Chapter 7
"Wait, don't go yet, they're still there," I hissed to Heero, as we ducked behind a bush.
He slumped next to me, looking as close to defeat as I've ever seen him, and asked, "How many?"
I peered around the corner again. "Not that many. Just five." Then another walked into view and I swore.
"Shit! It's the one who tried to get pictures of us in the locker room!"
Heero muttered under his breath.
They turned to greet her and I saw our chance. "Quick! While they're not looking!" I grabbed Heero, and ran. He was really letting me get away with a lot of things lately. I'd tried to figure it out, but hadn't a clue why he'd let me curl around him in bed, or lean on his shoulder, or grab his hand, and now was not the time to wonder about Heero's weird ease with touching. We had an escape to execute. Ours.
We made it to another bush intact and I cheered silently. Yes! Just another fifty feet and we'll reach our dorms!
We braced ourselves, and then sped across open space like we had demons on our tail, and I'm not sure we didn't.
I heard a shriek behind us, but didn't risk looking back. We made the door in ten seconds flat and flung it open so hard I think we busted the hinges.
Then we raced down the hall to our room and slammed the door, locking it with a blissful click.
I collapsed against the wall. "Gods, what's wrong with those girls?" I groaned.
"I don't know," Heero said, sounding exasperated. "I just hope they fix it so they can leave us alone."
"Amen," I agreed.
We hadn't realized it, but after our first basketball game, we'd somehow acquired a damn fan club. I couldn't believe there were girls crazy enough to withstand Heero's famous death glare more than once, and even his threats seemed to be totally useless.
It'd been a shock to get up that second morning, and suddenly be bumping into squealing, sighing girls giving us soulful looks everywhere we went.
Heero's fan club was a lot bigger than mine, for which I was grateful, but I had a few damn tenacious girls after me as well, and after a while, we'd been reduced to running and hiding.
The Guys mostly thought we were hilarious, though some seemed to be kind of envious too. I couldn't imagine how anybody could be jealous of the situation we were in. Give me a troop of Oz soldiers anytime.
Okay, perhaps I didn't look at things like "normal" teenaged boys do, but, number one, I'm anything but normal. Number two, I'm a Gundam pilot. I really don't have time for this. Number three, I'm a romantic. I don't really just want a tumble-in-the-hay kind of relationship, okay? And lastly, well, L2's kind of…scarred me for life, you could say. I'd seen some of what happened to the prostitutes there, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. And nobody in my gang, or Solo's, sold themselves. It was an ironclad rule. I'd never even been kissed before. All in all, this contributed to my totally panicked reaction when the girls just up and appeared and started chasing us all around the school.
Heero probably wasn't any better. After all, he'd only just gotten used to showing the tiniest bit of emotion, and we all know how wonderful he is with touch. He might be okay with me, but I'd worked for months on him. In fact, his training was so oriented towards making him the "perfect soldier" I was surprised he even knew what girls were.
And that brought me back to those stupid, annoying girls. We just couldn't shake them. Everywhere we went, they followed. They'd come up to us at the most random times and ask if we liked them. Or send us the most embarrassingly pink and red gifts in the middle of class. Or invite us on a date. Bring cameras around in those tiny purses and snap pictures of us when we were off guard. We'd gotten to really fear those bright flashes. Really, though, sneaking in the locker room with a camera? That was just too much, okay?
Heero's bewildered voice interrupted my frustrated thoughts.
"Duo, why do they keep chasing after us?"
I sighed, and grumbled, "Because they like us and think we're hot." Or, more accurately, think you're hot. They think I'm adorable. Must be the hair and big eyes.
"They think we're…hot?" God, Heero really was an innocent. He said the words so carefully, like he'd never said them before.
"Well," I expanded, "they probably think you're hot and I'm cute."
"Me?" I was confusing him even more, wasn't I?
He asked tentatively, "Am I hot?"
For the first time, I really looked at him. I'd studied him pretty intently before, but first, it was as the guy I was afraid of, then as the guy that needed a hug, and then as my best friend. So, was he hot?
Noting the hair, and the eyes, and the body, I decided, yes, he was damn hot. And I told him so.
"Oh," he said, and I could see the signs of his almost-blush coming into view.
He abandoned the conversation about him and pursued one about me. "You're not hot?" He asked, crinkling his brow at me.
The way he said it, you'd think he thought I was.
"Nah," I grinned at him. "See my eyes," I pointed at them, "they're way too big for hot, and my hair's too long. No…I'm small enough, and cute-" I scowled at the word, "-enough for them to think of me as a lost little waif, probably. Someone to coo over." I made a face.
He looked at me with an unreadable expression. It'd been a long time since I'd been unable to decipher his feelings, and this one was really off the chart. His mouth was in a straight line. His eyes were…intense. His nose wasn't crinkling, and neither was his forehead. His hands weren't twitching, or fisting, and his shoulders weren't tense. I went back to the eyes, but couldn't stare at them long, they were so freakin' blue and focused. It was disconcerting, to say the least, to be the object of such a…burning regard.
I looked away, feeling unaccountably embarrassed, and when I risked another look at Heero, he was back to his usual cool self.
"So," I tried a grin, "how much longer do we have to stay here?"
"As soon as we get General Vasheli out," he grunted.
"Well then," I hopped up, "let's hurry up! I want to get the hell away from here!"
"Hn." I took that as a sign of agreement.
We implemented our plan that very night. Heero'd never admit it, but he wanted to get away from those creepy girls as much as I did, probably more, actually, since he was worse off. They might have adored me, but they fancied themselves totally-head-over-heels for him. And there's nothing more frightening in the universe than infatuated girls.
I felt a twinge of regret at leaving The Guys: Miles, Brenner, Garron, Ulmer, McKale, and Warner. You know what's sad? I didn't even know their first names, just their last.
And besides being jocks and Ozzies, they were pretty cool, and were kind to us, the two short misfits; one who was the epitome of antisocial, and his best friend. And did I neglect to mention the obsessive stalkers we'd somehow collected?
Well, that was something I'd be more than happy to leave behind.
Huddling under some bushes and sweating buckets, we waited for the guards to change their posts. I swear, even the wind was hot enough to scorch our skin. I cursed myself for wearing pants, and questioned what in the world had possessed me to wear black pants in the middle of summer. Besides the fact that it was dark and I was so pale-skinned if I didn't wear them I glowed so much you might as well have painted a stinkin' target on my back. Idly, I wondered if Heero's spandex shorts were more comfortable than my pants.
I weighed the advantages and disadvantages. It'd be like a second skin, so the sweat would probably soak right through. Was that good or bad? They were thinner than my pants. Good? Or bad? They looked better on him than my pants on me. Good? Or- I smacked my wandering mind back on track.
Heero tensed beside me. It was time for the guards to switch.
We saw our opening, and leapt from the bushes past the guards, who were too busy making small talk to notice two small, dark shadows flash by.
If we had to, we'd have killed them, but better not to warn Oz before it was too late, right?
This next part would have to be handled really precisely, if we were too slow, then they'd kill the hostage before we had time to get there.
Heero disabled the security cameras real quick; he'd already hacked into the whole system, and all he had to do was press a button. Simple, huh? Ingenious, too. I remember complimenting him on it.
We already knew our course by heart; we'd memorized it a couple nights ago.
Running unerringly through the passages, we veered to a stop outside a forbidding door with a lock that was enough to make the faint of heart pee in their pants.
Opening my box of specialized picks, I chose one after a moment's deliberation, and set to work.
It took a whole ten nerve-wracking minutes.
The door swung open, and someone sitting on the floor on the opposite wall looked up and stared at us, obviously surprised. His mouth formed a question, "Who?"
We came in swiftly, motioning for him to be quiet, and again, went through the whole process of picking the locks on his shackles.
He staggered up; I guess he'd been sitting for a while and his legs must have been practically paralyzed.
Raking an eye over Vasheli, Heero and I both came to the conclusion that he hadn't been beaten, and he hadn't really been starved, just stuck in a cell for a few weeks.
When we stepped out into the light, his eyes widened, and I just knew he was thinking, but they're so young!
Even among our own allies, our identities as Gundam pilots were pretty much unknown. I grinned at him, and took his arm, with Heero doing the same thing on Vasheli's other side.
We were just leaving the building when the alarms started blaring, and we all flinched.
Tightening our grip on the general's arms, we sped up to our rendezvous point, where Heero had notified J to pick up our black haired escapee.
On the way there, a couple Oz soldiers blundered right into us, and they had a moment of scrambling backwards to stare at us that cost them their lives. Pow.
We still had a ways to go.
I heard the sounds of pursuit behind us. "Damn it to hell," I swore.
By this time we were flat out running, with Vasheli shambling between us, still getting used to walking without chains wrapped around his feet.
I caught a glint of something on our left, and hissed to Heero, "01! Down! On our left!"
We dropped, dragging the general down with us.
Above us whistled the unmistakable sound of a bullet speeding through the air.
I swore again. We were almost there, just beyond that copse of trees and we'd be fine.
"01! Take him to the rendezvous! I'll cover for you!"
He hesitated. He actually hesitated! The damn idiot! "Move!" I snapped angrily. What the hell was he thinking? "I'll be fine! Worry about the objective!"
He sent me a piercing look I caught even in the darkness, then was off with the general in tow.
I inched myself forward where there was a faint incline, hoping that would shield me at least partially, and began laying down fire towards the general direction of where I'd first seen the flash.
Several bullets answered mine.
Shit. There was more than one person there.
I waited, hoping to catch another glimpse of their position, and soon enough, I saw another flash. I wondered what the hell they were carrying to advertise their locations like that.
I drilled bullets that way for a whole twenty seconds, and then heard the distinct sounds of two thumps on the floor.
Yes! Down for the count! Gods, they were stupid enough to be staying close together too. Newbies. Must be.
I really had to go, though, otherwise Heero would probably come back and fetch me. The stupid…idiot.
Just because we were best friends didn't mean he was allowed to lay his life down for mine.
I'm being a hypocrite again, aren't I? I could do it for him but he couldn't do it for me. Oh well, I already knew I was screwed up pretty badly.
I levered myself up, and took off, my neck prickling like hell, though no bullet bored through my back.
Once I broke through the trees, I collapsed, chest heaving.
Then, Heero was in my face and his eyes were snapping at me angrily. He looked like he wanted to hit me, and I closed my eyes in preparation for a blow.
Finally, he just grabbed my shoulders, and snarled, "You baka."
I looked up at him, surprised, and couldn't help but quip, "Hey, you took my line."
He ignored me. "Status?"
"Clear," I automatically responded.
All of a sudden, the tension seemed to drain out of him, and he just collapsed to his knees in front of me, hands still gripping my shoulders.
"You all right?" I asked concernedly.
"I'm fine," he said distractedly.
He looked ready to start yelling at me again, so I warned him, "There was nothing else to do, Heero. One of us had to stay behind."
"Then it should've been me," he growled.
"But it wasn't," I said exasperatedly, "and we're all okay now, so don't…beat yourself up over it, alright?"
He didn't answer me and I just lost my patience.
"We're soldiers, Yuy. So act like it!"
Okay, that got his attention, and he got up stiffly. I still kind of got the feeling that my words hadn't quite…penetrated, but I could club it into his mind later.
Even if I was being hypocritical. But I wasn't going to tell him that, was I?
"Wing and Deathscythe are just over the hill," I said, clasping his hand to mine. "We're both alive and I'm not hurt, so let's go, huh?"
He nodded and I gave his hand a little squeeze. Unconsciously, I relaxed. I'd been half afraid I'd find him coming back to help me with a bullet in his heart or something. Yes, the important thing was that we were both alive. I could get mad at him later.
Even if the fact that he cared enough about me to be mad at me for risking my life felt really good. Best friends it was.
The door swung open for us; I guess Quatre had seen us from the window.
He smiled cheerfully, and asked, "Hungry?"
"Ohh," I groaned, "Hell yes."
"First," he said, putting his hands on his hips and looking at us mock sternly, "take a shower. You stink. After that, you can have some lasagna fresh from the oven and tell me all about your mission."
"Yes, sir," I said submissively.
We grinned at each other, and all of a sudden, we were hugging each other.
"Glad you're back, big brother," he whispered in my ear.
"Glad to be back, little brother," I whispered back.
We separated, still smiling foolishly. I turned to take Heero by the hand, and found him watching us with the strangest look in his eyes, and a tiny little frown.
"Heero?"
The frown was wiped away in an instant, and his hand was reaching for mine.
"C'mon," I grinned, "let's go take a shower."
His hand stiffened, and his face froze.
"Heero? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he recovered, and gave me a warm eye-smile. "Nothing's wrong."
I swam languidly in the warmth of his smile and totally forgot any worries I'd had.
Even with the lasagna calling insistently to my poor, abused stomach, I put off dinner just long enough to fully enjoy a hot shower. I stepped out of the bathroom languorously drying my hair, just to barely steer clear of a collision with Wing's pilot, who seemed curiously frozen.
"Heero," I greeted him dreamily, holding a towel to my hair with one hand, and a towel to my waist with the other.
He looked like he'd already washed, and I thanked God that this safehouse was more luxurious than the others: two delightful bathtubs replete with showerheads.
"Duo," he said, and there was this almost reverent quality to his words that made me look sharply at him.
He looked…fresh, I suppose you could say, with his brown hair still damp and lightly fluffy, and smelling sweetly of soap.
I finally just gave into a long held impulse and let the towel on my hair drop. Then I reached out and rumpled his hair. It was like pure silk, just like I'd thought it would be, and slid through my fingers with a whispery noise.
He was totally caught by surprise, but he didn't flinch and I gloried in his stillness. Another obstacle overcome.
He gave me a shy eye-smile…though for a moment, I swear I saw something close to disappointment flash through his eyes. Then it was gone, and I wrote it off as a byproduct of my overactive imagination.
Smiling at him, I said, "I'll be ready in a moment, just let me get dressed."
He grunted.
I sighed, and added 'social skills' to the already yards-long list of things I needed to teach him.
I slipped on a pair of comfy, loose pants, and a tank top. Then, I untangled the worst snarls in my hair and reminded myself to braid it later.
Heero and Quatre were waiting in the kitchen. I got a couple weird looks again, but this time I knew from experience that it must've been my hair, so we didn't get into the whole question and answer thing.
Quatre watched us eat indulgently; back wherever he came from, he'd never gotten to really do anything for anyone. I guess he was making up for it now by stuffing all us pilots with enough food to feed a small army.
Showing more restraint than I'd thought possible for him, he waited till we were cleaning away the last lingering bits of pasta and meat before launching into his first question, eyes bright with curiosity.
Quatre always has to know; he's like a little kid sometimes.
"Did you get enough sleep, Duo?" Ah…he'd probably noticed our red eyes, and once…well…on a mission, I'd woken him up with a nightmare. Totally freaked him out, and now, whenever I get out of bed looking like I haven't got enough sleep, he sends me these freakin' alarmed looks all day. Heero generally ignores my nightmares, unless they get really violent, and then, if he's in a bad mood, he'll go and throw water on me. If he's in a good mood, he'll shake me awake. Suffice to say, I like his good moods better. Okay…so there was only that one time when I refused to get up and pretended to snore for nearly half an hour, but he still threw water on me! The bed was freakin' soaked for a day after that!
"Quatre," I said, grinning at him, "we were on an undercover mission. We spent half our nights sneaking out to investigate the damn base."
"Oh, right," he said, but persevered. "No…nightmares?"
I sighed. "No, no nightmares."
"Really?" His entire appearance was transformed; they all know I don't lie. Maybe twist the truth, but I don't lie. Briefly, I wondered if my nightmares were really so bad Quatre needed to ask me that freakin' question every single time I got back from a mission.
"You didn't have a single nightmare…for nine days? And on a mission?" He looked a bit skeptical.
Okaaay…if you put it that way, it did sound kind of strange. "I suppose that was because," I said, an idea blooming on the edge of my mind, "I was sleeping wi-" I jerked my mouth closed on that word, heat rising in my face.
I gave Heero a quick glance, and found, to my surprise, that he was doing his almost-blush thing again, with, I swear, an almost silly little smile playing on his lips. But, this was Heero, silly little smiles just don't appear on his face.
"You were sleeping with what?" Quatre said, a gleam in his eyes.
"With…with…" Inspiration struck me. "With my teddy bear!" I said triumphantly.
"With….your…teddy bear?" Quatre stared at me, looking like he couldn't decide whether to demand a glimpse of this elusive stuffed animal, or have a giggling fit.
Heero had this almost horrified look on his face, and I apologized to him silently, promising I'd explain to him later.
"Your teddy bear?" Quatre repeated, still with that intriguing expression on his face.
Anger's always the best way to go in these cases. "What?" I snapped. "I can't have a damn teddy bear or something?"
"No, no," he backpedaled so quickly, I swear I could hear tires screeching, "umm…I just thought that was sort of…interesting."
"Oh, okay," I said, remembering to send him a suspicious look, just to make sure he'd move onto something else.
"So…how was your mission?"
I held back a grin. Totally fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.
"It wasn't bad," I shrugged, "except for those damn fan clubs."
"Fan clubs?" Quatre pounced on the potentially juicy bit of information.
"Oh, god," I shuddered, "don't get me started."
"No, c'mon," he pleaded, "I want to hear this."
Then we heard Trowa's voice. "Quatre," he said, coming up and sliding into a chair, "why do you always torture Duo when he comes back from missions?"
Quatre looked at me guiltily, and said in a small voice, "I'm not torturing you, am I, Duo?"
He looked so hopeful, what could I say? Quatre's beseeching look is his greatest weapon, and he wields it mercilessly. "No, of course not, little brother." I grinned reassuringly.
Quatre grinned happily at the nickname, and sent Trowa a faintly smug look. He sighed.
"Okay, now about those fan clubs?"
"Gods…okay, basically, some girls saw us play basketball, and you wouldn't believe how incredible Heero is at making three-pointers, it's just crazy," I shook my head wonderingly. "Yeah, anyway, they saw our blue-eyed friend here," a pat on Heero's back to indicate which one, "and just like that," I snapped my fingers, "they fell." I smacked the table.
Quatre and Trowa looked at me strangely, probably thinking, What the hell?
"In love," I elaborated and their expressions cleared, laughter rising in their eyes, "In freakin' teenaged girl, let's follow Max, er, Heero's codename, around with a camera," Trowa snorted, and Quatre grinned, "and take pictures of him in the locker room, love." We all looked at Heero, and that look of remembered horror on his face was too much, really. We all started giggling, okay, Trowa didn't, but then, I don't think the guy can giggle, so he chuckled.
Heero frowned at us, and protested, "It wasn't just me, they liked following Duo around too."
Quatre turned to me, and purred, "Oh, you don't say?"
"Wait," I said, raising my hands in my defense, "it was totally not like what they had with Heero. I was the little kid from next door, y'know? The little kid those girls find unbearably cute and like to give little gifts to and bake cookies for." They looked at me with almost an almost flabbergasted expression on their faces, and I continued, pointing at Heero, "And Heero, see, is the totally hot guy who works in the pizza parlor-"
Heero growled, and I glanced at him, pausing.
Quatre dove into the silence, saying, "But Duo, you are…hot."
"Thanks for the compliment, Quatre, but you know the rule of siblings?" I smiled warmly at him, and stage-whispered, waggling a finger, "Never listen to the little brother."
He just stared at me, and again he seemed caught between two emotions.
Trowa stepped in and said, "So you both had girls following you around all day?" There was an unmistakable undertone of delighted glee in his voice that I couldn't miss.
Okay, he thinks this is funny. I glowered at him, and said, biting each syllable off viciously, "Yes, we did."
He chuckled, and two glares tried to pin him to the chair. They didn't work.
Okay, back to the story. "It was horrible," I groaned, "everywhere we went, there was giggling and shrieking and pink, a lot, a lot of pink! And in class, they'd try passing notes to us, and Heero lived in fear of being molested by some girl with blond pigtails!" Heero remembered that too, I could see. "And there was this crazy girl who'd pop up at the most random times to ask me to go with her to a freakin' movie! One of those girly, kissy movies, too." I scowled irately.
Quatre was giggling uncontrollably by now, and I snapped, "Hey, it's not funny! See how you like having thirty stalkers!" I glared at Trowa and said heatedly, "What about you? Want twenty girls pounding on your door at 0700 hours asking for a freakin' cuddle?"
They seemed to find that even more amusing, and I slumped in my chair, grimacing.
"I hate you," I muttered.
Wiping tears of merriment from his eyes, Quatre said, "I'm sorry, but really, the look on your face…" He snickered again, "It was…priceless!" He gasped.
That wasn't making me feel much better.
Trowa inserted smoothly, "So…what else happened on your mission?"
"I thought you said this was torture?" I snapped.
He just grinned at me. "It is," he said simply, "but it's fun torture."
Choosing to overlook their insensitivity, I said, "So after one week of that, we decided to just go and break the good general out. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be," I shrugged, "though at the end," I turned and glared at Heero, who glared back, "he decided to audition for the position of 'idiot'!"
"What?" Quatre asked a little uneasily.
"There were some snipers," I said, "and Yuy here almost refused to let me stay behind to cover for him!"
Heero said defensively, "It was an unnecessary risk."
"Unnecessary risk? Unnecessary risk?" I laughed. "Opening the general to enemy fire would be an unnecessary risk!"
"You could have taken him instead," he snapped, and I figured this was the part that was eating at him.
"I was in a better position," I said angrily, "and I took them down pretty easily, it was nothing to worry about-"
"You could have been hurt! You didn't have anything to cover you!"
"And you had even less!" I shot up so quickly, I knocked the chair over.
We just stood there for a moment, glaring at each other. I threw my hands up, and made a frustrated noise. "You!" I shook a finger at Quatre and Trowa, who were watching us wide eyes, "Talk some sense into him!"
I left the room, shoulders hunched, and headed towards our room. Then, I threw myself on the bed, and just lay there for a while.
When I heard the sound of the door opening, I stayed still, eyes shut, and pretended to be asleep. Didn't work. Damn.
"Duo, I know you're awake," It was Trowa, not Heero, like I'd thought.
Before I could control them, my eyes popped open, to see Trowa's figure standing just past the doorway.
He shut the door with a quiet click, and sat down on the floor, right there, leaning against the door.
"Don't you want to turn on the light?" I asked, puzzled.
"Nah," he said, "I don't mind the dark."
"Okay…"
Neither of us spoke for the next few minutes, but when there's a contest involving silence, there's nobody who can beat Trowa.
I gave resentfully. "Are you here to tell me what an idiot I am?" I said, anger apparent in my words.
"No," he said placidly, "Heero's being the idiot. I'm just here to keep you company."
I could almost see his shrug.
"Mm-hm." I peered towards him doubtfully, wishing I could scrutinize his features for some kind of…anything, I suppose.
Finally, his calm presence just loosened my tongue, and I said, a little sadly, "I just don't get why he's so mad."
I'd never really had Heero mad at me before; annoyed, certainly, but never angry. And it hurt. It hurt a lot more than when Wufei had wanted to stick me through with his katana, or when Trowa acted like a moldy old sandwich was more important than me.
"He's not really mad," Trowa said gently, "just afraid."
"I know," I groaned, "but it feels like he's questioning my ability on the field…"
"Yeah," he agreed, "Heero shows his care in the weirdest ways sometimes."
"And does he care?" I said, trying to sound flippant, but only succeeded in sounding…miserable.
"Of course he does. You think he'd let you stay near him and get away with all the things you do if he didn't?"
I didn't answer.
"You can't really blame him," Trowa reproached me when my silence started becoming sullen, "you would feel the same if he put himself in danger."
I grunted and he chuckled. "I'm not expecting you to just forgive him instantly, but…just think about it, would you?"
He got up and lightly touched my hair, then left the room. I sighed and curled myself into a ball.
I knew my anger was a little excessive, and that I was being a hypocrite, and that Heero was just afraid for me, but…
I uncurled and padded to the door. It's really rather difficult to stay mad at someone when you understand why they did what they did, though I had a feeling we'd have to reach a compromise. It would be very…awkward, if we got mad at each other every time we had another scrape with death. Sometimes I wondered if J didn't have the right idea after all…emotions can really break a soldier, you know?
But then, soldiers are men, or women, and pushing down those same emotions can be crippling.
In the kitchen, Quatre and Heero were still sitting there, and they looked like they hadn't moved in the last half hour or so.
I was faintly surprised at the scene in front of me; Quatre was looking at Heero, his eyes a twist between ecstatic and sorrowful, and Heero was staring a hole into the table.
"Quatre? Heero?" I asked tentatively, not really sure if I should break up the tableau or not.
Heero turned, and said, "Hello Duo."
"Hey," I shifted my weight, a bit baffled. I was kind of expecting him to still be in that towering rage that'd started the whole mess, but he actually seemed a bit subdued, and I wondered what the hell Quatre had told him.
He got up and approached me hesitantly, and we stared at each other.
"I'm sorry," he blurted, "I didn't mean to imply that you were incompetent, I was just…worried."
I raised my eyebrow. Wow, sounded like Quatre had really gotten through to him.
"I'm sorry too," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "I guess I kind of overreacted, and I know you didn't mean to imply I was incompetent, I was just angry at you, I suppose."
We stared at each other some more, still holding back.
"Just hug, you dorks," Quatre said from the corner, watching us with obvious irritation.
We both tensed, and I looked at Heero dubiously. His face was frozen in an expression I wasn't sure I wanted to try to read, and I thought, Uh…maybe that's not the best idea right now…
I could just hear Quatre rolling his eyes, and he began, "For God's sake-" when Heero brought his arms out, and stiffly pulled me in for an awkward embrace.
Shyly, I brought my hands up and hugged him back lightly.
It took us a minute, but we adjusted to each other, and I put my chin on his shoulder, leaning slightly into him. This wasn't exactly how I'd envisioned our first hug, the goal at which I'd been aiming at for months: in front of a clearly exasperated audience, barely recovering from our first real fight, and both so tense I was afraid we'd fall and shatter to pieces. But hey, you have to take the lumps with the good, and being enfolded in Heero's arms definitely fell under the category of "good."
"I'm sorry," he said again.
"I forgive you, you idiot," I grumbled, then pulled back to smile up at him so he'd know I was kidding about the "idiot" part.
He searched my face intently, then smiled back. I was floored. It was an eye-smile and a mouth-smile at the same time. I need to mark this day down for history. Once I can remember the date. And my name.
At that moment, everything in the world was Heero, and I had the sensation of falling off some tall height again. It scared me breathless, but there was also a kind of exultant, jubilant feeling in the plunge that I was afraid was almost too simple to get addicted to.
I'd probably go to hell and back for one of those smiles.
Wrenching my eyes away from his face, I buried my face in his collarbone, and just crumpled into him.
His arms tightened around me, and I thought, for a first-timer, he's a pretty good hugger.
Then he did something totally unexpected. Shifting his body, he scooped me up into his arms and I yelped. I wasn't much lighter than him…at the most, fifteen pounds, maybe, and sometimes his strength really scares me.
"We're going to bed now," he informed Quatre, who gave him a wink that I was too tired to really care about, and I didn't object.
We had an uncomfortable minute trying to decide if we'd go back to our regular sleeping arrangements, so eventually, I told him to drop me on his bed, then tugged him down next to me.
There was the barest pause, when his hand seemed to linger near my hair, and I realized I didn't have it in a braid to grab.
"Sorry, no braid," I said contritely, "I'll braid it tomorrow morning…do you mind?"
"No, it's fine," he said quietly, and let his hand settle on the back of my head, smoothing my hair.
I almost hummed with pleasure, and snuggled, which I guess struck a chord in his memory.
"Teddy bear?" He asked me, sounding a bit affronted.
"Well, only sort of," I admitted, "just the part about you being nice and comfy and comforting."
"Oh," he said. "I suppose that's all right then."
"Thank you for your approval," I muttered, and could feel his amusement hovering around me.
"You're welcome."
"Mm." I smacked his side weakly. "Good night," I said, a tone of finality in my voice.
I fell asleep in the seconds it took him to respond.
