Note: Things in "" and italics are when the people are speaking Japanese!

Chapter 14: Taking Leave

When Heero woke up, he didn't remember anything, luckily. Everything was a blur, but he caught glimpses and hung his head low for whatever he had done. The Shadow, or whatever it was, had done something he didn't know.

Heero got up off the bed and dug in his duffel bag and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and began to write. He placed the materials, minus a piece of paper, which had scribbled on it and zipped up his duffel bag and swung it over his shoulder. He placed the piece of paper on the bed and put a bowl on it to hold it down. He opened the window, looking down, then jumped out of it. He fell to the ground faster than he would have imagined since it was a second story, but he landed on his feet, crouched. He dusted himself off and ran off into the night, making his way to the airport as the morning sun began to rise.

The morning sun rose and the birds chirped merrily for the world to wake up and start the new glorious day before them. Relena woke up with a jerk, got some decent clothes on and then ran off into the hall to check on Heero and bring him down to breakfast. The room was vacant. Vacant except for a piece of paper with scribbled handwriting on it held down by a bowl so as not to be blown away by the light breeze coming from the open window.

She looked down hearted at the note. He hadn't even said where he was going. He was the type of guy that if he didn't want to be found, he couldn't be.

"Relena." She read aloud, trying to imagine his face. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused for you and the other's. I've overstayed my welcome. Miyyuuki is probably out of her mind by now." She finished. He hadn't even stated his name or anything. He didn't even sow any emotion into letters either.

She clutched the note and put it into her jean pocket. She had planned on going with him to a picnic in the wood's clearing near the estate. 'I guess I should have told him, maybe then he wouldn't have left so soon...he didn't even relax at all this whole time.' She smiled sadly and brushed back tears that were about to spill, showing her emotions for him.

Duo stood by the door. "Hey, what's up?" He looked around the room and noticed the vacancy. "Where's Heero?" He questioned. He saw Relena pull something out of her pocket and she handed it to him, leaving to go to the dining hall where breakfast would be served.

Duo read over the note and ran up to catch up with Relena. "Hey, who's Miyyuuki?" He questioned.

"She's the daughter of the family that started the rebellion. She's so excited that Heero's going to school with her and all. He's going to be kind of like a body guard for her, y'know." Relena said with a fake smile and laugh that made Duo's insides lurch. It was killing him to see Relena like this.

'That mean's that Miyyuuki likes Heero too and we don't even know where he's gotten too now.' Duo thought sadly. 'It was good for him to stay as long as he did, which was more than a day, surprising for him. The thing was...it made her happy...' He thought again.

"Well, let's get something to eat." Relena said, walking past the front door over to the dining room but stopped when she heard sharp knocks on the door, very loud and sharp knocks, like some one in a hurry.

Relena walked over to the door and opened it, seeing the panting person by the name of Mnemosyn. Relena brighten up. Mnemosyn had been very kind to her and the other's apologizing for what her other personality did to them. She had kept it in check she said and it would never, hopefully, happen again.

Relena smiled when they saw the guest. Her and Mynemosyn had become good friends after the whole incident, and Lethe's obsession with a certain perfect soldier. Of course Mnemosyn wanted nothing other than friendship from the Gundam pilots and Heero, which was perfectly fine with Relena. "This is unexpected, Mnemosyn." Mnemosyn looked up, a weird look on her face, hinting to Relena something was wrong. "What is it?" She questioned in a hurry with concern etched into her cheruibc features.

"Where is Heero?" Mnemosyn said with a terrified hint in her voice.

"He left before morning, why?" Relena asked, getting the clue something was wrong, but not knowing what it was about.

She looked up. She shook her head. "Never mind." She said sweetly, still trying to catch her breath.

Relena opened the door wider for her to come in. "come on, we were just going to get some breakfast." She said sweetly. Mnemosyn nodded and walked almost weightlessly into the room and took a seat next to Relena and Quatre and joined their conversation into the plans for the Reconstruction Era.

Wufei sat next to Sally, talking about some terrorist groups and stuff that need to be taken into control before their ideals and other reckless former soldiers that had banned with them carry such through.

Duo sat with Trowa talking about nothing with Wufei and Sally until, the previously silent Trowa spoke. "What if they come after him?" He said aloud, though he had been deep in thought before, barely touching his food.

"Huh?" Duo asked, turning to the Gundam pilot.

Trowa looked at the four before him. "What if the organization that was prepared to buy Heero off of Lethe comes after him again?" He questioned them, bringing the unnoticed into the open.

The others were quiet, and Mnemosyn, Quatre and Relena were still talking about politics, obviously not hearing about what Trowa had just pointed out.

Heero opened up the doors to his apartment and found all the stuff already piled up there. He hadn't had a lot, mainly because he didn't need a lot. All he needed was a bed, a laptop, food, and water. Those were his main necessities.

He turned on the light, threw his duffel bag down and started moving some of his stuff around. After an hour, everything was settled in and he walked out the door to go and see Miyyuuki and find the nearest grocery store.

He greeted Miyyuuki, telling her that he was delayed because he was staying at Vice Foreign Minister's estate to regain some strength. She knew deep down that she was also after him, jealousy filled her heart. "Oh, alright!" She said cheerfully.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow or whenever it starts." He told her, taking off back to his apartment, grabbing some fast food on the way.

He grabbed the keys from his pocket and rammed them into the lock, opening up the door while skillfully balancing some groceries, books, and fast food while he walked into the apartment, then put them down onto the table then put the stuff away.

He then brought his dinner into the bedroom where he laid on the bed watching the news and looking at his laptop every so often. Miyyuuki was going to email him or something with what they had done in school so far so he could get caught up, though he didn't need it. He was already in college level academics, part of his training in the organization. He had known a lot of stuff, finishing what they required (which was a college level intuition) by the age of seven.

His laptop beeped as he got up off the bed and then opened up the screen, which also served as a communicator with a vid screen since his was high tech and he clicked a button, connecting to the link.

Duo's happy face appeared. "Hey buddy!" He said cheerfully, glancing to make sure it was Heero and not someone else who happened to be in his apartment.

"What do you want?" Heero asked in his normal emotionless voice (if you could call that normal). He didn't bother taking a seat. The door to the apartment was tapped lightly. Duo looked around the room, he saw the TV on and the bag of McDonald's. "Hold on." Heero said and disappeared. The room was barely lit and the door could be heard opening and a young girl's voice was heard.

Heero walked back into the room again with a girl following behind him. She was smiling and laughing as she plopped down on the bed, putting a movie into the DVD player attached to it. She hit the play button as a movie began to run it's commercial's as the girl walked out of the room.

"Hey, who was that?" He questioned, noticing the girl had short blonde hair and green eyes.

"Miyyuuki." He stated simply. Duo could be heard making a barely audible 'oh' sound.

She walked back into the room, carrying a bag of cheese popcorn that she brought with her. "Yeah?" She asked. "You called?" She said with a laugh. She walked over to him and leaned to look at the screen. "Who's that?" She questioned childishly.

"Duo Maxwell." Duo said, introducing herself. "Anyway, Heero, we're all going on a vacation! Relena wants you to come. We'll come and take you by force if we have to! We already got Wufei!" He said jokingly. He turned the camera out to look at Wufei who was muttering a string of curses who was bound to a chair with a gag in his mouth looking infuriated than ever before, even during a battle. Even after he lost a sword fight against Trieze he had never looked so infuriated.

Heero looked at the screen blankly. "You wouldn't be able to take me like that even if you tried." Heero stated, pointing out the obvious.

Duo sweat-dropped at this remark, true as it may be. "Look!" He shouted into the screen, making Miyyuuki flinch a bit at this. "You still need the rest for god's sake! You were injured severally!" He said loudly.

Miyyuuki looked at Heero who was staring at the screen, not denying this at all. "I don't need rest." He said to the American pilot.

Miyyuuki pulled Heero into a hug as Relena opened the door to see how it was coming. The other's walked in as Heero stood there, with Miyyuuki hugging him tightly. He didn't give her a hug back. She dragged him away from the screen. "Hold on." She smiled a sad smile.

Relena, who caught a glimpse of the hug, was silenced when she heard Miyyuuki talk in hushed tones to Heero.

"You didn't tell me that you were hurt severally!" She said sadly. "Why didn't you?" She questioned, almost pleadingly.

"Because I wasn't. They think I was but what's severally to them is normal for me." He said to her, clearly not caring for his well being like she did.

"Don't you ever think about yourself?" She asked, shaking her head at him.

"No, not often. I have no need to and I never had. That's how I've been trained and raised." He said to her, making tears well up in her eyes.

"I understand that you've lived through a worse hell than all of them but you need the rest. You've been working yourself sick. I'll be fine on my own. After all, I am strong like you too." She said, a mocking tone in her voice. "Maybe not as strong as you, but I am strong enough to defend myself y'know." She said happily. "Just give me a gun and I'll be fine."

Heero didn't say anything to this but sighed heavily. He walked over to the screen with Miyyuuki following him, wrapping her arm around his as she leaned into him to look into the small screen at all the people there. Relena looked at her and glared, Miyyuuki ignored it and then walked back over to the movie, which had started playing and pressed pause again.

"When and where?" Heero asked.

Duo smiled a bit at this. "Don't worry about that. We'll send someone to pick you up at the airport tomorrow." He said cheerfully. "See ya then." He disconnected the link and Heero plopped next to Miyyuuki who pressed play and the movie began to start.

"So?" She asked, not pulling her eyes from the screen as the dark woods appeared on it, playing 'Van Helsing'.

"Why did you do that?" Heero questioned her, not showing any expression or emotion yet again.

"Do what?" Miyyuuki asked, removing her eyes from the screen to see his outlined face not looking at her. "Oh, you mean with the whole hug thing?" She asked cheerfully and made out a slight nod from Heero. He looked at her. "Everyone needs hugs now and then." She said cheerfully.

"Not me." Heero said. "I may be looking after you and all, but that doesn't mean that you have to cling to me like that." He stated.

Miyyuuki blushed in the dark. "All the girls thought that you were out for taking at the school so I had to get them off your back somehow." She said, covering her tracks. Heero didn't respond to this and leaned against the wall, watching the movie and letting his eyes slowly fall asleep. After the movie, Miyyuuki let herself out, leaving some food for him to take on the trip and his Evanescence CD which he let her borrow with batteries for his CD player to listen to on the trip.

Day hit early than Heero expected as he slung his duffel bag over his shoulders and headed out the door to the airport, which was within walking distance, leaving the key's to his apartment with Miyyuuki. He had brought along the food she had given him: a Chinese food boxed lunch that Miss Hagurai had made him for the trip, the batteries Miyyuuki left him, his CD player with the Evanescence CD, his laptop, some Japanese currency for spending, his small amount of credit cards, and some disks which he always carried with him.

He met the others and got onto the private plane that Relena had gotten for them and boarded.

TBC