Petra: Yadda, yadda, yadda, read and review.
Kati: Yadda, yadda, yadda, a monkey ate my shoe...
Petra: Sorry, just seeing if you were paying attention. Plus, it rhymed! Yes, I'm happy now! I found a place where I can get Two-mix CDs, of course I am! Now, for a quick note on the girls. Aretmis is based on a very good friend of mine. Her name's Mari (Rose Marie Ledam). She's the one who I quote at the bottom of each story; she's very insightful into emtions and she's one of my very good friends. Athena is a sorta-friend of mine, more a friend of Mari/Aretmis' though. Kati/Athena's rather aggresive but she is an extremely good friend of mine. Hestia is an ex-friends of Mari's that she finally got the courage to stop being friends with. I really didn't like that girl but, at the time, she was a friend of Mari's and I felt obligated. Hestia/Kit was an abusive friend who, is in fact, not anything like the one in the story. Hebe, who you will meet in this one, is a very perky girl based on my good friend Krys. Krys/Hebe is always happy and people can't help but find themselve happy when they're around her. Aphrodite is based on a friend of Mari's who's been engaged for, I believe its a year and half now, dating him for two. Mari doesn't really know how she feels about Fri/Aphrodite's relationship. Anyways, I want you all to read and, of course, review. Remember what I talked about before... *looks stern* ... *tries to anyway*
DEDICATED: For the gundam pilots; I would set them free of their memories and guilt if I could.
WARNING: Shonen-ai (nothing detailed)
DISCLAIMER: Trust me, if I owned Gundam Wing there would be none of this "are they" or "aren't they" crap. EVERYONE would know!
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
If You Could: Left Behind
"Dont' be afraid your life will end. Be afraid that it will never begin." -Grave Hansen
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Artemis watched the young man go off to think and sighed to herself. "What's gonna happen to him, Di-chan? There's so much in the world going against them at the moment; so much that could go wrong…"
A gentle hand on her shoulder made Artemis turn around. Greek-style clothes of the deepest red and palest pink fell in folds around the woman's feet, and her eyes sparkled with hidden pain mixed with joy. "Arte-chan, everything will work out. Have not the Fates already told his tale? No one can change the Fates, not even Zeus-baka when he was in power, and even now none of the Goddesses who are left."
Artemis brushed some hair behind her ear and sighed. "I know… I had to tell him that, didn't I? Tell him that Duo might not be the One, even though I know that they are meant to be together? It's hard, I'll admit it, but I wish I hadn't had to have told him such a lie."
Aphrodite sighed and sat beside her friend, the raven-colored hair falling a little past her shoulder as she brushed it back over her shoulder, the two small braids a bright yellow that fell to her waist contrasting sharply with her clothes. Her deep brown-gold eyes watched as her own clothes shimmered from the Greek-style it had been to jean-shorts and a dark, red tank top. "You're going to have to leave him soon, push him out of the nest. He can't stay here forever."
Artemis leaned her head back, closing her eyes. "I know… I shouldn't even have stayed this long. Tia-chan keeps telling me so but…" she turned to her friend. "I so want to meet this Duo person and I want to be there to help Heero, or should I say Odin, through all his troubles." She hugged her waist tightly, a small liquid drop forming at the corner of her eye. "These past months… they've been great… I've been doing something. I don't want to go back to just watching! I hate the rule that says we can't interfere!" A deep breath and then Artemis stood up. "Well, rules are made to be broken and this one is long past due!"
Aphrodite stared at her friend in shock. "But… Arte-chan, you can't do that…"
"Why?" Artemis asked, hands on hips.
Aphrodite couldn't answer and Artemis smiled. "The Fates may map out our lives for us, but we are the ones who decide the roads to get there. Tia-chan and Ena-chan won't like it but they can do whatever the hell they want to do, with or without me." Artemis held out her hand to her friend. "What do you think?"
Aphrodite stared at the offered hand for a moment and then smiled, an almost evil smile, before taking it, letting herself be pulled up. "I think you're right. That was a rule made a long time ago and, back then, it had good reason to be made. But now… Yes, I believe its time." They shared a smile and then, both were gone, the only thing left the smell of moonlit roses and shady vanilla.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Odin stared around the empty apartment, confusion and hurt warring in his eyes. He had woken to find the apartment strangely quiet and eerily still. He'd walked downstairs and found that almost everything personal in the apartment had been cleared away. The only two items left were a framed photo of the four of them, laughing before a fountain, and a pendant held on a silver chain. The pendant was a sword with a dragon curled around and, right near the point, a circled five-pointed star was clasped in one of the dragon's talons. He stared at it a moment and then, quickly put it on, eyes scanning the room for anything else out of place.
Noticing an envelope laying on the dining room table, he strode quickly across the room and opened the note. "Dear Odin-kun," he read aloud, "Sorry we had to leave on such short notice but something very important came up very quickly. It came right after you went to sleep and, we thought of waking you up, but knew that you would understand if we didn't. You can stay in the apartment for another week and then the payment time runs out. We've arranged for a small shuttle, which already has your gundam in it, to carry you from here to Earth, where we believe your fellow pilots to be staying at the moment. We have also arranged for you to have an apartment on the outskirts of China. We believe your partners to be some where around this area and are sorry that we cannot further aid you in this search. If you get in any trouble, let us know and we will come get you out of it or, if you can't get a message to us, touch your pendant, whisper my name, and then I'll be there, I promise. I also just wanted to say that I enjoyed our time together and will treasure it in my memories. I hope that you and Duo-kun work out and will expect to meet him once I have the time to visit. I cannot speak for Ena-chan and Tia-chan, but I know that I have grown to care greatly for you and will miss you greatly. I will not say good-bye, for I know that I will see you again. Love always, Arte-chan. P.S. Look for people going out of their way to help you. They're probably our friends."
Odin sighed and sat at the table, chin resting in hands as he thought about what to do next. He didn't really want to stay here, it would be lonely at the least, depressing at the most. His mind made up, Odin stood up and packed. As he stood in the doorway to the huge apartment, memories flooding his mind and scenes playing in the back of his eyes, he laughed, his reflection across the room laughing back, and for the first time, it felt and looked right.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Odin sat at the small café table and watched the people go by, barely noticing that many of the women were staring at him in appreciative ways. His mind was on a certain braided violet-eyed young boy who had long ago, before he could remember, captured his heart and soul. He sighed and stared dazedly off into space, thinking about the way those violet eyes would light up and you could almost swear you saw flecks of deep blue in them. A throat loudly clearing itself made Odin look up in surprise, the picture of Duo he had formed in the back of his mind slowly fading. A young woman stared at him, obviously waiting for him to say something, anything. Her hair was cut short, almost boyishly, curled charmingly around her face and was a dark brown with startling white-blonde streaks in it. Over her brown eyes, with specks of green reflecting the light, one fine eyebrow arched upward, in obvious question.
"Hai?" Odin prompted, confused by the way she was looking at him, as though she couldn't decide whether or not she liked him.
"Hmm… not as cute as I thought… and you don't look gay either, but they never do, do they?" she murmured almost to herself as she sat down, long tan legs crossing as she continued to peer at him. "Well… I guess you can't be all bad if Arte-chan likes you, huh?"
That caught his attention. "You're a friend of Arte-chan?" he asked, barely containing the excitement from his voice. He hadn't see the woman in two months, but occasionally he would wake up to find a new shirt or a piece of jewelry from her lying in his mailbox and even some letters. He still hadn't seen her and he missed her terribly, missed being able to tell her everything that was on his mind so, instead, he wrote it all down every night and then, the next afternoon when he arrived home from whatever he had been doing, the letters were always gone
"Yeah, we go way back," the woman smiled and Odin couldn't help but smile back. "You look different though, you haven't been cutting your hair and you're a lot more open." Odin fingered his hair self-consciously, which had grown long enough to an inch past his shoulder, long enough that he could tie it back in a very small, lose ponytail.
"I was gonna get it cut… and then I just got so busy… I kinda like it now," he said, taking a sip from the water in front of him.
"It's not just that, though…" she leaned back in her seat and lifted a drink (now where did she get that?) to her lips. "It's the way you carry yourself too. You walk different and the way you move is more… I don't know… softer. You're changing, Odin-kun…" Odin stared at her a moment. How had she known?
Odin was suddenly worried. "For the good or for the bad?"
"Good, and that's one thing that I can guarantee you." Her gaze flickered to the left suddenly and then back to him. "I'm Hebe Juno." Her gaze flickered back to the left and, this time when she looked back at him she winked. What…?
He turned to the left and felt his eyes widen, his heart stop, and whatever he was about to say die before it ever left his mouth. Duo… The other boy was standing at a vending machine across the street. His hair was still pulled into that waist-length braid and, though you couldn't seem them from this far away, Odin knew his eyes were still that violet tinted just slightly toward blue. "Koibito…" he whispered and started to stand, only to stop in surprise as a cool hand is placed on top of his.
"Maybe you shouldn't talk to him just yet, that's gotta be a big shock 'cause he doesn't know if you're dead, or alive, or what," Hebe said as he looked down at the smaller woman. "And are you sure you're ready to confront him… I mean, why don't you follow him back to the safe house? It'll give you a chance to brush up on your skills and you can decide what you're going to do…"
Odin looked at her for a minute, weighing her words in his mind and then nodded, once, deliberately, and put a five on the table, before standing up and silently beginning to follow the boy.
"Wow… his face was pretty funny…" a voice near Hebe's ear made her start and she smacked Artemis who now sat beside her.
"For Goddess's sake, what in Hades did I tell you about sneaking up on me like that, Arte-chan!" Hebe said, pouting slightly.
"To do it as often as possible?" Artemis asked, trying to look innocent.
"I swear to Goddess, if you were any more like Duo you'd be his twin sister," her eyes moved to watch the American just as he walked around the corner of a building. "Cute, though, very, very cute…"
"Heero is cute too, when he smiles," Artemis commented, causing Hebe to scowl at her.
Artemis sighed and Hebe, knowing quite suddenly what her friend was thinking about, sighed to and would have sweat-dropped were it possible. "You're thinking about Iris-chan, aren't you?" Hebe asked and Artemis nodded. "So, when are you going to actually introduce her to Heero?"
Artemis laughed slightly. "Sometime when Duo is not around, Heero is in a calm mood, and I have the strength to drag her back." She propped her elbows on the table, her face falling in her hands. "What did I do to deserve this…. WHAT!?"
"You're the friendliest and extremely bossy," Hebe stated, taking great joy in tormenting her friend who sobbed dramatically before disappearing, leaving only the smell of vanilla behind. Hebe rolled her eyes, looked at Heero who was now disappearing around the distant corner and then disappeared too, the smell of raspberries wafting in the afternoon breeze.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you that wish it, DUE TO MY SPORADIC postings, I am offering you, the readers, A MAILING LIST to sign up to. When I finally UPDATE, I will SEND OUT AN EMAIL informing those of you that are on the list that I have finally updated. I need you to EMAIL me, telling that you wish to sign up, and whether it's for ORIGINAL FICTION or FANFICTION. I WILL NOT accept those people that ask to be up on it in a review because I can't be sure that email is real. The mailing list will ALSO OFFER the TITLES of those works that I am posting, the COUPLES (if any) that are in it, which FANDOM it is from, and whether it is a SEQUEL to anything.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Kati: Hey, peeps. So, what'd you think?
Petra: Have you figured out who and/or what Artemis and the others really are?
Kati: I bet you haven't... don't worry, you'll figure it out... hopefully... ^_-
Petra: I'm going to try to start getting things out every Thrusday or Friday but no promises. It'll just matter on what's going on with me that week. Finals is next week after all. Love you all, hugs and kisses, read and review. ^_^
"I dream of a day when I can open my eyes, and my dreams won't disappear."
-Rose Marie Ledam
~Petra Megami Assari~
*The Gentle Tiger Goddess*
Kati: Yadda, yadda, yadda, a monkey ate my shoe...
Petra: Sorry, just seeing if you were paying attention. Plus, it rhymed! Yes, I'm happy now! I found a place where I can get Two-mix CDs, of course I am! Now, for a quick note on the girls. Aretmis is based on a very good friend of mine. Her name's Mari (Rose Marie Ledam). She's the one who I quote at the bottom of each story; she's very insightful into emtions and she's one of my very good friends. Athena is a sorta-friend of mine, more a friend of Mari/Aretmis' though. Kati/Athena's rather aggresive but she is an extremely good friend of mine. Hestia is an ex-friends of Mari's that she finally got the courage to stop being friends with. I really didn't like that girl but, at the time, she was a friend of Mari's and I felt obligated. Hestia/Kit was an abusive friend who, is in fact, not anything like the one in the story. Hebe, who you will meet in this one, is a very perky girl based on my good friend Krys. Krys/Hebe is always happy and people can't help but find themselve happy when they're around her. Aphrodite is based on a friend of Mari's who's been engaged for, I believe its a year and half now, dating him for two. Mari doesn't really know how she feels about Fri/Aphrodite's relationship. Anyways, I want you all to read and, of course, review. Remember what I talked about before... *looks stern* ... *tries to anyway*
DEDICATED: For the gundam pilots; I would set them free of their memories and guilt if I could.
WARNING: Shonen-ai (nothing detailed)
DISCLAIMER: Trust me, if I owned Gundam Wing there would be none of this "are they" or "aren't they" crap. EVERYONE would know!
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
If You Could: Left Behind
"Dont' be afraid your life will end. Be afraid that it will never begin." -Grave Hansen
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Artemis watched the young man go off to think and sighed to herself. "What's gonna happen to him, Di-chan? There's so much in the world going against them at the moment; so much that could go wrong…"
A gentle hand on her shoulder made Artemis turn around. Greek-style clothes of the deepest red and palest pink fell in folds around the woman's feet, and her eyes sparkled with hidden pain mixed with joy. "Arte-chan, everything will work out. Have not the Fates already told his tale? No one can change the Fates, not even Zeus-baka when he was in power, and even now none of the Goddesses who are left."
Artemis brushed some hair behind her ear and sighed. "I know… I had to tell him that, didn't I? Tell him that Duo might not be the One, even though I know that they are meant to be together? It's hard, I'll admit it, but I wish I hadn't had to have told him such a lie."
Aphrodite sighed and sat beside her friend, the raven-colored hair falling a little past her shoulder as she brushed it back over her shoulder, the two small braids a bright yellow that fell to her waist contrasting sharply with her clothes. Her deep brown-gold eyes watched as her own clothes shimmered from the Greek-style it had been to jean-shorts and a dark, red tank top. "You're going to have to leave him soon, push him out of the nest. He can't stay here forever."
Artemis leaned her head back, closing her eyes. "I know… I shouldn't even have stayed this long. Tia-chan keeps telling me so but…" she turned to her friend. "I so want to meet this Duo person and I want to be there to help Heero, or should I say Odin, through all his troubles." She hugged her waist tightly, a small liquid drop forming at the corner of her eye. "These past months… they've been great… I've been doing something. I don't want to go back to just watching! I hate the rule that says we can't interfere!" A deep breath and then Artemis stood up. "Well, rules are made to be broken and this one is long past due!"
Aphrodite stared at her friend in shock. "But… Arte-chan, you can't do that…"
"Why?" Artemis asked, hands on hips.
Aphrodite couldn't answer and Artemis smiled. "The Fates may map out our lives for us, but we are the ones who decide the roads to get there. Tia-chan and Ena-chan won't like it but they can do whatever the hell they want to do, with or without me." Artemis held out her hand to her friend. "What do you think?"
Aphrodite stared at the offered hand for a moment and then smiled, an almost evil smile, before taking it, letting herself be pulled up. "I think you're right. That was a rule made a long time ago and, back then, it had good reason to be made. But now… Yes, I believe its time." They shared a smile and then, both were gone, the only thing left the smell of moonlit roses and shady vanilla.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Odin stared around the empty apartment, confusion and hurt warring in his eyes. He had woken to find the apartment strangely quiet and eerily still. He'd walked downstairs and found that almost everything personal in the apartment had been cleared away. The only two items left were a framed photo of the four of them, laughing before a fountain, and a pendant held on a silver chain. The pendant was a sword with a dragon curled around and, right near the point, a circled five-pointed star was clasped in one of the dragon's talons. He stared at it a moment and then, quickly put it on, eyes scanning the room for anything else out of place.
Noticing an envelope laying on the dining room table, he strode quickly across the room and opened the note. "Dear Odin-kun," he read aloud, "Sorry we had to leave on such short notice but something very important came up very quickly. It came right after you went to sleep and, we thought of waking you up, but knew that you would understand if we didn't. You can stay in the apartment for another week and then the payment time runs out. We've arranged for a small shuttle, which already has your gundam in it, to carry you from here to Earth, where we believe your fellow pilots to be staying at the moment. We have also arranged for you to have an apartment on the outskirts of China. We believe your partners to be some where around this area and are sorry that we cannot further aid you in this search. If you get in any trouble, let us know and we will come get you out of it or, if you can't get a message to us, touch your pendant, whisper my name, and then I'll be there, I promise. I also just wanted to say that I enjoyed our time together and will treasure it in my memories. I hope that you and Duo-kun work out and will expect to meet him once I have the time to visit. I cannot speak for Ena-chan and Tia-chan, but I know that I have grown to care greatly for you and will miss you greatly. I will not say good-bye, for I know that I will see you again. Love always, Arte-chan. P.S. Look for people going out of their way to help you. They're probably our friends."
Odin sighed and sat at the table, chin resting in hands as he thought about what to do next. He didn't really want to stay here, it would be lonely at the least, depressing at the most. His mind made up, Odin stood up and packed. As he stood in the doorway to the huge apartment, memories flooding his mind and scenes playing in the back of his eyes, he laughed, his reflection across the room laughing back, and for the first time, it felt and looked right.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Odin sat at the small café table and watched the people go by, barely noticing that many of the women were staring at him in appreciative ways. His mind was on a certain braided violet-eyed young boy who had long ago, before he could remember, captured his heart and soul. He sighed and stared dazedly off into space, thinking about the way those violet eyes would light up and you could almost swear you saw flecks of deep blue in them. A throat loudly clearing itself made Odin look up in surprise, the picture of Duo he had formed in the back of his mind slowly fading. A young woman stared at him, obviously waiting for him to say something, anything. Her hair was cut short, almost boyishly, curled charmingly around her face and was a dark brown with startling white-blonde streaks in it. Over her brown eyes, with specks of green reflecting the light, one fine eyebrow arched upward, in obvious question.
"Hai?" Odin prompted, confused by the way she was looking at him, as though she couldn't decide whether or not she liked him.
"Hmm… not as cute as I thought… and you don't look gay either, but they never do, do they?" she murmured almost to herself as she sat down, long tan legs crossing as she continued to peer at him. "Well… I guess you can't be all bad if Arte-chan likes you, huh?"
That caught his attention. "You're a friend of Arte-chan?" he asked, barely containing the excitement from his voice. He hadn't see the woman in two months, but occasionally he would wake up to find a new shirt or a piece of jewelry from her lying in his mailbox and even some letters. He still hadn't seen her and he missed her terribly, missed being able to tell her everything that was on his mind so, instead, he wrote it all down every night and then, the next afternoon when he arrived home from whatever he had been doing, the letters were always gone
"Yeah, we go way back," the woman smiled and Odin couldn't help but smile back. "You look different though, you haven't been cutting your hair and you're a lot more open." Odin fingered his hair self-consciously, which had grown long enough to an inch past his shoulder, long enough that he could tie it back in a very small, lose ponytail.
"I was gonna get it cut… and then I just got so busy… I kinda like it now," he said, taking a sip from the water in front of him.
"It's not just that, though…" she leaned back in her seat and lifted a drink (now where did she get that?) to her lips. "It's the way you carry yourself too. You walk different and the way you move is more… I don't know… softer. You're changing, Odin-kun…" Odin stared at her a moment. How had she known?
Odin was suddenly worried. "For the good or for the bad?"
"Good, and that's one thing that I can guarantee you." Her gaze flickered to the left suddenly and then back to him. "I'm Hebe Juno." Her gaze flickered back to the left and, this time when she looked back at him she winked. What…?
He turned to the left and felt his eyes widen, his heart stop, and whatever he was about to say die before it ever left his mouth. Duo… The other boy was standing at a vending machine across the street. His hair was still pulled into that waist-length braid and, though you couldn't seem them from this far away, Odin knew his eyes were still that violet tinted just slightly toward blue. "Koibito…" he whispered and started to stand, only to stop in surprise as a cool hand is placed on top of his.
"Maybe you shouldn't talk to him just yet, that's gotta be a big shock 'cause he doesn't know if you're dead, or alive, or what," Hebe said as he looked down at the smaller woman. "And are you sure you're ready to confront him… I mean, why don't you follow him back to the safe house? It'll give you a chance to brush up on your skills and you can decide what you're going to do…"
Odin looked at her for a minute, weighing her words in his mind and then nodded, once, deliberately, and put a five on the table, before standing up and silently beginning to follow the boy.
"Wow… his face was pretty funny…" a voice near Hebe's ear made her start and she smacked Artemis who now sat beside her.
"For Goddess's sake, what in Hades did I tell you about sneaking up on me like that, Arte-chan!" Hebe said, pouting slightly.
"To do it as often as possible?" Artemis asked, trying to look innocent.
"I swear to Goddess, if you were any more like Duo you'd be his twin sister," her eyes moved to watch the American just as he walked around the corner of a building. "Cute, though, very, very cute…"
"Heero is cute too, when he smiles," Artemis commented, causing Hebe to scowl at her.
Artemis sighed and Hebe, knowing quite suddenly what her friend was thinking about, sighed to and would have sweat-dropped were it possible. "You're thinking about Iris-chan, aren't you?" Hebe asked and Artemis nodded. "So, when are you going to actually introduce her to Heero?"
Artemis laughed slightly. "Sometime when Duo is not around, Heero is in a calm mood, and I have the strength to drag her back." She propped her elbows on the table, her face falling in her hands. "What did I do to deserve this…. WHAT!?"
"You're the friendliest and extremely bossy," Hebe stated, taking great joy in tormenting her friend who sobbed dramatically before disappearing, leaving only the smell of vanilla behind. Hebe rolled her eyes, looked at Heero who was now disappearing around the distant corner and then disappeared too, the smell of raspberries wafting in the afternoon breeze.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you that wish it, DUE TO MY SPORADIC postings, I am offering you, the readers, A MAILING LIST to sign up to. When I finally UPDATE, I will SEND OUT AN EMAIL informing those of you that are on the list that I have finally updated. I need you to EMAIL me, telling that you wish to sign up, and whether it's for ORIGINAL FICTION or FANFICTION. I WILL NOT accept those people that ask to be up on it in a review because I can't be sure that email is real. The mailing list will ALSO OFFER the TITLES of those works that I am posting, the COUPLES (if any) that are in it, which FANDOM it is from, and whether it is a SEQUEL to anything.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._
Kati: Hey, peeps. So, what'd you think?
Petra: Have you figured out who and/or what Artemis and the others really are?
Kati: I bet you haven't... don't worry, you'll figure it out... hopefully... ^_-
Petra: I'm going to try to start getting things out every Thrusday or Friday but no promises. It'll just matter on what's going on with me that week. Finals is next week after all. Love you all, hugs and kisses, read and review. ^_^
"I dream of a day when I can open my eyes, and my dreams won't disappear."
-Rose Marie Ledam
~Petra Megami Assari~
*The Gentle Tiger Goddess*
