Convalescence
Peacecraft Royal Palace, Sanc Kingdom
December 2nd, AC 198
A brisk gust of December air filtered into the back of the ambulance as the paramedic opened the door. Heero breathed deeply and savoured the sensation in his lungs. It was the first breath of fresh air he had taken in over a month. The paramedics got out first, then helped Heero out. Heero thought the whole thing was unnecessary, the stretcher, the ambulance, all of it. He had gotten out of bed a couple of times at night and he did manage to walk. But the hospital insisted and Relena agreed.
Heero looked upon the grand façade of the palace, he had never seen it in day time. It was far more complete than the last time he was here. It was just as majestic as he had heard. The mansion was four storeys tall, with six towering Corinthians columns that held up the main portico. The length of the structure was covered with ornate and uniform windows separated by relief columns in the style of the main ones on the portico. Atop the cornice were little statutes, presumably members of the House of Peacecraft, Relena's ancestors.
The main doors cracked open, announcing her arrival. She appeared dressed in a mauve blouse, covered with a thick grey wool shawl. She was barefoot. She wasn't going to stay long in the cold, nor was she going to help him in.
"Alright, Mr. Emergency Contact," she said in a soft and cold voice. "The hospital has discharged you into my care. Here are the rules of my house, if you break them even once…"
She was at least fifty feet away from him as she stood atop the grand staircase. But her voice carried impressively. All were silent as she spoke.
"I will not hesitate to throw you out," Relena said emphatically. "Is that clear?"
There was a silence. The cold wind howled as a few specks of snow came down.
Hn, he acknowledged.
He knew that she was angry with him. He deserved it, so he had no intention to fight her on anything. He was in the doghouse now, a really large and beautiful and luxurious doghouse, but still.
"You are not to leave the grounds until the doctors say so. You will treat the staff of my house with respect. You will obey their every command and that of the nurses. They are here for your benefit and to ensure that you fully recover," Relena announced.
Heero stared at her. She stated directly back at him with equal resolve. She wasn't fucking around.
"You are a guest in my home and you will be honoured as such, the house is yours to use. You can go anywhere you like unless the staff say otherwise," Relena continued. "Under no circumstances will you ever enter my room. Is that understood?"
Heero nodded in silent acknowledgement.
"Good," Relena said. "Welcome to Peacecraft Palace."
The Valknut, Preventers headquarters
She was different from the others. There was something more relaxed yet scarier about her at the same time. The two lady lawyers that had interviewed him before were highly competent, smart, but out of their depth when it came to negotiating terms with him. Toro figured as much. Only idealistic types, who were already well off, who didn't need to fight for a living joined the government. Those who had ambition worked in the private sector.
But this one, this Sally Po, who dressed like them, was different somehow. She had a natural aura about her that suggested that she wasn't to be taken lightly. Toro couldn't quite but his finger on it, but he relished the change in personnel. It meant that the Preventers were getting desperate.
Sally herself however did not seem desperate. She came into the room half an hour later than scheduled but was straight to business. She introduced herself quickly before pulling out a large file folder out of her bag and dropped it like a brick onto the table. She then sat down, took a deep breath and gave Toro a long wordless stare.
"So, Mr. Campana, we haven't officially met, but I feel like I know you intimately at this point," Sally said.
"Oh my," Toro said with a laugh. "Have you been watching me? I should've been more diligent about my morning sit ups. I should have been watching my figure."
"You should have been watching your shell companies, Mr. Campana," Sally cut in.
"Miss Po, as I have already told the government's lawyers, all of my businesses are legitimate," Toro said, really hamming up his performance this time. "Yes, I have many holding corporations, but that's just a logistical practicality when you run so many businesses. It just makes paying my tax that much simpler."
"The thing is, Mr. Campana," Sally said as she opened the file and revealed the first file inside. "I'm not a government lawyer. I'm not a lawyer at all. I'm an investigator."
There, sitting atop a stack of documents was a photo, a photo of the heavily damaged Mercurius being pulled out of the water.
"You didn't serve in the war, so it's excusable that you wouldn't know," Sally said. "Allow me to enlighten you. All mobile suits are built with a flight recorder. These devices are nearly indestructible and record every action the pilot takes, including any communications he or she would have made. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Excuse me, Miss Po—" Toro's lawyer tried to cut in as he placed his hands on top of the file.
With one swift motion Sally pulled out a knife and stabbed it precisely between the lawyer's fingers pinning the file to the table. Stunned by the sudden display of violence, the lawyer's face lost all colour. Toro's mocking grin evaporated and was replaced by a look of pure horror.
She definitely wasn't a lawyer.
"You don't know your lawyer to understand this. It's real simple," Sally said. "We have your emails connecting you to Rinus Van Der Deen, a wanted fugitive of the World Government. We have your direct communications with the pilot of this here illegal mobile suit. We have the ship manifest carrying the aforementioned illegal weapons of war along with others. We even have the company that manufactured the necessary modifications to make this space suit model ground-viable, connected to your shell corporation."
Toro let out a stuttered breath and swallowed nervously.
"We've got you in a box," Sally said. "Now, last chance to get yourself a little something. Otherwise, you're going to jail for the rest of your life."
The Preventers general counsel and both the Advocate General and her assistant watched from the otherside of the mirror. All three women were utterly stunned. They were as shocked by the knife as Toro and his lawyer.
"That's wrong," the assistant AG said. "We don't have the flight recorder. The pilot dumped it when he abandoned the suit."
"What?!" The Advocate General turned to look at her number two.
"Yeah," the assistant AG explained. "From what I've heard from Director Une, there's no absolutely no data on that suit, communicative or otherwise. Just the base firmware."
"She's just bluffing?" The Advocate General asked, astonished.
"It would seem so," the Preventers general counsel commented. "But hey… can't argue with results. She broke him."
Vustgaarde University Athletics Center
December 6th, AC 198
Relena helped spot Tanya as she finished up her last set of barbell squats. The girl liked the squat heavy, sometimes a little too heavy. A couple times in the last month, Tanya had pushed past her limit and tweaked something and had to take a few days off. But she never seemed the learn though. After taking a short break she was right back to it, even add more weights just to challenge herself. Relena thought it was foolish and that Tanya was just asking for chronic injuries. Relena contented herself with being able to squat two 20 kilogram plates. It wasn't much compared to Tanya, and the difference in their thighs and their butts showed but she was happy with it all the same. It was barely a month ago that she had trouble with just the bar itself.
They wiped off their equipment diligently before heading back into the changeroom. They had a little routine going at this point. They had been working out together the better part of a month. When Relena was moving out of the worst part of her grief and started going to the gym more consistently, seeing Tanya there was unavoidable. At first they were awkward with each other because of their encounter right when Heero left for his mission. But soon they put that behind them and became friends again. From then on the girls were inseparable and more daring at the gym. No longer did they need to fend off the occasional gym creeper alone, they could back each other up. This meant they felt more comfortable wearing what they wanted at the gym rather than thinking about how much unwanted attention they would draw. They still got looks, but they didn't mind the looks so much as the unwanted advice and creepy touches.
They were quite the pair, Relena always dressed in some pink or white number whereas Tanya was always in some kind of black tactical thing. They had grown close in that time and commiserated over the disappearance of Heero together. They had asked the others to join them and Freya and Helen did give it an honest go for a couple of days before falling off.
As they got undressed for the shower, Relena couldn't help but take quick little glances over at Tanya. Her strong arms, toned stomach, and muscular legs were pretty intimidating. She was the definition of a sexy gym bunny. Is that what Heero liked? Should I be training harder? Should I be pushing myself harder like her? Certainly, Heero's body was more like Tanya's than hers. But didn't he want something different than himself? Relena thought about her attributes. She was softer, had longer legs, and had bigger and rounder boobs. That's gotta count for something. And they had history, and a lot of it. Still, Relena couldn't help but be envious and that feeling of jealousy had only increased with Heero's return.
"So… how is he?" Tanya asked trying to sound nonchalant.
"Good," Relena replied in a similar manner.
"Good. That's good," Tanya said as she wetted her hair.
"He's got a lot of homework to catch up on," Relena said, trying to break the awkwardness between them.
"Right right, I didn't even think about that," Tanya said. "Oh, if you're busy. As you always seem to be these days, I can go drop off his homework for you if you want."
"No!" Relena blurted out. "I mean… No, it's okay. I got it."
"Okay," Tanya said with a smile, sounding a bit overly friendly.
They didn't speak a single for to each other for the rest of the shower.
Peacecraft Royal Palace, Sanc Kingdom
Relena arrived at Peacecraft Palace and was greeted by Pagan just as the sun had set. It had been a long day for her. But all of her days were long now. Added to her myriad of school readings, work obligations, and various errands, she was now Heero's caretaker, a task she quickly grew to resent. Not because he was a pain in the ass but because he has become the model patient.
Relena consulted with the head nurse at the end of the day to keep up on Heero's recovery progress. He was doing extremely well. The nurse noted how remarkable the speed of his recovery had been, to which Relena only rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of disinterest. She had become quite tired of hearing about Heero's miraculous physical abilities. Yes, he's quite special. Can we please move on?
Although she made a point of not letting Peacecraft Palace become a habit for her. She never spent the night, opting to have her temporary driver, Laila (since Pagan had been promoted to head butler and her other driver was currently bedridden), take her back to Vustgaarde every night. But she couldn't resist the cooking of her new head chef, Maurice. She was slowly getting better at cooking but her efforts hardly compared to that of a seasoned chef. She ate the meal that Maurice had prepared for her slowly and savoured every bite. She ate in the family kitchen at the breakfast bar and talked casually with her chef, who was preparing the ingredients for the next day. A few of the other members of the household staff hung around too, having finished their duties for the day. Relena didn't mind. She was pleased that they seemed to be getting along and becoming friends.
After dinner and a much needed glass of red wine, she found herself, decompressed enough to go down the hall into the east wing of the palace to give Heero his homework. His room was located at the very end of the hall, which meant that he was secluded for most of the day. Relena guessed that is how he preferred it anyway.
She checked herself in the mirror of an empty room just a few doors down from his. She fixed her hair and shook off the general look of weariness that was the inevitable effect of a long day before she went to check on him. Relena saw him through the doorway.
She thought it would've been easier but it still physically hurt her to see him, all bandaged up like that. Even if his bruises were starting to fade, even as his cuts had begun to heal, the image of him like that shattered her. She pressed herself against the wall. She held back her tears and clutched her hand to her chest. Get it together, Relena!
Heero had known that Relena had been standing outside his room for several minutes before she entered. But he pretended not to notice as she walked in. He was already on her bad side and there was no sense making things worse.
As his physical health recovered, so too did his memory. And he remembered all of those fleeting moments of his life that flashed by as he was on the brink of drowning. It was the memory of her, their dance at St. Gabriel's that broke the spell and brought him back to life. It was ironic, there were so many things he wanted to say to her, now that he finally had the courage. But he knew, she wasn't ready to hear them.
"The head nurse says you've been the most ideal patient," Relena said with a steady voice.
"You said that I'm out if I break the rules even once," Heero replied.
"That implies that you want to be here," Relena said with a hint of passive aggression.
"And why would I not want to be here?" Heero asked.
"Oh I don't know," Relena said as she put her hand on her hip and looked him directly in the eyes. "People who want to be here tend not to run away and almost get themselves killed."
Heero wanted to say something but held his tongue. It wasn't important and he knew it. He understood anything he could say was of little consequence. No explanation was going to excuse his actions. Relena's words weren't accusatory, they were cathartic. For her at least.
When he didn't reply and merely looked down in shame, Relena only let out an impatient sigh and rolled her eyes. Is that what he thought would make her happy? Try again, Heero Yuy. He wasn't going to get off that easily.
She slammed the pile of textbooks and notebooks down next to him on his bedside table.
"Homework, you've missed a lot of it," Relena said sternly. "You have an essay due in three days for Professor Scharenberg. You have several math tests to catch up on online. I've marked out the readings you have to get through by the time exams roll around with yellow tabs."
"Don't exams start soon?" Heero asked.
"Then you have a lot of work to do, don't you?" Relena said emphatically.
Heero picked up one of the textbooks and flipped through the readings he had missed. There was a lot he had to get through in a very short amount of time.
"If, there's nothing else, I'll leave you to it then," Relena said as she turned around to leave.
"Wait," Heero said.
She stopped.
"I'm sorry, Relena," Heero said. "For everything."
For a split second there, Relena could almost forgive him for what he had put her through. But the memories of pain and anger quickly overwhelmed her once again.
She rolled eyes and left.
The Valknut, Preventers Headquarters
December 8th, AC 198
On the second floor, facing the north was a large office unit that quickly became Une's preferred meeting room shortly after The Preventers moved in. Occupying the corner of the building, the space had floor to ceiling windows for two of its walls. Through those panels of bullet-proof glass, one could get a pretty decent view of the core of Brussels.
Director Une, Sally, Duo, Ingrid Nordahl, the Advocate General of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, Adele Devereux, the assistant AG, and Morgan Barnes, Preventers general counsel, sat around the large oak table, each, except Duo, with their laptops and tablets in front of them.
"So, with the confession of Toro Campana, we have a strong case, yes?" Une asked as she folded her hands together atop her keyboard.
Ingrid looked at Une with a look of consternation.
"Look, I'm not saying that your investigation doesn't have legs, but this is a multinational corporation we're talking about here," Ingrid said. "You want to be rock solid on this."
"Whao, hold on a second. What does that mean?" Duo cut in, finally deciding to pay attention. "We have a mobile suit, several actually. We have his emails. We have his confession, what more do we need?"
"Well Mr. Maxwell," Ingrid said in a rather condescending tone. "Mr. Campana, thanks to the brilliant efforts of your colleague, have put in several members of Lucio's board of directors in as co-conspirators. But that widens the scope of this investigation. Now we have enough evidence to subpoena the board members and even make some arrests."
"Great, so what's the problem?" Duo asked.
"The problem is that while we can take this to court, we might not win," Ingrid said. "What's more, a case of that size will likely take years. And from what Director Une has told me, you guys are racing against time."
"So what do you suggest we do?" Une asked.
"Hell if I know," Ingrid said. "You're telling me this is about more than just the possession of a few illegal mobile suits and conspiring with a known fugitive. Personally, I can't imagine anything bigger than treason. But hey, I'm just a lawyer. You guys are the spies. If you need me to make this go away quickly so you guys can continue on doing whatever you're doing with the cloak and daggers, I can do that. Although, I dare say after the mishap at their corporate offices, you might want to be a little more quiet next time."
"Can you make my committee hearing go away quickly too?" Une asked as a joke.
Ingrid smiled. "Sorry sister, you're on your own there."
"Alright," Une said with an exasperated sigh. "Everyone out except Morgan. Also where the hell is Stephen?"
Morgan looked at her watch and then checked her phone.
"Ahh, he says he's running a little late," Morgan answered. "He'll be here in ten minutes."
"Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm paying this guy by the hour," Une said impatiently.
Une got up and stepped out of the room to stretch her legs a bit before her next meeting with her personal lawyer and Morgan concerning her upcoming Intelligence and Security Committee hearing. She saw that Ingrid hadn't left yet and was talking on the phone. She approached.
"I gotta go, I'll talk to you later," Ingrid said before quickly hanging up. "Katerina… You look fabulous."
"Oh stop it," Une said as she rolled her eyes.
"It's true, well, all things considered," Ingrid said.
"All things is a lot of things these days," Une remarked.
"Well if you put this one away. Save the world one more time and you'll have the Councillors doing whatever you want," Ingrid said.
"Its different for me," Une said. "I'm not looking to climb that political ladder. This is far as I go."
"Well, if that's the case," Ingrid said sounding a little disappointed. "You'll always have help from my office."
"Thanks for your help on this one, I'm not sure what I'd do without you," Une said. "I've got a pack of wild animals over here and it's getting harder and harder to keep them in line."
"Hey, we have to stick together, right?" Ingrid said. "Can't just let Relena Peacecraft own this town."
Just as Ingrid and Une were finishing up, a tall man wearing a rather a severe looking expression charged down the hall towards Une. He wore a cornflower blue dress shirt and grey slacks. His hair was combed neatly towards one side. His sleeves were rolled up as if ready for a brawl. Une wasn't worried. That's how he always looked.
"Nolan," Une greeted him unenthusiastically.
"I'll leave you two to it," Ingrid said as she put on her blazer and promptly made her exit.
"Hope, I want her back," Nolan said sternly.
"And you'll get her back," Une said. "Eventually."
"No… now," Nolan pressed.
Une simply rolled her eyes and began moving back towards the meeting room. Nolan quickly followed.
"Well I'm sorry to inform you, but you are not in fact in charge of this agency," Une said with a hint of a melodic lilt in her voice.
"I am in charge of my own division, and Hope was a part of that division," Nolan said. "Look, I get it. She fucked up, actions have consequences. I understand what you're doing. But it's been a month, I'm sure she's learned her lesson already and I need help."
Une stopped and turned to face Nolan again. "Really?"
Nolan hesitated for a moment, leaned in and whispered. "I've got guys embedded all across the world and in the Colonies. It's a lot of assets to keep track of. I've got some mid-level guys and things are okay for the time being but I'm getting a lot of traffic right now. Hope was really good at this kind of thing."
"What kind of traffic?" Une asked, intrigued.
"You know, like… talk, lots of people moving around, particularly in the L3 sector," Nolan said.
"And you didn't think to tell me this earlier?" Une asked sounding rather alarmed.
"Lately, you've been… busy."
The first week of Heero's convalescence were a period of adjustment. He struggled with the luxury, the ease of life at the Palace, and the free time he suddenly had on his hands. There were still a few things that kept him busy of course. He took to physiotherapy rather eagerly and he had a lot of school to catch up on. But he had never lived a life of leisure before and didn't know quite what to do with himself.
The first thing Heero did was write the essay for Professor Scharenberg's class. It was the subject he knew the best and one of the few that he had some original thoughts on. He had a choice of topics. He chose to write about the impacts of the advent of mechanized warfare in the early 20th century since it was adjacent to the histories and practical engineering knowledge that Doctor J forced him to absorb over the course of his training. The essay was supposed to be four thousand words minimum. He wrote double that.
He could've easily gone on for longer but he restrained himself for the sake of Professor Scharenberg's sanity. Besides, he had other school work to catch up on. Over the course of the first week, he caught up on all of the math tests he had missed. These too were relatively easy for him. Calculus, linear algebra, and statistics were all integral aspects of mobile suit engineering, design, and maintenance. He and Alpha White were forced to memorize textbooks on the subject, in addition to others, before even being allowed to touch the Wing.
The other courses actually required a bit more mental effort. Chemistry touched upon some of the material science knowledge that he had but lacked the fundamentals on the subject. He felt as though he were learning it backwards. Biology, likewise presented similar challenges. While he had a cursory knowledge of basic anatomy for the dual purposes of combat and emergency medicine, only a small portion of that knowledge was useful for the Introductory Biology course.
Ultimately, Heero had little to no trouble catching up on the homework. It wasn't so much that he had already been taught these subjects during his time in training but that he was a natural student, diligent and focused with a natural curiosity that, Doctor J had taken great pains to subdue. The university environment, sporadic as it was for him, was slowly bringing that side of him out again.
His physical rehabilitation was also progressing quickly. He was diligent and enthusiastic about all of the stretches and exercises that the therapist had him do in the mornings. By the end of the week, he was regularly taking half hour walks without the assistance of a nurse. He even began to incorporate his standard physical work out of two hundred push ups, sit ups, and lunges back into his routine towards the end of the second week.
But his physiotherapy and his school work usually only took up the morning and a small portion of the afternoon. After that, he was completely free and without responsibilities, which unnerved him. He had never been without a schedule before. Even after the end of the war, when he assumed another identity and began to create a life for himself outside of Heero Yuy, he was still just as diligent about strict timekeeping and making sure that he stuck to a schedule of events and obligations.
He found himself wandering around the palace aimlessly, at first just trying to understand the layout of the space and just how large it was. It was even bigger than he initially estimated. Staring up at the vaulted ceilings of immaculately carved stone and feeling the marble tiles underneath his feet, he was overcome with a deep understanding of what he had always known intellectually and now vividly felt; that he was so much beneath Relena. And if not by her charity, he would never see the inside of a place like this. Yet this place, this castle, this heaven, was her own, no different to her than his little apartment in Downtown Vustgaarde was to him.
After the first few days he began to talk and even become friendly with the household staff and nurses. He was the only constant presence in the palace that didn't have a job. He was merely a guest, which meant that the servants and the nurses took care of him. Heero was rather uncomfortable with that arrangement, at first reacting with hostility but upon realizing the effect he was having on the staff, he relaxed and tried to make himself as courteous as possible.
The first few days he ate and studied alone in his room but after a while he began to venture out. He found the servants in the family kitchen, eating breakfast like some sort of extended family united by the patronage of one Relena Peacecraft. Even Pagan, shared a quick cup of coffee with the rest of the staff. Heero soon joined them in the mornings and found himself, although not without some hesitation, welcomed by the group.
He spent his morning studying in the library alone and would take a break around noon and again join his new found friends for lunch. He grew to like them, and they liked him in turn. They were polite enough never to ask why exactly Relena decided to host him, although they were all pretty sure as to the reason. And Heero never explained who he was either. He didn't want to be an ex-soldier among them, let alone a Gundam Pilot. He had learned in group that the war was over and that it was okay to open up to people. He had to learn to trust humanity again and that most people were good and decent folk and no disaster would befall him if he let his guard down.
In the afternoon, after finishing up his studies for the day, he wandered around the palace looking for ways to make himself useful. He had trouble being idle and now that the staff knew him and liked him, they accepted his help rather than politely rebuffing him and bowing to him like they were his servants as they had done initially upon his arrival. Santino, the groom appreciated Heero's help with the horses because he had a natural way with them. Relena's personal horse, Diamond, particularly enjoyed Heero's care and attention and always came to nuzzle him each time he came to the stables.
Heero would also help the maids as much as they would allow him, which wasn't very much. They allowed him to keep his own room, but only if he made it up to their standards. It became a ritual after the first few days that the maids would arrive around 8am to inspect of the cleanliness of the room.
In Heero, Pagan found a worthy chess opponent. The two would spend quite a few afternoons and evenings playing intense games that would often disturb and distract the rest of the staff from their duties. Inevitably, a crowd would gather around and watch as the two put their pride on the line and battle each other in the game of kings.
Heero's presence put the lie to the nature of work at the palace. With palace itself still incomplete and construction continuing in the upper floors, the duties and jurisdictions of the household staff were still in a provisional state. And since Heero was the ostensibly the only full time occupant, the staff had very little to do most days until Relena herself showed up. As a result, and after the first few days of trying to look busy and once they realized that Heero was no aristocrat or some important diplomatic guest, they relaxed and went back to doing what they were before Heero showed up, which wasn't very much. The only person with more than a few hours of work a day to do was Pagan, who was still managing the rest of the Peacecraft Estates remotely.
All of this came to an abrupt halt whenever Relena came to visit. While she usually only stayed a few hours before heading out again and rarely spent the night, she still came to the palace far more in those two weeks than she did in the last three months. For the most part, Relena ignored Heero except when delivering his assignments from school. A silence fell upon the palace whenever she was around. Intentionally or not, she made her presence known. The sound of her heels echoed through the long empty halls, crashing, through Heero's door. Heero couldn't help but sneak a peak from his room all the way at the end of the first floor hallway. She was always standing there as if intentionally showing herself, wanting to be seen. Sometimes she was in her work attire, sometimes she was in something more casual but stunningly beautiful all the same, sometimes she was in a majestic gown with her hair up. The message was crystal clear. She had a career that kept her busy, she had friends, she had a social calendar, filled to the brim. She had a full life.
She didn't need him.
December 16th, AC 198
Relena arrived at the Palace around 10:30 in the morning. Laila had just delivered Relena from her final lecture for the semester. She was planning to hole herself up in the Palace and prepare feverishly for finals for the next week. She had spend the last few days sorting things out with Cindy at work so that things should be able to run on auto-pilot for at least the few weeks or so. Things were slowing down in Brussels anyway as the holidays approached.
She took off her scarf and threw it on the floor and likewise dumped her heavy blue suede trench coat. She had momentum on her side and she didn't want to give it up. She had just finished the final lecture in her calculus course and had been reviewing her notes the whole ride back to the Sanc Kingdom. Her last few online tests had resulted in 90% and above. She wanted to take that momentum right into studying for her finals.
"Maurice! I'm going take my lunch in the library!" Relena shouted.
"You got it, Miss Relena!" She heard him say.
Relena reached the library and pushed open the one of the big double doors and went in. She was startled stiff when she saw him. He immediately stood up when he saw her. For a moment, both of them stood completely still. Silently, they just stared at each other. Their eyes expressing the same uncertainty and panic that they were experiencing in their minds.
"Hi..." Relena finally said, breaking the silence.
"Hi," Heero replied cautiously.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Studying," Heero said.
Relena looked at the textbook, pens, and notebook he had in front of him.
"I'm sorry, I'll get out of your way," Heero said as he began to pack up his stuff.
"No, it's okay," Relena said abruptly, as if urging him to stop what he was doing. "Like I said, you are welcome anywhere in this house… I'll go."
"No," Heero said just as abruptly. "I mean, why would you need to go? It's your house."
Silence filled the air between them again. Relena merely stared at him, cautiously, almost suspiciously. He had healed considerably. Most of his cuts and bruises had faded and he was standing on his own without any trouble. He was remarkable. Perhaps, he truly couldn't be killed. But she quickly shook the thought from her head. It didn't matter, that wasn't the point. He had been careless with his life and her feelings. It didn't matter that he was nigh-indestructible.
"Look, it's a big… really big library," Heero said. "I think we can both use it."
She never took her eyes off of him, even when his darted around nervously. There was something different about him. Something softer. As if he had finally loosened up a bit.
Or maybe it was her imagination.
"Alright," Relena said finally.
Anyway, it didn't matter. He had hurt her. That hasn't changed. She was still mad at him. That hasn't changed.
The library inside the Peacecraft Royal Palace was a large two storey rectangular room located on the north side of the building with a view of the fields and forests of the larger estate. It was one of the best preserved rooms in the whole complex and about a hundred books from the original collection had been managed to be salvaged and were now housed in a secure vault in the back of the library. Relena had recreated the original collection from the catalogs that had been discovered during the renovation process. She had also imported several thousand new books into the collection that she foolishly hoped that one day she would get around to reading.
On the ground floor were several rows of tables near the windows. Heero sat at the third table facing the door. Relena took the table second from the door facing away. Facing him. They both sat down nervously with only the distance of two tables between them. Heero cracked open his textbook. Relena slowly took out hers out of her bag. He took his pen and used it to hover over the words in his textbook as he tried to concentrate. She took out her laptop and placed it on the table in front of her. The gentle tapping of her finger tips against the keys stole his attention.
It was completely silent.
Every sound they made only reminded them that the other was there.
She looked up.
He looked up.