Chapter 34 - The Separation Part 3

Three weeks later

Relena POV

.

"…Relena, sweetie, are you sure you're all right?"

Relena lifted her tired eyes as she heard Catherine's concerned voice. Ever since she woke up, she felt dizzy and nauseous. And whether because of prolonging summer heat or fatigue of her work, she felt worse with every minute.

"You look…"

"…overworked," Relena placed the tray with a skimpy breakfast on the table and sent her friend a weary smile. "There were recently a dozen cases of sunstroke in our hospital... people worked way too hard in this heat, so now we have our hands full…"

"Well, right," Catherine lifted her eyebrows with understanding. "Fortunately, we work in a building, so we don't have to be afraid of the sunstroke..."

Taking a seat, Relena forced herself to look down on her food and felt like she was going to throw up. She was ready to convince herself that she could do the whole day without any food at all.

"Hi, girls."

Sylvia walked up to them, sitting at the table with her tray with scrambled eggs on a slice of bread. Relena turned her head away sharply at the sight and smell of Sylvia's food, discreetly covering her mouth and sucking a deep breath, frantically trying to regain control of her insides.

"Heard the latest news?" Sylvia asked merrily.

"Nope," Catherine shook her head, "you're gonna let us die of curiosity, or will you just tell us?"

"Soon after our brave boys will return from the hunt, there will be a party in Evergreen."

"A party?" Catherine asked stupored, then she and Relena exchanged surprised looks. "Is it really a good idea to plan something like this even before they come back?"

"I get what you mean, but you know Quatre and his over-optimism," Sylvia sighed, then shifted her disdainful gaze at Relena. "It doesn't matter if your guy comes back or not, you'll surely have to think about a dress. The whole Evergreen already knows that you are rejecting the courtship of all the locals, I guess it can't take long…"

Relena snapped her chin up. Those words truly hurt.

"Sylvia!" Catherine gasped, "How could you?!"

"What's shocking about that? You are sitting here with your arms folded anyway, this way you could at least get some fun," Sylvia didn't even glance at Catherine but eyed Relena with her unfriendly look, tearing her slice of bread into two pieces. "Perhaps you think you're better than everyone else living here? Maybe I would agree with that if you, the heiress of your pacifistic family, would have done anything to end this twenty-year-long nightmare…"

"Sylvia, stop!" Catherine growled at the girl, while Relena frowned back at her attacker, holding on to this hostile look.

"This epidemic took my loved ones, too," Relena whispered calmly. "I know this pain…"

"You don't have the slightest idea about pain," Sylvia growled, raising a glass of water to her mouth and taking a short sip. As if she was trying to rinse the words that wouldn't go through her throat. "What's more… you have no idea what hundreds of people have been through to survive. Your only merit is to sit out all your life in the zone."

Relena sank into the back of the chair, letting out a breath. "What do you want from me? Have I ever exalted myself because I'm a Peacecraft?"

"This is not about what you did as Peacecraft, but what you didn't do."

"I don't get you," Relena said after a moment, truthfully.

"It's been over a month since you've been here. What is the purpose of it? Everyone has heard those rumors that somebody from your family holed up somewhere and is trying to create a vaccine… and you?" Sylvia asked angrily and provocatively. "What are you still doing here? Bored with saving the world?"

Relena frowned. She could almost feel the truth about a vial with vaccine hidden in her room weighing on her heart, helplessly struggling to come out, to stop this torrent of defamations that she couldn't fight back. She narrowed her eyes as the ground staggered again under her feet.

"I don't forget about it for a moment..."

"Bullshit," Sylvia growled. Her enraged eyes suddenly filled with tears. "People are dying for nothing just because those of your type are sitting idly by!"

"Sylvia, calm down-" Catherine tried to soothe the atmosphere, but then Relena abruptly got up and slapped Sylvia in the face.

The silence fell in the canteen, everyone stopped their activities and looked in their direction. Sylvia slowly touched her cheek as if in a shock. Relena lowered her hand, still narrowing her eyes from the other side of the table at Sylvia.

"I didn't choose my life," Relena stated calmly. "I struggle to survive in the same hell on earth like you. There is no day that I wouldn't wish this nightmare to end…"

Sylvia gave Relena a vengeful look. "…sitting here idly, with your arms folded?"

Relena couldn't answer Sylvia's question as she felt dizzy and threw up.

x x x

Heero POV

.

"At ease, Heero."

Heero looked up and over his shoulder at those words, surprised.

"Your guard is over," continued Sam, a short and thin boy, as he stood next to Heero. He had a bandaged forehead and held a shotgun in his hand. "I'm here to relieve you. Go get some rest."

"Why now? I've only been here for three hours…"

"Don't ask me, I just follow my orders," Sam replied with a big smile buttoning his windbreaker and leaning his shotgun on the ground. "Trowa was looking for you, go to him with all your complains."

Heero shrugged, then got up and shaking Sam's hand he left his guarding spot.

He silently entered the thicket of the grove that covered their camp, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. He barely grimaced at the faint prick of pain that accompanied his movements - the torn wound on his chest that he got from the Clicker was already healing well. However, the injury kept tiresomely reminding him of that strange moment…

He still couldn't explain to himself what had actually happened to him when he had that large, stinking, consisting almost exclusively of voracious jaws, Clicker's body above him. He hadn't been this close to death for long; he hadn't been this close even when he had been shot in Atlanta. He had never felt so helpless and paralyzed against the raging violence that drew energy from him with every second... and yet, he somehow overcame it. But how? What had been that power that he had felt, that had been enough to finally beat the Clicker?

Then, for the first time in his life, right after he had shot the Infected that had attacked Trowa, Heero had lost consciousness on the battlefield. Fortunately, the other men from the group, whom he had managed to help earlier, had taken care of the remaining infected; if they hadn't, he would have been torn apart anyway.

Dry grass crackled under his feet as Heero mulled those events again in his thoughts, approaching their camp and the campfire in its center. The dancing light of the roaring fire bounced off the surrounding tall trees and let out a column of smoke high in the sky. Heero bypassed his sleeping comrades and walked up to the fire, sitting down opposite Trowa.

The green-eyed man was sitting hunched, tying a new bandage on his left forearm - miraculously the only wound he suffered from the last battle. "How are your wounds?" he asked, looking at Heero. "Anything you need?"

Heero shook his head silently, reaching out his hands towards the fire.

"Tomorrow, we'll be back to Evergreen," Trowa continued, as if to himself. "It's the end of the hunt."

Heero glanced at him knowingly, then clenched and relaxed his fists in front of the fire, still remaining silent. Along with the time spent in his company, Heero began to give Trowa a growing dose of positive feelings; certainly not acceptance, but understanding.

"…you saved my life," Trowa said suddenly, quietly. Heero didn't look up at his words, gazing at the dancing fire. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have come back alive. I had put us in this danger myself."

"Stop tormenting yourself with this," Heero said. "There's no turning back."

"I was responsible," Trowa continued, rubbing his eyes, then glanced at Heero through his long bangs. "And you predicted it... if I had listened to you, we would have probably all came back alive."

Heero held Trowa's gaze for a long moment, then sighed and allowed himself a crooked smile. "You're not the first and probably not the last person who regrets not having listened to me."

"Hey," Trowa measured the interlocutor first with surprise and then with amusement in his eyes. "I wanted to commit an act of self-criticism, but instead, I've put you in a state of self-admiration?"

Both men laughed under their breaths.

They sat in silence for a long moment, listening to the sound of the wind in the treetops above them and the sound of crackling wood, when Trowa suddenly broke the silence.

"I still didn't thank you. For saving my life back then."

Heero shrugged slightly. "You're welcome."

"I had been rude to you, treating you like garbage. I want to apologize for that, too," Trowa continued. "You had to endure terrible things in your life, but thanks to that, you learned to fight and survive. Now I know that your individuality is not self-exaltation or hostility. It's your way to survive."

Heero watched Trowa through the wall of dancing flames in silence, not sure if he should say anything at the moment. In particular, he had no intention of pulling on the subject of his past, whose only plus was that it was already the past.

"I wanted to ask you a question. You may not answer it," Trowa said. "Why didn't you refuse to take this whole hunt with us? It was another exposure for risk for you. And you don't need Evergreen itself. You are a free spirit, you'll survive everywhere."

Trowa suspended his voice for a moment. Heero delayed his answer. He looked down and watched the shadows cast by the burning fire. He felt his cheeks and knees get hot because of the warmth of the campfire.

"You did it for her? For Relena?"

Relena, he sighed to himself. A name he hadn't heard for so long, but which resounded silently in his soul every second since he had last seen her. The most beautiful name in the world.

And the only good thing in his life.

It dawned on him then. He realized what was that he saw when he was lying on the ground under Clicker. It was clear that those eyes, that voice...

Although no other word came out of his mouth for long minutes, Trowa eventually smiled knowingly. "I thought so," he whispered. "They say that sometimes, silence speaks louder than words..."

x x x

Relena POV

.

"Sally, please!" Relena moaned as she lifted herself on her arms from the mattress. "Keeping me in bed only because of puking!?"

"I'm in charge here," Sally replied as she opened the window, letting fresh, rainy air into the hospital room. "I have limited options for diagnosing here. And you don't realize, the symptom of how many different diseases is vomiting… beginning from stroke ending with duodenum cancer."

Relena snorted with impatience at those words and collapsed on her pillow. "For god's sake, you've gone crazy..."

"You've known me long enough that you should know that I won't yield."

"I'm all right..."

Sally stood in front of the grumpy patient and rested her hands on her hips in a dominating pose. "You vomited twice in the last 12 hours. And you are as pale as a wall."

"I feel fine!" Relena sighed. "I can't stand any minute more in bed. Let me work. I don't want to be so useless…"

"I don't blame you," Sally said patiently.

Relena looked down at those words. "You may not. But others..."

Sally gazed at Relena for a moment, then moved a low chair to her bed, sat down, and shifted closer to the girl.

"What happened? Is it because of what Silvia was saying?"

Relena looked down without saying anything. Sally reached out and took Relena by the hand. "When one loses everything they care about, one sometimes turns bitter and sad. One suffers the mourning this way. Sylvia has always been this way. Don't blame yourself. You're not the cause."

After a moment, Relena looked at her friend and smiled mischievously. "All right, Sally, will you let me get up now?"

"No," Sally said and stood. "But if you sleep through all night and nothing happens, you will return to work tomorrow. It's raining now, get some sleep while it's fresh and crisp."

Saying this, she left the room. Relena sighed loudly, falling down on her pillows. She was the only patient lying in their hospital, as all little children have already recovered, and the cooler weather helped the persons with sunstroke. She folded her arms and looked at the ceiling.

Raindrops were monotonously booming on the roof, intermittent by the roar of thunder somewhere in the distance. One of the first long-awaited summer storms was just reaching the sky above Evergreen, carrying fresh air swollen from the metallic smell of lightning. The rain increased with every second, and the dried earth absorbed water with a sigh of relief.

Falling asleep, Relena got awakened by a distinct noise breaking through the sound of the rain. Interested, she sat on the bed and looked out the window, where she noticed more and more Evergreen residents, shouting:

"They're back! The hunt is over!"

Her heart thumped at the news.

Relena immediately threw away the quilt and got out of the bed, then ran as she stood out of the room, then out of the building straight into the crowd and a wall of fiercely heavy rain. She joined the Evergreen residents, who ran as fast as they could from all parts of the settlement.

"Relena!" she heard Catherine's voice from behind, and soon her friend appeared next to her. She was slightly breathless, raindrops kept running down her cheeks. "The boys are back! They're opening the gate, hurry!"

Saying this, Catherine caught Relena's hand, and they both ran towards the main gate.

When they ran into the square, they heard that the gate had already been opened. The rain grew more robust, increasingly tempestuous, blurring the outlines of their surroundings. The rain was so heavy that it was hard to see anything at a distance of several meters.

At some moment, Catherine released Relena's hand, and they split in the crowd. Relena kept running in the ankle-deep, slick mud. The rain was floating over her body as if she had been standing under the waterfall. She was already soaked to the skin; plus, she ran from the hospital so quickly that she didn't even put on her shoes.

Suddenly the crowd around her moved as if people started heading quickly forward; more and more people kept running right next to her. Relena started walking, squeezed, looking frantically around. Time after time, she brushed wet hair that fell into her eyes.

"Heero!" she called him, but her voice was too weak to break through the noise of the crowd.

The crowd eased around her; people started falling into each other embrace. Men abandoned their horses, women cried. Everybody laughed, kissed, hugged. Everything in the drowning downpour's noise. Finding their loved ones, smaller groups of people traveled in all directions, seeking protection from the rain.

"Heero!" Relena called him again.

Nobody answered her. Relena felt a chocking tightness in her chest as if she was drowning in icy water. "Heero! Ah-!"

A tall man accidentally ran into her, almost knocking her off her feet into the mud. Mumbling rude 'sorry,' he moved on, while Relena stood still on shaky legs, catching her breath and rubbing her shoulder in pain. The rain curtain almost obscured her vision.

She slowly walked forward, looking into the eyes of every man she passed. In vain. He couldn't find him anywhere… She was slowly approaching the wall, there were fewer and fewer people around, and the rain only seemed to intensify.

She felt overwhelming cold. She wiped her eyes of the rain mixed with her tears, which she didn't even try to control…

"Heero!" she screamed again with all her might.

"Relena-"

She shot her eyes open, at the sound of a familiar voice... The rustle of the torrent of rain was so intense and loud that she wasn't sure if she hadn't actually misheard it…

"Relena…!"

…no doubt this time. She whipped her head around, and finally… noticed him.

He was standing less than five meters behind her, holding his horse by the bridle. Running in the rain, she must have run past him. A pair of familiar, captivating, beautiful Prussian-blue eyes gazed at her through the curtain of his brown bangs.

He called her name again. Relena covered her mouth with her hand and ran to him. He released the bridle, and Zero jumped away with relief and trotted toward the stable.

When she fell into his arms, his familiar warmth and masculine scent enveloped her, even though the rain. Relena clung to him, pressing her face to his chest and his soaked shirt, repeating his name with relief. Soon she felt Heero's hands cupping her face and tilting her head up, then crushing their lips together in a fierce kiss.

The passion of his kiss almost turned rainwater on her skin into steam. Feeling the happiness and gratitude running through her, Relena cried softly against his lips and returned the kiss, cuddling up to him with her whole body. If she could, she would like to be absorbed by his embrace. Her body suffered tremors from the joyful realization that he was finally here, so close to her. Alive.

Relena didn't let him break the kiss even for a second when Heero bent down a bit and picked her up into his arms. She looped his neck and tangled her fingers in his damp hair as he carried her through the mud on the square a few meters further. He stopped only for a moment when they slipped out of the rain into the warehouse next to the gate - only to make sure he would enter through the narrow entrance safely with her in his arms.

When he placed her on her feet on the floor, she immediately wrapped her arms around his torso, clenching her fists on the fabric of his wet clothes.

"…where are your shoes?" she suddenly heard him asking, while he kissed the skin on the side of her neck.

Relena chuckled under her breath and looked at him. "To hell with the shoes…" she whispered, then pulled him closer and kissed him again. She framed his face with her hands, then looped her arms behind his neck, pushing herself up on her tiptoes. Heero let a low grunt, and made a step backward, bracing with his back against the wooden wall, but returning the kiss with equal passion.

When they broke the contact, dragging air into their lungs, Heero let his warm hands slid down her arms and her sides. She felt that her wet, thin summer clothing clung to her body, enhancing her shapes, becoming almost transparent from water. That was when Relena felt cold and shivered. Noticing that, without saying a single word, Heero ripped the dry guard cloak off the hanger and covered her with it.

"Why you're so pale…?" Heero murmured, apparently concerned, cupping her face with his hand, brushing soaked, golden locks away from her cheeks. Relena blinked and pushed his hand away when he tried to touch her forehead.

"Is this really you? You've never been so talkative...," Relena gasped with a chuckle, sinking again in his embrace. "Oh God, how much I missed you…"

"Relena…"

Suddenly, someone slammed the door to the room they were in, and they both looked up.

In the other corner of the room, which plunged into the shadows, they saw the silhouettes of two people who clung to each other in a similar, loving, passionate embrace. A stream of rain followed them on the floor.

They recognized these lovers…

"…Let's go," Relena heard Heero's soft whisper, as he tugged the coat on her shoulders, then pulled her close, and they tiptoed toward the back door from the warehouse. "Let's leave them."

x

"Wait, not everyone at once! Everyone will be helped!"

The hospital, so peaceful and quiet only a few minutes ago, now seemed busier and noisier than the Zone. The men that had come back from hunting occupied almost every room, exposing their wounds of varying severity, expecting help, and talking loudly and enthusiastically between themselves and their families. And in all this turmoil, there was one and only, always controlled Sally Po. "Those who don't need medical help immediately, please leave the room! I repeat, everyone who needs it will be helped, but in order!"

When Heero let her forward and closed the hospital door behind them, Relena turned around to him, still holding his hand.

"Are you hurt?"

He gazed down on her, water running down his face, sticking his chocolate brown hair to his forehead. Raindrops even stopped on his eyelashes, reflecting on the surface of his beautiful blue eyes. "I'm all right. You should go and help Sally."

"No, Heero," Relena whispered, grabbing him by his jacket. "Don't lie to me only to make a hero of yourself. I can't take care of others first if you-"

"I'm fine," he interrupted her with a calm but controlled voice, the cold blue of his eyes focused on her. He frowned at her as if he was thinking through something. "…You already saved me before."

She shot him a puzzled look. "…What?"

"Relena, thank God!" Sally called to her, as she crossed the corridor, clasping bandages and surgical instruments in her hands. "You feel better now? I need your help."

"Yes…" Relena sighed, looking over her shoulder, then gazed up at Heero again. "Heero, what did you-"

"Nothing," he stroked her cheek, his eyes suddenly full of concern. An impenetrable emotion that flickered in his eyes disappeared very quickly. "What's she talking about? Are you sick?"

"No…" Relena shook her head. "No, Heero, I'm all right!"

They both frowned at each other for a moment, and Relena realized that each of them wanted to say something, but it wasn't the right time and place. These unspoken words restrained them with invisible bonds, and it was clear that although they hadn't seen each other for more than three weeks, their first calm conversation would have to wait a little bit more.

Heero finally broke the awkward silence. "Please, go. You're needed here. Don't worry about me."

He pushed her slightly away from him, but Relena didn't let go of his hands. "Stay here," she begged him, "you've just returned…"

"Relena, could you please, come here?" came again Sally's impatient voice from the inside of the hospital.

This time Relena didn't turn around, but locked eyes with Heero. "Please, don't go."

He looked at her with his stern gaze, which gradually softened until his shoulders dropped. "I'll just leave my backpack, okay?"

Relena smiled in reply and pressed another kiss on his lips. "Okay," she whispered against his mouth, "I won't let you go anywhere alone anymore."

.

TBC

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all your comments and messages. As usual, I apologize for the prolonged lack of updates! I am happy to announce that the separation period is over, and Heero and Relena are together again…

Some of you may ask… did I forget about Dorothy and her Fireflies? One thing I can answer to that - of course, I didn't; everything is according to plan! And… who are those mysterious lovers? If you're not sure, you've got to wait a little bit longer to find out.

A little teaser... the next chapter will be called "The Party Night." And it will be long.

Stay safe,

~enelle