CHAPTER 1
Violet- Like my love, like my blood
--Xois
Missions had been few and far in-between. Heero had been shoved face to face and battled with boredom for the first time over the past couple of weeks. He could only deny Duo his attentions for so long after he had descovered a few mission reports composed entirely of bullshit for the sake of keeping his time to himself. Of course the braided one had suffered a scalding lecture from Heero about personal privacy and that his fingers were to be severed off one by one if he ever touched his beloved lap top again.
To Heero's knowledge Duo had maintained his fair distance, but had kept a close eye on him at all times just the same. To his intense shame Heero had admitted to himself while drunk durring one of Duo's mindless drinking games that watching the braided pilot so closely could have very well been for reasons entirely seperate from the saftey and confidenciality of his lap top and it's contents. From then on anytime his subconcious would so care to remember that hidden and denied fact, a slow burn would creep its way through his skin presenting itself boldly upon his cheeks.'Baka' Heero rolled the nickname over his toungue several times in a rythmic pattern.
His heart stopped suddenly as he was virtually slapped in the face with reality as he registered the shocked expression on Duo's face. Realizing that he'd been staring at the space between Duo's legs for a solid ten minutes Heero clapped over his nose in an effort to prevent an embarrassing nosebleed. 'Shit' Cursing quietly to himself Heero's chair creeked in protest as he stood to feel his way to the bathroom in a quest for tissues.
But unfortunately enough for Heero the narrow hotel hallway littered with Duo's personal belongings must have been feeling particularly unforgiving to Heero that day. The Japanese boy had barely made three feet of headway before his foot entangled itself in one of the Braided one's hole infested T-shirts. The simple event launched Heero into and unexpected, and uncalculated chain of cause and effects. Durring the course of which his ankle was twisted, one of his toes suffered a painfull crack of the joints, and his forehead was smashed into the ede of the bathroom doorframe.
Once determined that he was reletively okay, even if his pride had taken a bit of a hard beating, Heero bullied his limbs into motion completing his journey to the restroom, a small if loud vent of frustrated steam escaped by means of slamming the door into it's frame. When the door eased quickly back out of it's place between the walls Heero growled a course 'Baka' at the door and the floating shower of cheap flaking paint that drifted mockingly to the floor from the assault.
Ignoring it he clutched the cold procelan of the sink and dropped his head between his shoulders with a sigh and a groan beating himself inwardly, savoring the brutal mentality. When he brought his face back up to stare at himself in the mirror blood dripping from his upperlip, his eyes squinted as a familier face seemed to appear and meet him with a sickly sweet feminine smile. Lifting an arm he smeared at the blood with a boyish swipe of the forearm, and reached for the immage tentitively with the trembling fingers of the other. The pale blue eyes regaurded him with a soft familiartiy that was unnerving. His mouth worked in unpermitted syllables as they uttered out the name "Relena" in a low rumbling growl. The smooth blue of her eyes had become Heero's internal symbolistic immage of peace. The ultimate goal that had ironically been viciously beaten into him as a young boy. His hand palmed her transparent cheek with a sort of curiousity, and intensity a child holds his mother. It sickened him.
When a soft bang on the door frame errupted through heero's brain, his concentration muted and the immage was lost -to an everlasting depth not even a reflection has hope of veiwing. His head whipped around to face the braided one, whose features communicated a genuine sympathetic worry. Washing the startled espression from his features he presented Duo with a blank and emotionless one instead and replyed with a flat 'Nani?' Duo leaned gracefully around the corner, palming the door frame as he came around, his braid only half completed swished fluidly behind him. "Heero, hey you okay in here? Hey what happened there man?" After recieving no more responce then the typical unreadable glare Duo continued his predetermined motions unindendant upon leaving him any room to reply anyway. He entered the bathroom without so much as a hesitant shrug and guided Heero to the toilet regaurdless of whatever risk he might be running of the barrle of Heero's gun pressing itself into his stomache and firring. He left Heero there to glare at him while he buisied himself with tearing a few sheets from the roll of toilet paper, dampening the thick wad in the
sink. He returned kneeling in front of the smaller boy and dabbed bravely at his cheek cleansing it of the unsightly red liquid sticking stubbornly to his flesh.
Duo's eyes flickered up to Heero's, unknowingly eliciting a shudder from the wing pilot. Heero had to force himself to resist the compulsive urge to allow his heart to flood over him, and drown in the eyes of Shinigami. -His- Shinigami. 'Funny...' Heero tumbled into an unexpected meloncholy. "I never noticed they were violet." Duo's head jerked upwards, his hand pulling away from Heero with uneasy abruptness as he locked gazes with Heero. A starttled nervous expression flickering over his features.
It would have been a daring move if Heero had been more than half concious of his actions. but he leant forward all the same closing any personal space that might have previously existed between the two. His hand took flight as if of it's oun accord. His thumb carressed Duo's cheek as he reguarded him with a detatched rapture. To horror Duo's horror, he quickly discovered that he was unable to look away from Heero. Feeling compelled to meet his analitical stare out of a certain fearful respect that he hadn't been all too aware of before that moment. Duo sucked in his breath filled with aprehension as Heero's thumb proceeded down to his lips.
He watched the expressions roll freely if subtle over Heeros face, expressions that Duo would soon relate to a preditary cat selecting his meal before pouncing. "That mouth of yours," Heero's brow creased with hidden thought before continuing. "It never does shut up does it?" Thrown just a little off by the simplicity and abstractness of the comment Duo was condemned to the unforgiving fates to be caught off his guard when Heero pressed his lips to Duo's in a rough, forcefull, unpracticed kiss.
The events of that day replayed throughout Heeros mind demanding his speculation that sunny but chilled afternoon. He and Duo had never spoken of in since. 'It's ammousing to continuously remind yourself of such things' Heero thought abcent mindedly as he sat on a cold park bench half heartedly listening to Relena's borring drabble about her school friends and whatever it was that they did. To the extent of his knowledge was that the only things school girls did with their weekends and spare time was to dress eachother up in gaudy lipstick, giggle their way through a poplular magazine
and go to the bathroom like it was a social gathering place.
His fingers interlaced as he turned his head to wath golden strands of hair cling to pink lipgloss in the fridgid air. 'It's interesting that I should continue to recal such a thing and bring it back to my concious where it will have no emotions to play on. Interesting that as the 'perfect soldier', one who has lived a life of stone cold truths and equally cold lies, that something within me cares to lament on that. When the life line to mine and the world's peacefull existance rests upon the fragile hands of Relena. Peacecraft' Heero took a deep breath struggling to understand his oun thoughts. With a rough green woollen glove he pushed the hair from his eyes, and slunk over almost mellow-dramatically with his head hung low. A learned posture from Duo, and not one he proclaimed to be proud of.
To Heero's dismay Relena had recognized the pose immediately and begun a hounding interrogation of Heeros inner workings, hurt that he would make it so obvious that he seemingly had no interest in what she was telling him. Even if she couldn't remember quite exactly what that was anymore. Heero sat straight back up onto his seat back and stared back at Relena with eyes that seemed to soak up the cold and send it straight back out sendingThe Peacecraft into a nearly silent fit of defences. She stiffened and tossed a peice of her hair over her shoulder. She'd gone into this not expecting one, but in her silence she demanded an elaboration, apollogy, something from Heero. But ultimately when she didn't get a responce it became clear that she would have to take other courses of action.
"What is wrong with you?" The demand was verbal now, but somehow even less effective."I thought you asked me to come out here, in the freezing cold I might add, because you wanted to see me!" After a teary sniffle planned or inflicted by the cold weather it was difficult to tell. Her lips parted as if to attack him with something else, but closed again. she heaved a heavy sigh and piveted on her heel, twisting around to face the opposite direction. With a second sigh, and a dramatic heave of her shoulder she began a set of determined paces. It was an effort to keep the smile from her lips. 'Even my oun acting skills shock me from time to time. Now if Heero is any sort of strategist, he knows he'll have to take action soon, lest i get away.' Her pace quickened to reach the streetlight that she'd been aiming for.
When she reached it she felt a little disgruntled that Heero hadn't made himself known to her yet. She worried her lip between her teeth resisting the urge to look back. But the Peacecraft was not left hanging for long. Just as curiosity began to twist her neck in the direction of the bench they had preciously been positioned at, Heero's voice called to her from the oposite street corner. "Relena" Blonde strands of hair floated gracefully to the other side of her neck with her abrupt pivet of the heel. "Heero! I knew you'd follow me Heero, kitto-" Her vocals spilled into a stream of self satisfaction and confidence. Untill of course, she noticed the gun in his hand pointed at her. Shock and a noticable hurt stung in her eyes and it sickened Heero. 'kuso' I've seen that look in Duo's eyes before. It's not yours Relena, it's his.' A snarl contorted his lips. "Omaeo korusu." The trigger was pulled with an audible empty click as no bullets were firied.
She watched as Heero's hand retuned to his side, the gun replaced in his pocket as he walked away uttering no further words to her. She might have allowed herself to have felt hurt buy the coarse words he had said to her. Might have if she hadn't know it was merely a display of affection he had developed for her. It wasn't of course very evident to anyone else. But she knew it to be true, and thats all that would matter in the end. After all that had been one of the first things he'd ever said to her, so she cherrished it. Still, a soft wimper of a 'Heero...' escaped her lips as she watched his fingure dissapear into a thickening crowd of people.
Onto Chapter 2...