3: Window Shopping
[Author's note: The City that the remaining Gundam Pilots (Wufei, Duo, and co.) live on is Japan]
Alone, I lean on the windowsill, my cheek resting on my palm
staring at the endless rain
I've been alone all day
I wonder what you're doing right now...
The memories I collect are precious treasures
Making my heart wrench
Ah Isn't it strange?
Just remembering
makes me affectionate
Just like honey
spreading out sweetly in warm milk
My heart dissolves
Your smile is the finest honey
Upon the streets of Japan Heero stood transfixed in awe at how busy and lively everyone who was rushing to work happened to be. They were all so busy trying to get to where they were going, that they hardly seemed to notice Heero at all as he made his way across the crowded street and onto the sidewalk. His suit case dragged along behind him as he ventured across the sidewalk with curious eyes. "I wonder what sort of gift Relena would like," He uttered to himself. He stared into all of the small gift shops lined up beside eachother with wandering eyes, he needed to get the European girl something else besides teddy bears with bows on them.
The sun reflected off the glass windows of the gift shops Heero strained his eyes through his sunglasses to stare at each stuffed animal perched in front of the store. There many variety of stuffed animals; Lions, Zebras, dogs, cats, hello kitty, Kermit the frog, and many more icons and non-iconic animals. He voided making eye contact with bears. This was going to be harder than he originally thought it would be.
Just as he was about to give up something caught his eye, particularly a greeting card store. He looked above the door and read the name Velvet romance, the name made him cringe but he entered the shop anyway. Heero looked around the usually large store full of shelves and shelves of greeting cards and stuffed animals. He turned his Prussian blue eyes toward cashier that resembled one of Relena's helpers around the Sanc Kingdom and wondered if this woman could be of any help to him.
The woman caught him staring at her, she waved pathetically blushing red as a beet. Heero's mind automatically changed. I better just do this on my own. He thought cautiously moving toward the back of the store. The woman's hand dropped the counter with a thump of defeat thinking she would never get a guy to look her way for no more than two seconds. Heero looked around the many genres of greeting cards; Relationship, friendship, brotherssisters, mothersfathers, babies, baby showers, get well soon, happy birthday, catsdogs, fathers daymothers day, seasonal cards and anniversary cards.
This puzzled him to a certain extent but he paid it no heed and picked a floral decorated Friendship card. "Hn....." He scanned the inside for a moment contemplating on whether or not he thought of Relena as a friend or something more. Of course if he had ever explained this dilemma to Duo he would be met with laughter and teasing for two whole months or more. So he figured it was best to just keep this to himself. Grabbing the handle to his suitcase once again Heero made his way over to counter and the disappointed cashier. He placed the correct amount of money down upon the counter along with the card. The woman rang up the card, gave him a receipt and placed the card in a small gift box.
Just as he was about to make his way out of the shop the woman at the counter grabbed him my the arm getting a negative reaction from (a glare). She inched away from him before ducking underneath the counter and coming back up with a medium sized Hello Kitty doll holding a hear shaped box grasped between her fingers. Heero stared at the woman for brief moment before taking the Hello Kitty doll from her grasp then headed out of the shop without paying for it (although the woman at the counter didn't mind). Heero turned left and made his way back up the crowed sidewalk of Japan wondering how in the world he would get to the Sanc Kingdom without any sort of transportation. Sighing he continued trudging up the hill until he made it to the bus stop. "Maybe I should call Duo," He muttered reluctantly.
"C'mon Hilde, I can drive!!" Protested an angry Duo. Hilde simply ignored her friend as she loaded his backpack full of Tom Clancy novels into the back of the 4X4 Jeep that the American had rented with the last of their paycheck once all the bills and rent on the house were paid. "No, I'm driving Duo and that's that!" Hilde snapped trudging past the disheveled American.
Duo ran back into the house after Hilde hobbling, his legs were still hurting after being hit by a convertible but he made sure Hilde didn't see that. Once they had gotten home, Hilde had planned on calling Sally so she could inspect Duo's condition but she remembered Wufei had told her Sally had went back to her homeland for the holidays and wouldn't be back until the end of January. This posed quiet a problem for Hilde but before she could suggest going to a hospital Duo butted saying he just needed rest and that he would be fine once he did.
Hilde was hesitant but agreed to his plan, she did, however check in on him every so often when she wasn't paying off the bills. There appeared to be nothing wrong with Duo which was a sheer miracle in her book. When Duo awakened he immediately headed over to the phone to see if he could contact Heero (but much to his dismay the Japanese teenager was already gone), after waiting over 30min. for Heero to answer his vidphone Duo called the renting agency and rented a 4X4 jeep.
Once he knew Hilde was asleep with her face on the table covered with bills he set off to retrieve the Jeep. But once he got back to the house he was greeted by an outraged (but worried sick) Hilde Schbeiker standing right where he had parked the Jeep. Duo cringed at the sight of her red cheeks so he jumped out of the jeep without opening the door and simply blinked nervously at her which got him a punch to the aching part of his ribcage.
He doubled over and Hilde stole the keys from him as he fought to recover from the hard blow to the ribcage. Thus explaining Hilde not allowing the Braided teenager to drive. "Hilde would you stop for a minute, I just went out to get the jeep," Duo explained breathlessly. "You act like I went on another mission." Hilde stopped for a moment just to stare at her friend before bending over in front of the couch and picking up his and her suitcase and walked past Duo who trailed behind her with pleading eyes.
He followed out of the house and to the Jeep which was half way full of everything they needed for their trip. "Hilde if you didn't want me to go out why didn't you say so?" Duo asked earnestly. Hilde made a sound that to Duo sounded like she was grunting. Dropping the suitcases into back Hilde turned to face the incredibly nervous and confused Maxwell before her. Her arms were folded across her chest. "Would you have listened Duo? Hilde asked suspiciously. Duo glared at her for a long moment before he answered her question.
"Yes," He replied haughtily. "Do you think I want to get into another fight--------- with you?" Hilde shrugged halfheartedly which meant something to Duo. She remembered the last time that had an unusually large argument, which was around the time Heero was getting ready to leave for space. "I wanted to surprise you----- at least distract you from our bills. So I decided to sneak out of the house and go get the jeep. If I knew you were gonna react the way you did, I would've stayed in bed. I don't need you treating me like a liability." He added the last mentally.
Hilde's aquamarine eyes brightened somewhat and her arms fell to her sides slowly. "You did?" She asked. Duo gave one nod. Hilde looked down at the keys then back up at Duo then back at the keys. Sighing she moved closer to him and placed the keys in his hand reluctantly. Duo smiled and before she knew he had scooped her up into his arms spinning her around in one big circle making her dizzy.
Once he stopped Hilde found herself holding to his shoulders in an attempt to balance herself while he stumbled backward from time to time. "Not a good idea," He groaned almost falling over. Hilde nodded in agreement. "Was that all of the luggage?" Duo asked. Hilde turned her head slowly toward the Jeep then toward the house. There was one more box inside the house full of her and Duo's snow and house shoes (slippers) but she was sure Relena would supply them with slippers, but not snow boots, however. "One more box, then we can go," She said. Duo nodded and fell bottom first into the snow bringing Hilde down with him. "Dizzy," Was all he could utter. Hilde nodded in agreement before hauling herself up from the freezing ground then Duo.
"Stay right here," She ordered softly heading back to the house. Duo did as he was told, he remained outside while Hilde was inside the house probably grabbing the box she left. He sighed staring down at the snow trying to ignore the cold that reminded him so of that cold and horrible day. Closing his eyes he left himself get lost in a sea of his thoughts recalling the first time he had punched Heero successfully and knocked him out. A smile appeared on his face indicating he was quiet proud of himself.
Pulling his hands into his down jacket he watched as Hilde stepped out of the house setting the box on the stairs while she proceeded to lock the door. He smirked at her just as she came down the stairs with the box in her arms. Hilde just gave him a questing gaze before he followed her to the Jeep. After she had loaded the box onto the Jeep, the two set off down the road toward the Sanc Kingdom.
Elsewhere at the sanc Kingdom, Relena sat inside her bedroom with a look of confusion as she studied the picture of the young boy with the beautiful but haunted eyes. Her blue eyes glanced up from the picture to stare at her computer, rising from her bed she made her way toward the desk where her computer resided.
Her dog Lokey who was currently sprawled at the end of her bed hopped off and trailed after her letting out a big yawn. Relena smiled when the dog came up and rubbed against her legs, his way of saying hello. She kneeled down giving him a pat on the head causing his tail to wag back and forth vigorously. "Did you have a good sleep, Lokey?" Relena asked setting down on in her chair. Lokey barked with in enthusiasm before rushing out of the room to greet Pegan.
Smiling Relena turned on her computer then placed the picture onto her scanner. Slowly the picture appeared on the screen of the computer, while it did this Relena turned to the MSN search engine, she stared at the small print that was possibly the boy's last name. Toshinio...... I think I remember Father talking about a "Toshinio."..., Relena thought suspiciously as she typed the last name into the search box. Once the picture was done loading in the corner of the screen she hit the enter button, she leaned back in her chair as she computer to went to work.
In the meantime she let her thoughts wander from the name Toshinio to the whereabouts of Heero and if he was coming to earth anytime soon. She had planned on sending a greeting card to Heero which had given to Mariemaia, but when the young girl said it was missing from her room Relena lost all hope in Heero ever coming back to earth like he promised her. She sighed in dismay ready to turn of her computer (it reminded her too much of Heero) when a series of bleeps from the machine caught her attention.
Leaning forward out of her laid back position she stared intently at the information the screen and to her surprise there was a picture of her Father and two other people. Below she read a paragraph that said [Right, Rei Toshino, Middle, Vice forigen minister Darlain, left, Taku Toshino]. "Ha! I knew it!" Relena declared happily. Placing her hand on the mouse she directed the arrow toward the picture of the boy then clicked. A new window appeared full of information on the past whereabouts of this young boy.
Relena's blue eyes widened at the sound of her printer printing out something. Leaning over the to the left just as she paper was coming out she spotted Mariemaia walking beside the young boy outside the St. Gabriel institute wearing their respective school uniforms. Another picture had Mariemaia hugging the young boy (whom wasn't to pleased about it) outside on the large balcony of the institute. She had placed a baseball cap crookedly on his head, it hid one angry eye.
Relena scrolled down the page and spotted vital information on the boy. "Jin Toshinio was born A.C. 186, and is the only child of Rei and Taku Toshinio who met an untimely death after their home colony was destroyed by an unknown mobile suit. No one, however, knows what had happened to the child during this explosion, although he was found drifting in outer space with hardly any life support left in his space suit. However the whereabouts of the Toshino child is unknown, he ran away the moment he landed on earth. No one has heard from him since." Relena stared at the pictures on the paper before noticing a small note written at the bottom of the paper.
Picking the paper up she skimmed through the note and smiled at the name of the sender; Zechs Merquise. "Thought you might need this. Your bother, Zechs," Relena whispered. Turning off the computer the European girl exited her bedroom and made her way down the stairs. She was greeted by Pegan and Lokey who was busy chewing on an old ragged shoe that once belonged to her brother. "Miss Relena, lunch will be ready momentarily," Pegan announced with a bow.
Relena smiled pleasantly and placed her hand on the elderly man's shoulder once she reached the end of the stairs. "Thank you Pegan," Relena responded. "I'll be out at the green house until then." Pegan nodded slowly while Lokey trotted toward the kitchen to greet one of the maids inside. "Very Good, I shall call when it's ready," He replied. Relena nodded and made her way across the floor and out the door.
She traveled around to the back of the house where a splendid snow-covered garden resided, many creatures spanning from rabbits to squirrels, along with deer's visited the garden when no one was around water the plants. Relena strolled through the garden as she folded the paper into a compact size then stuffed it into her back pocket. She traveled through the garden until she reached the green house.
The smell of various green plants and a palm tree (that was given to her by a young girl from Hawaii who was on her way to collage) filled the air into the green house leaving Relena with a sense of peace for the first time in weeks. Bringing her hands behind her back she intertwined her fingers with each other with a sigh. Her mind automatically ventured back to Heero and a sad smile was brought her face. "Why? Why do I keep thinking about you Heero? You've never broken I promise to me before, so I why do I doubt you all of a sudden?" Relena whispered.
"Good question......." Relena's heart quickened its pace her blue eyes widened in utter shock and disbelief. Bringing her shaky hands to her chest she turned to meet the tall and semi-muscular built figure. "..........I'd like to know myself. But if its' any consolation to you I'm sorry for taking so long to fulfill my promise," The 18-year-old finished. Relena turned herself all the around to stare in bewilderment, her legs turned to Jell-O as she fought to keep her emotions from pouring out of her in front of the strong-willed Heero.
The first thing she noticed after admiring his eyes was his outfit. His worn brown blazer, a white dress shirt and jeans. Despite the snowy whether he was wearing a pair red sneakers. Finally Heero began to wonder if Relena even knew he was in front of him until he heard her quietly whisper his name. "Heero!" She breathed rushing toward him. Releasing his grip on to his suitcases, he let himself be bombarded by Relena body and her arms wrapping around his waist. Relena didn't want to leg go him, she was afraid that she was dreaming and if she even loosened her grip he vanish.
Heero remained still awaiting the moment she'd let go of him. "I know it's a bit early, but I've got a present for you," Heero spoke up. Relena released him she stared at him in question as he fished around in his usually large jacket pocket, Heero looked as though he was trying to remember something but couldn't recall it. She smiled at his occupied expression. Heero pulled out a greeting card and a hello kitty doll from his pocket, Relena giggled in amusement as she removed the gifts from his hands with a truly happy smile on her face. "Thank you Heero," She said kindly. "But you don't have to get me something very time you see me----------."
Heero blinked in response wondering if he had offended her in sort of way. Didn't she like her present? Relena stopped talking and noticed evident disappointment in his face and immediately clamped her hand over her mouth. "Heero I like the present, really I do!!" Relena exclaimed nervously. "I was just saying......... well, I don't know what I was saying. I'm sorry." Relena bowed momentarily before looking up at the slightly confused but understanding face of her friend with weary eyes. Heero waved the comment off with a shrug and grabbed his suitcases, he was a bit peeved but he would have to get over it sooner or later.
Relena watched him trudge through the snow dragging his suitcase behind him with a more than happy body posture. You messed up big time, Relena!! The 18-year-old sighed in defeat. She had to admit her conscience was correct; she should've just taken the gift with a smile and thanked him. Hesitantly, the blonde haired girl chased after him in hopes to redeem herself with the Japanese teenager.
Elsewhere on a shuttle to Earth Trowa and Catherine sat in the first class seats (courtesy of Relena Darlain). Catherine was enjoying herself quiet a bit to the extent that she ordered the both of them a full course dinner meal despite the early hour. Trowa shared a banana split with her but felt extremely uncomfortable being so close to her, because of his recent development of a crush toward his surrogate sister. Everytime she would start talking to him about subjects they usually spoke about on normal terms he found himself stammering under his breath as he tried to stare at her at the same time with a nervous smile on his face.
Catherine shrugged it off as being a bad case of post-travel jitters which she thought he was suffering from more frequently than usual. "Hey Trowa, what do you think of ice-skating?" Catherine asked curiously placing a hand on his shoulder. Trowa jumped but managed to keep himself from blushing. "Uhh ice-skating? What do I think about it?" He said. Catherine nodded. Trowa looked down at his lap with a look of uncertainty; he had never gone ice-skating before and the sheer thought of it made him quiver in embarrassment.
Looking back up at Catherine he exhaled and prepared to speak. "If you saying that's what we should do once we get to the mountains, then sure, I'd be happy to go ice-skating with you," Trowa said in his usual monotone voice. Catherine beamed happily and embraced her friend in a big hug, Trowa brought his hand over to her back and patted it. "Thank you Trowa," Catherine whispered, overjoyed. Trowa simply nodded in response as he tried to calm his hard beating heart. "Your welcome Cathy," He responded. In his heart he knew he couldn't keep his feelings hidden from her for much longer.
Catherine pulled away from him with a sigh and picked up her fork and began to work away at her pasta with a smile. Trowa picked up his orange juice, he sipped away at it pondering aimless at his feelings toward Catherine when he felt someone tap his shoulder. Looking up he stared upon the face of a little girl that held a flower in her hand. He blinked at her curiously but never uttered a word.
"Hellow Mister, you look like you could use some cheering up," The little girl replied handing the flower to him. Trowa took the flower and in return he gave the girl the last of the banana split to her. The girl gave him her thanks before setting back in her seat. Trowa examined the flower with a nostalgic smile, he remembered standing a field of flowers as child. His hand held in a much larger but feminine hand, he always saw her look down at him with a kind smile.
It was something maternal about the smile that made him wonder if she was his biological mother or just a figment of his imagination when he was dreaming. Despite this Trowa placed the flower in between the pages of his journal with a gleam in his eyes. He turned to stare into the brightening area of space which surrounded planet earth and for the first time in months he felt like he was in control of his life. Maybe this trip won't be as bad as I thought it would be. And someday if its not too late. I'll show Catherine how I feel about her. He turned to glance at the feasting Catherine Bloom with admiring eyes.
Mariemaia sat outside the institute underneath a large tree with her lunch box upon her lap. Beside her was a sketch pad with kitten doodles upon the page and a pencil beside it. The wind blew through her hair sending flying in front of her face as she pondered on the whereabouts of Jin and what he was doing. She knew he wasn't the social type (it narrowed down the possible things he could be doing) so she figured he was cooped up inside his bedroom with a book in his hand reading to his hearts contempt. She sniffled reaching up to wipe her eyes unable to get over the fact that he was being so cold to her and yet she knew it wasn't the way he usually acted.
"Or is it?" Came a voice. Mariemaia turned to look behind her and found Dido with her back against the tree with a knowing gaze focused on her young friend. "Dido, what are you doing here?" Mariemaia asked whipping her face with the sleeve of her dress. Dido shrugged innocently placing a hand on arm. "What are you still doing in your school uniform? Without a jacket no less," Dido asked. Mariemaia watched the tall teenager pat her down jacket with pride.
Shrugging the middle-eastern girl returned to gazing out into the cold yard. "Your sketch book is gonna get wet and all your drawings will be destroyed." Dido warned. Mariemaia scowled at the sketch book, picking it up she tossed in Dido's direction. Dido managed to catch the book with ease and frowned at her friends sudden behavior. Kneeling down beside of the little girl Dido sought to give Mariemaia a piece of her mind.
"Look just because Jin didn't say hello to you, doesn't mean a thing! He's a boy who is obviously semi-anti-social, Mariemaia," Dido snapped. "Maybe he was a bit offended at the fact that you figured he'd be happy to find you in his bedroom, his only place to escape the world. You shouldn't try to force-----." Mariemaia never gave Dido the chance to finish her sentence. Standing up the 10-year-old dashed through the snow covered grass in a furry of tears and anger toward herself, Jin, and Dido. Dido stood up abruptly helplessly watching as she girl venture toward the gates of the school just as a limo pulled up.
The teenager suspected it belonged to Lady Une of the preventers, which mean she was probably coming to pick Mariemaia up to take her to wherever they were going. Dido looked toward the school setting her eyes on a particular window above she knew belonged to Jin (There was a graffiti drawing of a Gundam on the window). "Somehow, I'm gonna have to get that kid to Mariemaia's destination if I'm ever going to remain friends with Maia," Dido whispered to herself as the wind blew through her hair. Operation forgiveness was in commence.
[TBC]