An Understanding Love
I made it! Ha! Now I pay the consequences in the morning since I have to wake up at 6 am to let out my neighbor's dogs and get ready for my first day of Saturday band camp. Yeah, six hours in the sun, fun.
Next updation will be…August 19th or 20th.
Planes were never a big deal to Relena; normally she could sleep throughout the entire flight, except for one previous occasion when her mind was just reeling constantly to the point where she was mindlessly playing solitaire. Unfortunately, she was about to have a repeat of that event when Duo had returned from his fifth bathroom trip (he drank a lot of water) and handed Relena a pill.
"Take it," he instructed, sitting down and readjusting his sleeping position.
"What is it?" Relena inquired, looking at the pill suspiciously.
"A sleeping pill, now take it while we still got some time left for you to sleep," grumbled Duo, snuggling into the blanket and pillows.
Relena frowned at the pill before rolling it into the napkin underneath her cup of water. She didn't trust sleeping pills, especially after someone about nine years back had given her a pill saying that it was aspirin when it was in fact a sleeping pill designed to knock Relena unconscious to make it easier to kidnap her. Once again, Heero had been there for the rescue.
It wasn't that Relena didn't trust Duo, she trusted him with her life, but she didn't trust the source of Duo's sleeping pill. Besides, despite the fact that she should get a few hours of sleep, at the very least, Relena knew that it would be more beneficial for her to get no sleep until they landed.
Playing the card game on the television, Relena put her headphones back on and continued to listen to some music at least thirty years old if not older. It wasn't horrible music; she grew up on that kind of music as well as the traditional classical music.
Having taken a music history class at the St. Gabriel Institution Relena knew the whole concept of how music got to where it was at today, After Colony 208. Back in the time before mankind settled into outer space, the first year of After Colony, there was a massive popularity for lyrical music to express the way life was, dreams, hopes, feelings, and anything else people wrote about.
Then by After Colony 29 when the first real need to be 'original' in the new era broke out. It became almost a trend and most people expected it to fade out soon like so many other trends. However, the critics and the producing companies weren't looking for lyrical artists any more, eventually many lyrical artists dropped out and began to speak their emotions through instruments.
Since After Colony 122, instrumental music, sometimes accompanied by lyrics for musicals or operas, had been the only real music listened to by the people of Earth and the colonies. Relena often found it to be slightly disappointing especially since the only lyrical music that could be found were at local clubs performed by local bands.
What was even more disappointing for Relena was the fact that she had never once heard a lyrical band as she had never gone out clubbing or gone to parties that weren't somehow associated with school. Then anything associated with school, parties or festivals for fundraisers, only played instrumental music provided by the school's orchestra.
Personally, Relena preferred jazz and samba music. One of the reasons was for the interesting composition of the music and the openness for improvisation that is rarely offered in other genres of music.
With a sigh of exasperation, Relena exited the card game to check how much time they had left before landing.
"Huh?" Squinting at the screen, Relena turned to Duo and shook her head. "We only have about an hour left before landing…that idiot," she muttered without malice. She couldn't hate or be angered at Duo. After all, he deserved the sleep he was getting from the flight.
I wonder if he knows, she thought, leaning over to her bodyguard. "Duo…" There was no response. "Duo." There was a slight stir from the bodyguard, but still no reply. "Duo!"
"Wha-?" he mumbled sleepily.
"We're going to be landing in about an hour," Relena informed him.
"Really? Sorry, didn't realize that. Did you already take that pill?"
"No, thankfully," she replied, returning to her card game.
"Good…" he mumbled, returning to his dreamless world for the last hour before they would land in LA International Airport and make their way to their next flight which left in another hour and half after they landed.
I'll try to get her to take that pill on the next flight, Duo decided. The plan was simple, have Relena take a sleeping pill on one of the planes and have her sleep the whole way. Then when they were at their destination Duo would carry her off the plane and hand her sleeping form off to Heero. No living any freak outs, any dirty looks, or awkward moments to be shared, just a hand off. That way, Duo figured he wouldn't be in any danger of an angered Relena, and Heero would be left to deal with it all.
It was perfect! Flawless! Nothing could go wrong!
Nothing could go wrong, yeah right! Duo muttered as they got off their three hour flight from Los Angeles. Relena was still wide awake, a bit disoriented, but awake as she hadn't taken that sleeping pill as planned.
Duo gave himself another mental kick. Sometimes he really wished that irony was some sort of fat, balding geezer with a cigar, a toupee, and millions of warts and pimples on his face so that way Duo would feel no guilt in shooting him between the eyes. Although irony wasn't the only one going to be shot, Murphy's Law was going to be murdered as well.
Where's a gun when I need one? sighed Duo, his hands fidgeting about.
"What are you nervous for?" Relena questioned, having noted Duo's agitation. "You're not the person who is being dropped into the care of some mystery person."
Nodding his acknowledgement, Duo made no other move to respond.
"Well, at least I'll have you to look after me as well," Relena stated.
The Preventer stopped, quite literally, in the middle of the crowd while Relena took a few steps ahead of him. What did she just say? That wasn't part of the plan, as far as Duo was concerned.
"What?" he gulped, his voice cracking a bit.
Now it was Relena's turn to stop and turn to her companion. "Well, I assume that you're staying with me as Lady Une would never give a strange complete responsibility of me, especially someone unknown like this Miles Davidson."
"Well…uh…" Damn it, why does she have to be so observant? If she hadn't taken notice of that tiny fact, I could lie a lot better. I think. "You see, princess, her ladyship wants all hands that she can get on this stalker case so this guy will be in charge of you all by himself. I'm going to be returning to headquarters after I drop you off."
It wasn't a complete lie. It wasn't even an half lie, it was completely true; Lady Une wanted as many people working on the stalker case as possible and Heero was going to be the only person in charge of keeping Relena safe. She just didn't need to know that it was Heero who she was going to be staying with quite yet.
"Duo, what are you not telling me?" Relena questioned, with a quirked eyebrow. Her bodyguard was hiding something and she wanted to know what it was.
"We're going to be late, let's go," Duo claimed, walking up to Relena and grabbing her wrist before leading her to the metal detectors by the gate entrance and exit. That guy better be here or I'll kill him.
"You're avoiding my questions Duo," his female companion pointed out as she let herself be dragged away.
There was a small crowd of people waiting on the other side of the metal detectors to welcome friends and family. However, Duo found one person to be absent from the crowd.
"Please don't tell me he got cold feet at the last minute," he muttered, dropping Relena's wrist as he scanned the people.
Looking around the crowd as well, Relena tried to pick out anyone who might seem to recognize her or Duo; just anyone who seemed the type to work for the Preventers in general.
No one. There was no one there.
"Duo, do you have a picture of this guy or something we can identify him with?" Relena inquired as she continued to look through the crowds.
"No, but I saw a picture of him," her bodyguard lied. Heero…where are you? You better just be late you…
"Describe him to me," instructed the Vice Foreign Minister as she continued to scan the crowds, something Duo was neglecting.
He couldn't help it, he snorted, "He uh…Miles is a fairly tall guy, brown hair, blue eyes, white teeth…what else would you like to know?"
Suddenly Duo felt his sixth sense kick in, it wasn't instinct either, it was the 'you're screwed' sense. Something was wrong.
"You mean he looks exactly like Heero," she assumed, but her tone said otherwise. It sounded like she come onto something.
Where had he gone wrong? Many guys had brown hair and blue eyes, and Duo never mentioned 'Miles Davidson' as being Japanese in any shape or form. So, how did she figure that out so quickly?
"What makes you say that?" Duo swallowed, not daring to turn around to face his charge.
"Oh I don't know, maybe because I see him leaning against the wall off to your right, watching us," offered Relena, her voice tight.
A single word ran through Duo's mind, Crap. His sixth sense had been proven correct, he was screwed and there was no way out of this.
"Relena, I can explain…" Duo began.
Without a word, not even a 'save it', Relena brushed past Duo and made her way to Heero. In the background, Duo stared completely dumbfounded after her until he recalled his composure and followed her.
Heero had been watching the two for quite some time, and he had been following along their conversation as best as he could; he couldn't always see how their lips moved but he was able to piece together what they were saying for the most part.
He had been hoping that they wouldn't notice him until he made his move toward them. In his mind he had been bracing himself for any verbal outburst that might come from Relena and any resistance she might give them.
However, his wishes went down the drain as Relena caught sight of him and said something to Duo that Heero couldn't quite make out as group of educational students blocked his view. Then by the time the group had passed Relena was already coming to him.
Unlike most other men in his position, Heero was not intimidated, nervous, or trying to think of what to say. He was Heero Yuy after all, and he always knew what to say, it may not be the correct thing to say but he was able to always say something.
"Grab your bag, we need to go," he simply said when Relena was standing directly in front of him.
She was behaving rather oddly. She wasn't saying anything, she wasn't hugging him, she wasn't giving him a blushing smile, nor was she glaring at him. It was simply a blank look that she gave him, one that Heero believed most people associated with him.
He was about to repeat what he had said when something hard slapped him across the cheek. It wasn't necessarily painful but it did amaze the perfect soldier a bit, especially since Relena had never ever slapped him before. The most she had ever done was say a few scolding words to him that she knew he would ignore, but slap him! It had seemed like an impossible task.
Without giving her the satisfaction of him even rubbing the cheek, Heero turned back to her only to be slapped on the other cheek. Now, that one stung!
She must have been saving to use her good hand last, he thought. "Are you done yet?"
She still didn't say anything, only turned to head toward the carousels to pick up the duffle bag Duo lent her.
When she was gone, Heero looked over at Duo who stood with one hand hiding his ever widing grin. "Dude…ow…I'm glad that I'm only receiving the silent treatment from her right now because that looked like it hurt."
"Hn." Merely wiping a thumb across his cheek, Heero went after Relena.
"Hey," cried Duo, catching up with Heero, "no, 'nice seeing you again, Duo,' or 'how's it going'?"
"No."
The official Preventer pouted, he forgot how…serious Heero could be. Basically, talking with Heero was like talking to a brick wall except from Heero one could at least get 'hn' as a response. 'Hn' was a response of some kind, after all, right?
"You didn't tell her it was me, did you?" Heero stated indifferently.
Duo rolled his eyes as he sighed, "Of course not. I wasn't about to be the one to break the news to her and then have her get into a hissy mood at me simple because Lady Une was allowing you to be responsible for her."
"You should have told her."
"Next time, I'll let you tell her on the phone." On a more depressing tone, Duo added, "That's only if she'll ever trust me again."
Heero didn't respond, he just picked another spot on the wall near Relena while she waited for the duffle bag to come around. She looked tired, not a little tire but very tired, as though she was about to faint from exhaustion right there.
"Did she sleep at all?" Heero asked.
"Nope, I tried having her take a sleeping pill but she refused. So, she didn't get a wink of sleep throughout both flights. Expect her to fall asleep in the car on the way to your house," Duo replied.
"Truck."
"What?" What did he mean by 'truck'?
"I drive a truck, not a car."
Shaking his head a bit, Duo just decided not to comment upon the correction. He wouldn't have had time to make a comment as Relena came up to both men carrying her carryon and duffle bag.
Looking directly into Heero's eyes, Relena shrugged, "Lead the way, Mr. Davidson."
Duo flinched as Relena spat out Heero's alter ego name. Even though her ire wasn't directed at him, Duo could feel it.
Silently and unfazed, Heero nodded, grabbing the duffle bag to carry for Relena.
"You should go check in so you can catch your flight back to LA then home," Relena told Duo, a bit too sweetly.
"Huh…thanks, I'll do that," Duo stuttered, not quite certain what was going with Relena that she would be acting so sweet towards him instead of cold. He didn't have to wait long for the answer.
Across his left cheek Duo felt the matching handprint to Heero's begin to form. That's why she was acting so sweet, to put him off guard, and, unfortunately, it had worked like a charm.
A quick turn on her heel and Relena was making her way to the doors.
"Now you know what kind of 'ow' it is," Heero stated before following Relena to guide her to his truck.
Putting a hand to his marked cheek, Duo rubbed the sensitive skin. "Ow…!" he howled. "I'm almost starting to feel bad for that guy. Almost."
Thank you to: DogDemonK9, gundamgirl818 (Thank you for mentioning 'Splendor in the Grass' because that's where I got my inspiration for this fic from), KyLewin, heaven'sgirl, Hououza, Lynn-Minmay, Rin Amaru, Morrighan of Crimson and Sable, CrimsonDragon010, The hero of time 2005, darthchibichibi, APerfectSoldier87, and Suzuko.