One minute, Trowa was on the floor, shielding Relena from an explosion. For a split second, he worried that the ADM had actually gone off. Once he realized that none of them had been incinerated, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. But what about the other explosion?
He raised his head to look toward the source of the boom, but he didn't even have a chance to see what was happening. Because no sooner had he started to get up than he was knocked backward by a hard, wiry mass of muscle and bone plowing into him.
"What the––"
He tried to get a word in, but a fist cracked across his jaw. Trowa reached his arms up to block his face, crossing them in front of him, but his assailant wrenched them apart, straddling him. Which was as awkward as it was anything else, because Trowa was still naked. But he couldn't worry about that now; he had to try to protect himself from the fucker who'd jumped on him and started pounding on him.
Trowa's face and arms were being rained down upon by fists that might as well have been made of iron, and he began to see and taste blood. He heard Relena cry out for him, to no avail; his attacker wouldn't let up the assault. Trowa could sense others crowding around, trying to intervene, but there was no use.
With some Herculean effort, Trowa mustered what was left of his waning strength and landed an uppercut to the other man's stomach. Once he pushed him off, he could finally see who it was.
Heero let out a groan, but then launched right back up to his feet, rushing back over to Trowa with bullet-like speed. Trowa didn't even have time to react before he was down again. Thankfully, he landed on carpet, otherwise he might have shattered his skull from the force of the impact.
"Heero!" he rasped, trying unsuccessfully to push the other man off of him, before Heero could break every bone in Trowa's face. "Stop!" he sputtered.
"What the hell did you do?!" Heero roared in a voice that was more animal than human. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH HER!"
Trowa was wrong. He was going to die after all. Which was just as well. At least the last hour or so of his life had been pleasant.
"HEERO!"
Relena's shriek rivaled Heero's in volume. But Heero ignored her, his murderous gaze fixed on Trowa.
"I. Will. Kill. You."
Trowa braced himself for another blow, but then Relena dove in between them, spreading her arms out in front of Trowa.
Trowa was wrong earlier. With he and Relena still stark naked, and Heero bearing down on them... This was the closest he'd ever come to a threesome.
"Heero! Leave him alone!" Relena cried. "This isn't his fault!"
"Yes it is," Heero seethed, grabbing hold of her shoulders. "Move," he snarled at her.
"No," she said hotly, bringing her face close to his. "I won't until you promise not to hurt him."
Heero's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I can't do that. He has to pay for what he did."
"If you're going to punish anyone, it should be me. I told him to do it."
Heero's eyes jerked wide, like he'd just been sucker punched. "You what?"
"We were going to die, Heero!"
His eyes tightened again. "You couldn't have thought of anything else?"
"You would've done the same thing!" she yelled at him.
"Yeah, because I'M ALREADY FUCKING YOU!" he yelled right back at her.
Okay, that was news, and not exactly what Relena had told Trowa earlier. This had gotten far beyond awkward. Trowa thought maybe he ought to let them work out their differences, and slink away while they were still arguing.
Trowa was about to do just that, but as soon as he moved away from them, Heero knocked Relena onto the floor, pinning her down with her wrists over her head. She cried and struggled against his hold. Trowa launched himself at Heero, trying to push him off of her.
"Let her go!" Trowa shouted, but Heero drove his elbow backward into Trowa's ribcage, knocking the wind out of him.
"Shut up," Heero growled. "I'm dealing with her."
Trowa clutched his sore abdomen, which hurt only half as much as his face, which was still leaking blood, dripping onto the carpet that had already seen better days. He struggled to his feet before Heero could actually hurt Relena; there was no way Trowa was going to stand by and watch Heero beat her.
But Heero flipped Relena over onto her stomach and did just that, striking her bare bottom. Relena cried out, but it was more of a moan... much like the sounds Trowa had elicited from her earlier. Heero spanked her again, and she moaned even louder.
Trowa stood staring at the scene unfolding before him, breathing raggedly. This was not how he expected things to go. Heero was straddling Relena while she was lying facedown on the carpet, spanking her over and over…and she appeared to be loving it.
Trowa shook his head to the side, registering his defeat. This was fucking ridiculous. He decided that all he could do now was find his clothes, try to gather what remained of his dignity, and report back to HQ.
By then the parishioners were being rounded up by the local police, with Preventers assisting. The room was full of law enforcement personnel and agents, and proud as Trowa was of his physique, he did not want everyone in the room looking at his naked body. So he shuffled off while he still had a chance, back to the hallway where he'd stashed his clothes. Once he was dressed, he retrieved Relena's clothes from the women's bathroom, figuring it was the least he could do.
While he was in there, Trowa looked at his face in the mirror. He looked like shit, but he was lucky Heero hadn't beaten him to a bloody pulp. He did spit out a wad of blood, though, and thought he felt a few loose teeth. Thankfully everything was staying put for the moment, but he was pretty sure his nose was broken. He needed medical attention, stat; he wasn't too keen on losing any teeth or having his nose stay crooked.
Trowa splashed cold water on his face and cleaned himself up as best he could with liquid soap and paper towels, then trudged back into the sanctuary, finding a much calmer scene. Most of the parishioners had been escorted out of the church, and Trowa arrived just in time to see a couple of burly Preventers leading Aiden away in cuffs.
Aiden swung wild eyes over to Trowa, and the two identical men locked gazes.
"What the––" Aiden stammered. "Who the hell are you?"
Trowa smiled at him. "I'm you," he said simply. Then he walked over to where he saw several agents were gathered, including Sally and Duo.
"Hell of a night, huh?" Duo slapped Trowa on the back. Trowa winced. He was still in pain from the beating Heero had given him. Speaking of…
"Where's Relena?" Trowa glanced all around them, but he didn't see her. "I have her clothes."
"Who knows?" Duo chuckled. "She and Heero probably went to go kill each other somewhere else."
Trowa's jaw clenched. Great. Heero was probably fucking the living daylights out of her, because he could.
Trowa handed Relena's clothes to Sally. "Give these to her when you see her, all right?" Then he turned on his heel to leave. Where he was going, he didn't know yet. He certainly wasn't going to leave with the others, though. He needed time alone to process everything that had just happened.
"Where do you think you're going?" a low female voice sounded behind him. A hand closed over his shoulder, and Trowa turned to see Sally frowning at him. "You need first aid."
"I'm fine," Trowa groused. Maybe he didn't care whether his injuries healed properly after all. What was one more scar?
Trowa shuffled toward the blasted church doors, but another voice halted him. "So you were cloned too, huh?"
Trowa didn't bother turning around to face Heero. He wasn't exactly in the mood for a friendly chat.
"Evidently," Trowa snipped. But then, his interest was piqued. "What happened to yours?" He cut a glance over his shoulder to see Heero leaning against one of the pews.
"He did not survive," Heero said with a shrug.
Trowa arched a brow. "Did you kill him?"
"No." Heero didn't elaborate, and Trowa didn't press him. Heero nodded his head toward what was left of the doors. "Are you going to interrogate him?"
"Maybe." Trowa wondered why they were even having this conversation after what had just transpired between them. Then again, this was how things usually worked with Heero; once he'd beaten the shit out of you, he tended to calm down a little.
Heero tipped his chin toward him. "Good luck with that."
"Thanks." Trowa didn't know what else to say after that. He wanted to ask where Relena was, but he also wanted to avoid another beatdown.
Heero didn't bother apologizing for said beatdown, which was just as well; because then Trowa would feel obligated to apologize for having sex with Relena, and the truth was, he wasn't the least bit sorry.
However fleeting, he felt like the connection they'd shared was real. And no matter what happened from here on out, Trowa was determined to hold on to that feeling for as long as possible. Even if it got him nowhere. Because he was nothing, and no one.
Trowa jammed his hands in his blazer pockets and shuffled out of the church, past the police cars, SUVs and armored vehicles that belonged to the North American branch of the Preventers. He descended the church steps and took to the sidewalk, heading for where he'd left the car that had brought him to this strange place.
He walked away without another look back.