Ch. 2 Forgotten
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Gundam Wing. But soon, so very soon…
A/N: Okay, this is where I start to take some creative liberties with Heero's past, but since we don't really know a whole lot about him, I figured it would be okay. Odin is still there and the events of Episode Zero still happened, but other than that I've pretty much made up everything else. Anyway, enjoy.
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Ch. 2
"Hey buddy!"
The cheerful voice of Duo Maxwell filled the silent third floor break room of the Preventer's building. Heero had long grown used to the loud early morning greetings of his friend and did little more than glance up from the file he was reading. However, the other silent occupant of the room groaned to himself and glowered at the new arrival. Chang Wufei was not what one would call a morning person, especially since this particular morning signaled the end of a double shift. He was worn out and looking forward to the peace and quiet of his small home, but by the way Duo was clutching the morning newspaper and the eager grin on his face he knew his last few minutes of work would be very long.
"What is it, Maxwell," Wufei grumbled, hoping to get to the point as soon as possible.
"Morning to you too, Sunshine," Duo responded and Wufei pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to stave off a headache. "Anyway, I wanted you to take a look at the article on page two. I think this might be something we want to keep our eyes on, but I wanted to know what you two thought about it."
The paper was turned to the desired page and tossed in front of the other two agents. After a moment Heero went back to his file and Wufei gave Duo an annoyed glance.
"Maxwell, this is just an article about a small skirmish between local authorities and a group of wanna be rebels after a bust. So what?"
"If you ever bothered to read more than the front page articles, you might notice that this was the third such skirmish in as many months." Wufei rolled his eyes and Duo pointed to a particular passage in the small article. "Each time the cops were tipped off on where exactly the suspects held base, how many there were, and how exactly to get through their defenses and booby traps."
Heero's interest in the article rose a few notches as he took in the information. "Were the groups related?"
Duo shook his head. "Not as far as anyone can tell. I'd like to say some sort of super hero is out there protecting his territory, but each incident was in a different colony cluster. I know it's nothing major, but something about it just doesn't sit right."
"Have the Preventer's been contacted about any of this?" Heero asked and Duo shook his head. "Then there's nothing we can do except wait and see if this is some sort of fluke."
Duo nodded in understanding, but his two comrades could see that the article troubled him. Duo had more street smarts than any of them and his work with the Sweeper group when he was younger made him aware that things like this could mean trouble and could run far deeper than anyone imagined until it was too late.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it right now. With that determined, I'm going to go home and sleep."
With that, the Chinese agent stood and started out the door. Heero just grunted and went back to his file while Duo waved and got himself a cup of coffee, loudly cursing the defective machine as it spilled the caffinated beverage on the counter. After cleaning up the mess, Duo sat and busied himself with riffling through the rest of the newspaper, effectively spreading it out on the table. Annoyed, Heero reached over to shove the papers back at Duo when his eye caught an obscure article buried deep within the paper. He grabbed the page and realized that the article was actually a death announcement, but it was the picture that caught his attention. A small color photo a young man with black hair and haunting hazel eyes tugged at a memory somewhere in the deeper recesses of his mind. He stared at the picture for a moment more before reading the small passage printed beneath it.
Dieter Rheinhalt, died January 16, AC 201 at New Hope Center for Mental Health and Rehabilitation on colony K3-0200. He was 25. There is no known immediate family or other next of kin. The hospital will hold a small service for him on Friday the 19th at 10:00 a.m.
Heero's gaze once again returned to the picture of the young man and he noticed a jagged scar that ran from just below his right ear, down to his jaw, and then hooked over an ended at the middle of his throat. Just below it hung a silver Maltese cross with an emerald in the center. Heero stared at the scar and the cross and closed his eyes when a sudden stab of pain shot through his head.
A sudden crash and a muffled cry of pain. Heero looked up from where he lay curled on the floor and saw an older boy standing in front of him.
"Get out of the way!" an angry voice yelled.
"Leave the Kind alone!"
Another crash and a dull thud as a body hit the floor. A door flew open and Heero winced away from the light. More people entered. An argument started, then there was silence. A hand gently shook his shoulder. He looked up into gentle hazel eyes.
"Kind? Verletzt du?" Heero just stared and the older boy shook his head. "Are you hurt?"
Heero shook his head and then gasped when he saw the blood running down the other boy's face. Small hands reached out to touch the wound, but instead they went to the pendant that hung around his neck. He had seen it before and thought it was pretty, but now it was marred with blood. Quietly he wiped the green stone in the center clean. He heard another voice shouting from outside and soon another boy ran in, muttering urgently in a language he didn't understand. Arms circled him and lifted him up. He snuggled into the warmth and tried not to cry.
"Heero? Hey, you all right?"
Heero slowly opened his eyes and found himself trying to concentrate on the face of a deeply worried Duo. Another moment passed before he realized that the braided pilot's hand had a rather firm grip on his shoulder. Heero took a deep breath and nodded, carefully removing the other man's hand.
"I'm fine. It's just a headache."
"A migraine from the look of it. Maybe you should go pay Sally a visit."
"Hn," Heero grunted and stood up, "Maybe you're right." Without another word he left the break room and turned towards the infirmary.
That's odd, he did what I told him to without any argument whatsoever. Duo's usually cheerful face took on a thoughtful frown. I better keep an eye on him. Something is definitely wrong.
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Sally Po watched as Heero greedily gulped down the medication and the cup of water he had been handed. He was abnormally quiet, even for Heero, and that worried her more than the headache he had come to her about. During his short visit to her office he had yet to look her in the eye or even focus on a single object for more than a few seconds. It didn't take a trained eye to see that he was suffering from lack of sleep, but there was something else there. Duo had made a quick call to her just before the Japanese man's arrival and had told her that he'd suddenly gripped his head and completely locked up and phased out for a few minutes.
For the thousandth time Sally wished that the young man would take advantage of the counseling afforded by the Preventers, or if not that than the large amount of vacation and sick days he had accumulated. She watched him silently as he began to massage his temples and carefully contemplated her next move. Scribbling something down she approached her patient.
"I'm not going to tell you to go home because I already know that's a fight I'll never win, but when you do get off go and get this." She handed him a small slip of paper. "I know you're leery of medications and you've got a pretty high resistance to them anyway, so I'm leaning towards a more natural approach. What I recommend is that you pick up some melatonin and some soothing tea. Both of those will help you sleep."
Heero simply nodded and stood, placing the paper in his pants pocket. He mumbled his thanks and left without another word. Sally watched him walk down the near empty hallway and sighed. Heero Yuy was a walking wound that she just couldn't figure out how to heal.
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Heero sat on his secondhand couch staring at the herbal supplement that Sally had recommended to him. On the coffee table in front of him in a cup inscribed with the words 'World's Perfect Soldier' (this had been a Christmas gift from Duo) there was chamomile tea that was quickly becoming cold. Noticing the lack of steam from his cup and taking note of how much time had passed, he opened the bottle and shook out a thin white pill. Hesitating only another moment he tossed it to the back of his throat and took a sip of his lukewarm beverage.
A sudden knock at the door startled him and almost made him choke. He mentally berated himself for his clumsy reaction and headed to the door. Irritated by both himself and his unexpected visitor he tore the door open and came up short. Relena stood there with her hand half raised to knock again with a look of surprise etched in her delicate features.
"I'm sorry, Heero. Is this a bad time?"
It took Heero a moment to make his voice work. "No, it's fine. Come in."
He stepped out of the way and allowed the blonde access to his apartment. She walked past him and took off her coat, hanging it next to his on the wall like she had done so many times before. When she turned to face him again he was not surprised to see worry in her blue eyes.
"I'm sorry to just show up like this, but Hilde called and said that something happened with you at work today. I guess Duo sounded pretty worried. Is everything all right?"
Heero's first instinct was to tell her everything was fine and to not worry about him, but he knew that she would worry anyway. This made him a little angry, but he quickly pushed that emotion aside and settled on a half-truth.
"I'm just tired is all. I haven't been sleeping well."
Relena nodded and took a seat on the couch. He followed suit a moment later, but still maintained a distance between them. "More nightmares?"
If it had been anyone else who suggested that to him he would have denied it, but since she had been present for several of them, he just nodded.
"I know you'll hate this idea, but you need to talk, Heero. It doesn't have to be me or one of the other pilots, or even the agency's counselor, but you need to talk so someone. Anyone."
"No one will understand. There is no one who could ever understand."
There was an edge to his voice that warned Relena to get off the topic, but she had backed down too many times before and she was determined to keep at it until some sort of conclusion was reached.
"How do you know? Have you tried it? No, because you're too stubborn or too stupid to see that you have friends who fought the same war and lived similar moments. You don't think they would understand? What is it that you think they…we…can't handle?"
"You have no idea what you're talking about so just shut up!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Heero wanted to snatch them back. He saw the deep hurt flash in her eyes and his chest tightened with guilt. He was hurting her…again. Why couldn't he talk to her, tell her all the things that were bothering him? Tell her about his nightmares? God knows he wanted to, but he always managed to put up that barrier and shut her out. With a frustrated groan he buried his face in his hands.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
He felt small, soft hands touch his body and sighed as she began to massage his neck and shoulders. Slowly, he felt himself relax into the touch. His eyes suddenly became heavy and he let them shut.
"It's okay, Heero. When you're ready, I'm here. We all are."
He opened his eyes when she pulled her hands away, but relaxed once again when he realized that she was shifting them into a different position. He leaned back against her chest and once again closed his eyes as cool fingertips gently rubbed across his forehead. A few minutes later, the Perfect Soldier was sound asleep.
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He was alone. Smoke burned his small eyes as he looked around him.
"Kaasan?" he called. "Touchan?"
There was no answer. Tears welled up in his eyes as he gingerly touched the abrasion on his arm. He was scared and hurt. Under a large slab of concrete he spied a portion of a pale blue kimono with flowers etched on it. He approached it and kneeled beside the rubble. Small hands began to move the rubble.
"Kaasan? Kaasan?"
"Hey!" He jumped when someone behind him yelled. "What are you doing here?"
The face was young, barely three years older than himself. The eyes were gentle. Deep honey-brown. He didn't know what to do so he pointed to the rubble and the piece of kimono.
"Oh no." The eyes were suddenly sad. Sirens began to wail and the other boy looked up in alarm. "Come on, you can't stay here."
He shook his head and stood firm.
The older boy looked distressed. "Odin!" he shouted and a tall man with blond hair appeared.
A hand reached out to him and he hesitated.
"It's safe. Everything will be okay," the brown-eyed boy smiled. "I promise."
He took the large callused hand. And then they ran.
Heero's eyes snapped open, but otherwise he remained still. Blurred faces still danced across his mind as the dream faded.
Dream? No, not quite. It was too familiar. Odin…
An uneasy feeling crept over his tired body as he thought of his old mentor. Odin did occasionally creep into his thoughts, but he usually managed to push the few memories he had away. But this dream—memory?—set him on edge. What bothered him most was the image of a young face with warm brown eyes. It seemed familiar, yet he couldn't remember why to save his life.
You've seen a lot of faces in your lifetime, Yuy. It could just be a random image, he told himself. Then why did it bother him so much? An image of the man whose picture he had seen in the paper flashed across his vision. That one seems familiar too. God, what's happening to me?
"Hnmm…Heero?" a soft voice asked.
Sitting up he looked back at Relena's sleep-heavy eyes. A soft smile touched the corners of his lips as he brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face. She smiled and sat up next to him, glancing at the clock on the wall. 2:47 a.m. It had been ten when she'd dozed off.
"Ugh. Milliardo's probably having a fit. I told him I wouldn't be gone that long."
Another grin tried to work its way onto Heero's face at the image of a scowling Zechs pacing the floor and cursing his name. For a moment, Heero felt sorry for the yet-to-be-born child. Curfew was going to be iron law punishable by death. And if it was a girl…well, the ex-pilot of Wing Zero felt sorry for the boy who kept her out late. He was pulled from his reverie when Relena began to stand up from the couch. Without thinking he reached out and gripped her wrist, suddenly uneasy about being alone.
"Stay," he murmured.
"Heero, are you okay? Did you have another nightmare?" The Japanese pilot shook his head, but refused to let her go. "Then what is it?"
"I…" How do I tell her I don't know?
"Heero," she whispered as she sat down and gently touched his cheek. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Irritation flashed in his Prussian eyes and behind that was frustration and confusion. Damnit, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be talking about! I don't know if these are dreams or…or memories. However, his mouth and his thoughts were not communicating very well that night and he spoke before thinking.
"No. You won't understand." Inwardly he winced at the harshness of the words. He fully expected another argument to begin and he prepared to go on the defensive. However, all he got was a defeated sigh.
"I wish you could trust me, Heero."
"I do-"
"To a point. Look, you're right, I probably won't understand why you're so upset at what's bothering you. I can't possibly understand your past because, frankly, none of us really know anything about it. But that doesn't mean I don't want to try and understand it. I'm here whenever you're ready."
Heero just nodded, unable to express his thanks out loud. "Then you'll stay?" he asked as he caressed her cheek and leaned in, brushing his lips lightly over hers.
"Well, when you put it like that…"
Heero pressed his lips more firmly to hers and picked her up, weaving his way around furniture on the way to his room.
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A/N: You like?