To See Her
by Raletha
For Beck
She knew it was he as soon as he entered her chambers. She did not need to look in her mirror to see him standing by the door; his presence alone chased a chill across her skin.
"Lieutenant," she said to the young man who had been unbraiding her hair, "you're dismissed."
The man left, and she was alone with Trowa Barton.
She tugged her fingers through her hair, unwinding the remaining braids with hasty, shaking fingers, and glanced at her uniform jacket lying across the arm of a nearby chair. Without it she felt vulnerable to him and apprehensive. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and turned to meet--unflinchingly--his even gaze.
"What do you want?" she asked him, and she was relieved her voice still carried the force of command.
At first, nothing changed in his expression; it remained stony and unreadable. The change occurred in his body: a loosening of his shoulders and hips as he moved from the door nearer to her.
"Lady," he said and boldly reached a hand either side of her head to rest his fingertips on the wings of her glasses.
She froze, unable to protest this intrusion into her personal space. Then Trowa smiled, but not broadly; it was only a slight pull of the left side of his mouth. More noticeably, the reflecting, impenetrable surface of his eyes vanished, and she was drawn into the sudden warmth of his gaze.
Gently he pulled the glasses away from her face, and gently he folded them and set them aside.
"Lady," Trowa Barton said again, "I wish only to see you."
the end