Chapter 19 - The Morning

Relena didn't notice when she had fallen asleep that night. She simply drifted off, absent-mindedly, without any word of farewell spoken to Heero, unlike the night before. When she opened her eyes again, she quickly realized that she was still alive. As a human. Nothing was hurting her, she almost felt well-rested, like on a lazy Sunday morning. Her mind was clear, she could move her body freely, according to her wish.

She slowly sat on the floor. The sun was rising from beyond the horizon, behind the forest line, brightening the sky with a pink and white glow. Another beautiful, sunny day was about to start. The soft light from the outside illuminated the air in their cabin, making the dust shimmer in the rays of the sun.

Relena turned around, holding her breath at a view: this time, Heero was there. He was sitting propped up against the wall at the other side of the room. His chin was dropped to his chest, the slender fingers of his right hand loosely holding the butt of his gun. His eyes were closed, his chest moving slowly to the rhythm of his calm, rhythmic breath.

He fell asleep. Relena realized that it shouldn't be so surprising, given that he didn't sleep at all for those two days and nights since she was bitten, and he didn't get a regenerating sleep the night before either because of his nightmares. But, at the same time, who would have thought, that this cautious and fearless man will fall asleep next to her, when she could turn into a zombie anytime. She found something peaceful and appealing in that view of him. She didn't want to tear it down. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him sleeping so peacefully; when he wasn't tormented by nightmares, he wasn't mumbling in his sleep, he didn't clench his fists.

Led by some strange instinct, Relena slowly moved on all fours towards him, making as little noise as possible. As she approached him, she could hear his calm, low, prolonged breathing. She sat down next to him, taking the opportunity to look at him closely. Earlier, when she watched him during his nightmares, she found herself staring at his chest, his hands, arms, shoulders, neck, face... He attracted her, even now. She admired his face, his statuesque but visibly tired features, his closed eyes, partially hidden behind a curtain of brown hair. There was a dry trace of a trickle of blood on his temple, from a wound he didn't dress up. Looking at him, when he was so peaceful and beautiful, made her feel a warm, stinging feeling in her heart.

She wasn't sure if it was her conscious decision to touch him or if her hand acted on its own. She let her fingers brush the barrier of his brown bangs on his temple then slip behind the curtain of hair, resting on the pleasantly warm skin of his face, then slid down over his temple and cheek…

The last thing she saw before she got knocked down to the floor was his Prussian-blue eyes flinging open.

She let out a strangled cry and shut her eyes at the impact when the back of her head hit the wooden floor with a thud, though the hit wasn't hard enough for her to lose conscience. She sensed a cold touch of metal under her jaw.

She slowly reopened her eyes. Her left hand was immobilized, pressed to the floor over her head. Heero glowered at her, eyeing her with that most frightening, murderous look. Relena blinked, feeling her heart hurt, incapable of bearing that look of his.

"Heero..." she called him beggingly as loud as the barrel of his gun jamming under her chin allowed her to.

When he heard her voice, his eyes momentarily darkened, then his gaze gradually softened as if he was beginning to understand what was happening.

"Relena…?" he finally said with his hoarse, quiet voice. "Is it still you…?"

She looked deep into his steely eyes, trying to calm her scared, panicked heartbeat. She felt the weight of his firm body on her as he was pressing her to the floor, immobilizing her, physically and mentally. "It's me," she whispered. The murderous flash in his gaze got replaced by surprise. She felt the pressure of the gun's barrel on her skin reducing.

"It's impossible…" Heero gasped, still studying her face. He stared at her as if he was emerged in a drunken stupor, his breath coming shakily. Relena felt the clasp of his fingers tightening around her left wrist, pinning it even harder against the floor.

"It's me…" Relena repeated, slowly lifting her free hand, trying hard to prevent it from shaking. She carefully brought it closer to his face again. "I'm right here, Heero..."

Her fingers trailed the hot skin of his cheek, slowly sliding toward the clearly defined line of his jaw and neck. Then she lifted her hand again, gently and patiently caressing the same spots. She could feel the blood pulsing under her fingers as she tried to reassure him that she was still alive.

Heero eventually moved his gun to the side of her neck. Relena felt the touch of metal sliding across her wound as he brushed strands of her hair aside. She peered at him as he frowned at the bitten spot on her neck and then shifted his startled gaze at her.

"It's healing," he said, his voice a little bit breathless. "It's impossible, but it's actually healing…"

His hand finally released her wrist, and he got off her, letting her get up. Relena followed suit, sitting on the floor in front of him, clenching her hands to her chest. "Does that mean…?" she asked, although she was scared to hear the answer. Terrified of being deprived of hope once again, like the day before.

But then, Heero looked at her with a totally different gaze in his eyes. The one she didn't see ever before. "You would have been turned by now. You don't have any symptoms."

This could mean only one thing. An impossible one.

Relena clasped her both hands over her mouth as the realization struck her. "Oh God…!," she cried with a muffled voice, feeling her eyes burn with hot tears. Her voice broke, her body trembled of successive waves of cry. She let out a loud breath from her lugs, a subconscious sigh that she had trapped inside her chest for the last two days because it was supposed to be her last breath. And when she inhaled the air back, she broke down. The force of her cry made her bent over at the waist, clutching her hands to her chest. She rested her forehead on her thighs, sobbing, wheezing, almost losing her breath.

Then she heard the clang of the weapon being laid to the ground. A second later, Heero's hands grabbed her firmly by her shoulders and brought her back to the vertical position, then he gently enfolded her in his arms. She let him pull her shaking body close to him, and she supinely sunk in his warm embrace, inhaling his comforting, manly scent. Realizing how much she needed this physical contact, she clung desperately to him, pressing her face to his chest, her tears soaking his clothes.

Heero didn't say anything, cradling her in his arms until she cried out the last bitter tear.

x x x

Heero POV

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"This would do," Heero stated, having finished covering the wound on her neck with plaster. The wound was healing so correctly that there was hardly any need to tape it up, but there were other reasons. "You shouldn't show it to anyone. Nobody will believe you."

Relena touched her neck and sent him a reassuring look.

Heero wasn't sure if he was still a little bit shocked by what happened. Or rather, what didn't happen. She was sitting in front of him, smiling, her eyes calm, relieved, although still a bit swollen from the tears she cried.

She was still Relena.

He aimed at her with a gun, not just now, but numerous times. He almost killed her this very morning, in nearly the same spot they were sitting right now. She had escaped death not only from his hands but also from the hands of the disease. That's why when he reached his hand out to hug her, to comfort her, he was convinced that she would reject him.

But she didn't.

Now he reached out his hand again. Relena didn't flinch nor backed away when his fingers feathered against her chin.

"Why aren't you afraid?"

…of me?

Relena's gaze drifted somewhere beyond him for a short moment, then fixed on him again as if she was trying to communicate something to him, wordlessly. "…you don't realize?"

Heero had a feeling, a silent premonition, but he couldn't spell it out. This exceptional woman confused him, deprived him of common sense and self-control, made him feel doubtful over and over again. He was about to reject his hand when Relena clasped her fingers around it and pressed against her cheek.

"Call me mad," she whispered, leaning into his palm, "but when I woke up yesterday, and you weren't in a cabin, I thought you had left me. The thought of not having you near me anymore was way more terrifying than when you were aiming at me."

He didn't say anything, studying her features. In normal circumstances, he would presumably call her mad for wanting to be around the man who promised to kill her. But he couldn't call himself a sane person anymore. Not while he didn't have power over his own body, that refused to obey his mind that fateful night. He wasn't anymore in a position to judge her.

"Why you didn't shot me that first night, Heero? It was obvious that I'd turn. What had stopped you?"

Relena's soft voice tore him out of his thoughts and turned again into confusion, evoking back the memory of that night. As if she could read his mind. He prayed that she won't ask him how many times he wanted to use the vaccine on her, even without her consent.

"We need to go," he finally spoke, gripping her hand in his and helping her get on her feet.

Relena sent him a puzzled look, but he resisted it. One day I'll tell you, he said in his thoughts.

When they left the cabin, they were greeted by a beautiful hot summer day. Everything around seemed to radiate with light and bright colors. There was a smell of blooming flowers in the air, birds sang above their heads.

"It's so beautiful!" he heard her sweet voice behind his back. Relena ran down the stairs to the grass and around their cabin, then called to him: "The river! I didn't see it before!"

Heero sighed. He looked at that river the morning before. When he noticed the state of her wound but at the same time couldn't stand the thought of having yet to watch her body begin to undergo endless seizures, drooling, her blue eyes inverted. Waiting for this moment, he was sitting on the porch, looking at the day rising on the river. And suddenly, she came out of the cabin, calling his name. Alive. Just as she was now, running towards the bank of the river.

"Relena," he called her, but she wouldn't stop. So he followed her.

She ran so crazy for the last time when she spotted her family home. As if she suddenly got wings. She quickly passed by other summer houses, reaching the remains of a wooden pier on the river bank. There she stopped just to take off her shoes, then ran barefoot into the water, splashing it around. She laughed so loudly that she frightened the ducks family resting on the shore and two swans that jumped to the other side of the pier. These animals probably haven't seen a human here in years. And especially such a loudly laughing one.

Heero reached the shore, stopping at the waterline. Relena turned to him, a beautiful, cheerful smile painted on her lips. "I'm alive, Heero!" she laughed, dipping her hands in the water and splashing around. "It's so beautiful, how can I not enjoy it? I don't want to waste any moment more to feel alive. I don't want to regret anything…"

She let out another loud, carefree laugh, as she raised her hands and sprayed water on her face, neck, and shoulders. Her shiny cerulean like a sky eyes disappeared behind the curtain of slightly damp fringe and long eyelashes, her lips parted in an everlasting smile. Her whole body glistened in the sun and drops of water as if she was almost semi-transparent.

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He wouldn't mind looking at her like that for eternity. Never turning his eyes off her, Heero crossed his arms over his chest and let a slight smile form on his lips.

Then Relena suddenly turned to face him and shot him a shocked look. A smile instantly escaped his face, he raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. "What?"

Relena clenched her hands to her chest and smiled. "You were right about the shooting stars. They do grant wishes."

Heero's heart gave a sudden thump at her words. He didn't fully realize what did she actually meant, but he felt letting his guard down completely. Maybe, she disarmed him with her smile. Or maybe, it was a sudden realization that his wish was granted too.

He wasn't sure. He didn't care anymore. Feelings he had never felt before, and that he couldn't name, now were biting his skin to the flesh.

Heero got into the river without taking off his shoes and stopped in front of her. He reached up and cupped her face between his hands, tilting her head slightly back. He brushed a waterdrop with his thumb smoothly along her cheek, gazing at her, admiring her soft and gorgeous features. Relena didn't move away, her oceanic gaze locked on him; she seemed breathless when suddenly her lips silently - hurriedly - whispered his name. The way she looked at him and the sound of his name in her mouth made him feel a familiar urge; his body wanted to feel her closer so much that a physical ache started swelling his chest. Unable to hold the feeling any longer, Heero leaned in and pressed a featherlight soft kiss on her mouth.

The touch of her lips was charmingly soft and warm, yet he felt her body shiver at the contact; it almost convinced him that he had to misread her... He drew back, but then Relena slipped her delicate arms around his neck, pulling herself closer to him. She was so close to him that he could feel her heart thudding against his chest. Heero cradled the back of her neck, then crushed their lips together again, hearing Relena let out a soft, airy whimper. He let his hand wander down, encircling her ribs and drawing her into a firm embrace. As their kiss grew deeper and more passionate, Heero savored her taste, her smell, the warmth of her body preheated by the summer sun. He felt Relena's hands raking through his thick hair, and her lips responded to his touch as she started kissing him even more insistently and fiercely. Her little body was fragile and slender in his arms, like a branchlet that he could easily break if he wanted to. The touch of her delicate form under his fingers made him silently wonder just how perfectly she fitted to him.

And how much he was thankful that she was alive.

When their lips parted, and they gasped slightly for air, Heero locked his gaze on her, relishing the view in front of him. Her alluring cerulean eyes were glistering, her mouth still reddened from their contact, waterdrops were lingering on her eyelashes. Or maybe they were her tears...

"Heero…" Relena suddenly gasped, showing him her soft smile again. "I…"

"Relena," he interrupted her, brushing a strand of her honey hair off her face and resting his hand on her cheek again. She looked at him expectantly, her chest rising and falling in the rhythm of her breaths. She was so beautiful. "You asked me about my good memories…"

She sent him a confused expression but then nodded. "I remember that," she answered, resting her hands on his firm chest.

"I don't have many. But this will be the first in years."

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TBC

Love, love, love! There will be only more love from now on !

I want to thank one more time to my dearest readers: Mistaken-Miracles, Lumpylumpia, and Hellocat42! It is your support that gives me the energy to pore over the next chapters, refining them endlessly to perfection - to present you the best work I can do. Thank you :)