Previously in Silk Road
Ten years passed and Heero had spent the decade crashing in and out of life. His return to his homeland was short lived, bad enough to be a bastard son of the emperor, even worse to squander his family's one last grasp at power as the Shogunate continued to dominate the country. The union between the Yuy and Peacecraft families was supposed to build a bridge with the west, an alliance that would rise to the emperor's call should he need an army.
Yuy was not his father's heir, but he was a spare son, something still useful in an age of royal alliances built by marriage.
Heero swore his father could have killed him then, or at least he had wanted to. But a spare, illegitimate son was a son nonetheless, and in a family of mostly daughters, Heero was still more useful kept alive. The emperor sent him away to study across the world, and every time Heero got expelled from a different school in a different country, his father's patience grew thinner and thinner. On Heero's 18th birthday, his father's last words to him were "stay alive and stay out of my sight."
Now, two years later, Heero held the very reason for his life's chaos in his arms.
"Heero, are you alright?" Relena whispered from below him. He sat up, taking her with him in his arms and settling her in his lap. He stroked her hair and closed his eyes as he buried his face into the crook of her neck. Relena shivered. She wanted to kiss him again.
"Okay. I'll tell you everything," he said.
Ch. 11
Relena moved herself away from his lap and adjusted her kosode. As tempting as it was to make herself at home on him, there was a part of her that yearned for the modesty of her previous 't protest, but instead opened his mouth to speak.
"Wait," Relena whispered, looking over her shoulder. "How long is this going to take?"
"Pardon?"Heero's jaw could have dropped to the loft floor. They sat in silence for a moment, and Heero thought he had heard footfalls in the yard. They walked in a familiar pattern. Quatre is looking for us.
"How long is this story going to take? We've been gone quite a while, you've deserted your group." Ah, yes. The others. Heero brought a thoughtful hand to his chin and leaned forward. What did Quatre tell the Maganacs? What did he tell his comrades?
"You're right, we had better head back. I don't want them to retaliate against your... friend."
"Miss Lucretia. Her safety is paramount to me. She's always been with me."Heero realized that he had been a fool. That female knight that had been traveling with Relena, she was none other than the maiden who had comforted Heero the day of the invasion. He had known her when he was small.
"Miss Lucretia... Miss Lucretia Noin?"Heero tested the name to see if it fit. Relena's eyes flickered in recognition.
"Yes, Noin. Do you know her as well?"
The barn door shrieked open again, but this time, Heero didn't feel the need to hide. A young man pulled down his hood to reveal a swath of platinum blonde.
"There you two are! What in the blazes are you up to!" Quatre at Relena, and swung over the edge of the loft platform, extending his hand to her as he waited from the ladder.
"Just... getting to know each other better." He purred. The flush that blossomed on Relena's face was proof enough for Quatre, who "tsked" at the two of them and waved them out of the barn.
When they exited, Relena's eyes were blinded by the change in light. She replaced her scarf over her head and used some free fabric to shield her eyes.
"Forgive me brother Quatre, and dear lady, for my impropriety, but would a princess steal away into a filthy barn to be with a brigand like your friend here?" Relena blinked away spots to look upon the source of the unfamiliar voice, which was deep and weathered. A handsome, incredibly tall older man, wearing a long coat and kaftan greeted her with a bow.
"Rashid, this is my associate Heero," Quatre nodded. "Heero and I have been attending to a lady. We found her carriage looted at the side of the road. She is of noble blood, and her family line is ancient."
"So you say," the man called Rashid let his eyes roam Relena from the top of her headscarf to the bottom hem of her robe. "But she is thin and sallow. Not healthy like a noble. What family did you say she was from again?"
"Wait,"Heero stammered. Quatre looked over to him as if he were his head "no."
Relena stood silent at Heero's side, waiting for him to make the next move. Obviously, Quatre had brought a potential "buyer" to appraise her.
Heero had been in on the scheme all along. But the last hour or so of the time Relena spent with Heero seemed incredibly genuine, even if she spent it watching him stew within his own guilt. She had given him her first kiss. That meant something. That instinct to trust him reared its ugly head again.
"Likely one of the old Sanc families,"Heero offered. "We need a healer." Quatre watched his friend wrestle with some internal struggle. Something must have happened for Heero to deviate from the plan, but if Heero was making that choice, Quatre would have to trust him. He was the most honorable of their entire group.
"Ah well why didn't you say so Quatre! So cryptic and serious for your young age," Rashid boomed. "Come, the Maganacs are here with a small party of barbers, one of us is bound to know what ails her. We're staying at the inn across the alley, I'll take you."Heero nodded.
He was going to find out what these wise men could tell him about Relena's amnesia.
a/n: Hi I am back again, world is on fire as is tradition. Thank you for reading and reviewing! I appreciate it so much.