his eyes narrowed, "But I believe you are safe. No one seems to be aiming for you, nor is anyone acting as though you would be in any danger. Stay here." He tossed his head back a little, catching her eye. "And I mean stay too. Stay here until either Quatre or I return for you, do you understand?"
"Yes."
Trowa nodded and took off towards the fence separating the parking lot from the gate. Trowa had no idea what was going on, but he had a bad suspicion he did. And even if he was wrong, which he hoped he was, he still had to stop the gunman before someone was injured, or worse.
When he reached the fence Trowa grabbed a hold of the metal and swung his arm up, pulling his weight until he was able to swing his legs up and over. He landed gracefully on the cement and ducked behind a car, eyeing the expanse. In the distance, maybe a hundred or so feet down, he caught sight of sparks flying as bullets grazed off cars. Most notably he believed that was the area Quatre had parked his car.
Quatre.
Trowa leapt up and began running through the cars until he had to start ducking behind them to miss the ricochet. He noticed several people hiding; scared they wouldn't survive the night, as he moved along. Finally he spotted the gunman, his bullets focused on one spot. Quatre's convertible.
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Quatre cursed as he helped Dorothy tie a piece of his shirt around her arm, something that made the frightened woman giggle a little.
"It's a cute word." Dorothy explained when she found him staring at her.
Quatre had used, not a curse word, but a random grouping of letters that just slipped from his mouth in an attempt to keep from swearing. It had come out as something like 'fizzlecrack'.
"Try not to move your arm to much." Quatre replied, "I don't want you to agitate the bullet. It's in deep and you may cause it to nick a vein."
Dorothy nodded and looked at her arm. She still wasn't sure how the bullet had gotten her but she had a thought that it was part of the ricochet. If that was the case it may only be a fragment from a bullet. Either way it was still painful.
Irritable and rather angry, Dorothy grabbed a hold of the handle of the car, lifting the latch and slowly opening the door.
"What are you doing?" Quatre asked as she reached into the barely open portal. "Dorothy? Your arm, don't agitate it too much."
"Quatre, shut up!" She hissed.
Startled, the young diplomat narrowed his eyes and watched as she managed to remove the item she had been after, her own bag of clothes. He wasn't sure if he should be exasperated or if there was some significance he was missing.
Dorothy hissed as she rubbed her arm painfully, a slight glare directed at Quatre. HE understood what she meant by it. She didn't want him to faun over her, something he would have done without the glare.
"I usually keep this in a holster beneath my skirt." She stated as she reached into the bag, "But I couldn't do that with these pants on." She pulled out a semi automatic handgun and handed it to Quatre. "Here, take this. I obviously can't use it, plus you're a better shot. I have a few extra rounds with me also."
"Dorothy…." Quatre murmured, staring at the gun uncomfortably.
"What is it Quatre?" she was confused, he could tell by her question. She recognized his hesitation but didn't revoke her offer of the gun. "I know you can't possibly say you don't use guns anymore. You're a member, no. You lead Preventer Five!"
"Dorothy-."
"No!" She shook her head "I don't care if you've reverted to a life of total pacifism! Someone is shooting at us with intent to kill and I don't want you hurt! Now take this gun and use it!"
Quatre looked around at the shooter, his heart clenching. Yes, he was a member of the task force. Maybe not the leader but he was a member of it. But even so, he still didn't' use a gun. He always managed to find a way around that. He always managed to find a kill free way to solve everything. He just didn't want any more blood on his hands but…he couldn't….
I don't want you hurt!Quatre took the gun from Dorothy and checked the load. He glanced briefly at Dorothy, then turned around the car's trunk again and shot off two bullets before sitting back down. The gunmen hesitated, as if stunned that his targets were firing back, before he fired off another set. Quatre shot out again then turned to Dorothy.
"I don't want to hurt anyone anymore." He said, "I hadn't meant to kill that man during Christmas and it's been bothering me ever since. But, despite all that, I don't want to see you hurt either."
He kept his empathy to himself, turned away from her. He was satisfied to know, just by knowing, that he'd made her happy in saying those words. That was all he needed, all he cared about. Quatre felt the clenching of his heart soften and he shot off more bullets.
I won't kill anyone anymore. Nor will I allow anyone to be killed. I will find a solution.
It was then that he caught a dark silhouette skulking through the cars, threading his way towards the shooter.
Trowa!
More shots were exchanged between Quatre and the would-be assassin and each time Quatre shot he made sure he knew where Trowa was. When Trowa was only one car away Quatre emptied the cartridge out, then ducked down quickly, waiting for the rebuff.
One shot. Two. A third….
Quatre waited. A fourth never followed. Slowly rising from his place on the ground he looked over and saw Trowa standing where the shooter had been, a gun in his hands. He sat back down with a sigh of relief and glanced over at Dorothy.
"It's over. Trowa's there now."
Dorothy sighed and relaxed against the car, holding her still bleeding arm. "Finally. And maybe we can find out who the man is working for, don't you think?"
"Yes. I want to know who sent him and who he was after. And if there is any relation to the Christmas fiasco."
