If I were you
Newsflash – I don’t own Gundam
Wing. Well Duh. I also don’t own Wrangler jeans…although I’d
love to own a guy that looks good in them.
Oh sorry…I digress. *cough* Hopefully those kind and loveable people who
do own Gundam Wing won’t sue me. I’m
sure they have much better things to do…like maybe animating Blind Target *hint
hint*. I am but a poor defenceless
little fan girl. Really. Truly.
Now on with the sad attempt at
fan fiction. C+C welcome at melodrama1@bigpond.com. Flamers –yeah righto, whatever, I could do
with the laugh.
Thanks to those wonderful,
smecial people who took the time to read the first instalment. Now, without further ado, here’s some
more.
Quatre fixed Duo with a level stare. “Duo….”
The American glared back, dark eyes flashing. “What Winner? What? We were his friends. Why did he just dump us like that? Don’t just look at me with that whipped dog
expression like you don’t know what I’m talking about. He didn’t just leave Relena, he left all of
us.”
Quatre flushed, his mouth hanging open momentarily. About to respond to his friends’ outburst,
he was interrupted by the Chinese man’s even, almost expressionless tone.
“ It is my fault. He was
finding some peace until the last battle.
And then I made him doubt himself.
I told him my own demons, and they became his.”
My eyes were drawn to Wufei, still the solitary dragon in so
many ways. He was leaning against the
wall, semi-obscured by shadow, and although I couldn’t clearly see his face,
his rigid stance clearly betrayed the guilt he had obviously felt for some
time.
“Do you really believe that, Wufei?” I asked. His head tilted in my direction, and dipped
slowly in affirmation. I shook my head
at him, wishing I could offer more assurance than I did.
“Wufei, Heero had his own demons. We all do. Any doubts he
had in himself, he had them before the two of you fought. You cannot continue to punish yourself for
what happened in the past, particularly those events that you had no control
over.”
A sharp intake of breath from Wufei, confirmed he recognized my
meaning.
“Follow your emotions.
He told me that, what seems eons ago, and I have tried to do that ever
since. But it seems almost as if he
couldn’t follow his own convictions. We
all know what it feels like to try and return to some kind of normality, to
finally have our own destinies. But for
Heero, war was normality. Perhaps he
was afraid to include himself in a world without peace. Maybe he wanted to find his place in it.”
“But he does have a place in it.” Interrupted Duo. “It’s
here. With us. With Relena.” His expression was intense, imploring. He raised a hand, brushing it across his forehead in an agitated
fashion. Quatre merely nodded, his gaze
vacant, deep in thought.
“No Duo, Trowa’s right.
There is no way any of us could have told him that, and made him
understand. He needs to figure it out
for himself. We can only wait. And hope that he does return. Showing his face to Trowa, even if it was
only brief, may indicate that he wants to contact us again. We all know that no one ever knows he’s
around unless he wants them to, so we have to hope. But he’s not going to come out of hiding until he’s ready.”
Quatre was interrupted suddenly, by a high-pitched signal from
his top jacket pocket.
“Shit!” he swore dispassionately, fumbling to find the small
comm. link. “Sorry guy’s, but I have to take this,” and with a swift flip of
his hand, he disappeared through the balcony doors. Duo shook his head, his face an expression of bewilderment.
“Someone needs to nail that boy’s feet to the floor.”
I felt the edge of my mouth twitch up into a grin, as I watched
my best friend disappear back into the crowded ballroom, before turning my
attention back to Duo.
“He will return Duo. We
are his friends, and we are all bound by blood and by consequence.”
Duo tilted his head at me, the wide grin so familiar to us all
returning to his face.
“’Course he will Tro.
I’m the best friend he’s got.
Where the hell else does he have to go?”
He bounced back up onto his feet, offering his hand and slapping
me on the shoulder.
“Well folks, I’d better go fetch Cinderella and get her home
before the coach turns into a pumpkin.”
Duo paused a moment, looking me directly in the eye.
“I miss him, man. I
really miss the moody sod.”
He sighed, then, after dispatching Wufei with a similar slap on
the shoulder, he vanished back inside.
“It is late.” declared Wufei, stepping out of his shroud of
shadows. I watched him, as he appeared
to wrestle with the decision to impart some form of information – or advice?
“You will see Relena tomorrow?”
I wondered for a split second, if he was making a statement or asking a
question. I simply nodded. He mirrored my action, appearing satisfied
with my response.
“It will do you both some good.” He said, causing me to raise an
eyebrow. He stood a moment, appearing
to take my measure. The Chinese man’s
face then creased into a soft smile, and clasping my shoulder he remarked,
“You are a good friend Trowa Barton. I thank you.”
Not waiting for a reply, he turned on his heel, and was also
gone.
Turning towards the stars again, I leant on the balcony railing
and pondered.
“I hope you heard all that Heero. Life is moving on without you.
We need you here.”
I straightened up again, and moved back towards the
doorway. Pausing, I turned back
briefly.
“She can’t wait forever, Heero.
Don’t make her wait forever.”
As I walked through the arched doorway, I had the all too
familiar feeling of being watched.
********
I waited until a little after
midday, before making my way to Relena’s home.
It occurred to me, as I turned my motorcycle into her street, that I had
not made an appointment and hoped that she was actually going to be
available. I chastised myself for
forgetting that she would most likely be too busy to receive my visit.
Drawing up to the front door, however, I was amazed to see the
front yard swarming with media.
Standing in the doorway, an unfrazzled Pagan was attempted to turn the
persistent cameras away. Glancing over
the heads of the crowd, however, the elderly man spotted me. He appeared to tip his head in an almost
imperceptible fashion, in a signal that I took to mean, “go around the back”.
Within minutes, I had managed to scale the back wall, and was
standing in the apparently empty backyard.
A slight movement drew my attention to a large, black dog that was lying
at the base of a stately apple tree.
The Rottweiler watched me keenly, dark eyes glittering and muzzle
pinched.
“Hello Zac,” I motioned to the dog. “Where’s your
mistress?”
The dog visibly relaxed and allowed me to approach him. Looking up, the first thing to enter my line
of vision was a slender ankle. Looking
for a sturdy branch, I lifted myself up to settle opposite the body that the
ankle was attached to.
“Why hello.” Relena grinned at me over the top of the thick book
she was obviously reading. I opened my
mouth to reply, but found myself devoid of anything coherent.
Relena sat curled up in a crook in the tree, clad in what
appeared to be a thick men’s coat, its’ collar turned up so it framed her
face. The denim jeans she wore were
obviously old, and covered in numerous patches. Her dark blonde hair, still showing proof of the curls fashioned
the night before, peeked out from under a soft woollen cap. Her face was scrubbed clean of any trace of
make up, and her cheeks were flushed pink from the cold. I swallowed and reminded myself to breathe.
“Glad you made it past the wolves.” She commented, tipping her
head in the general direction of the house.
I blinked, her dialogue suddenly drawing me from my reverie.
“Uh, yeah. What…”
Relena rolled her eyes.
She snapped the book shut and tapped the edge against her chin. I observed her fingers, noticing the chips
in the once perfect nail polish. I
wondered if they were from climbing the tree.
She unexpectedly reached towards me, catching me off guard. She touched the top of my ear, sending a
shiver that raced straight down my spine.
Leaning back again, completely oblivious to my reaction she smiled,
“Your ears are cold. I
think we need to go inside hmm?”
I simply nodded, dumbfounded, as she shimmied down the tree and
began to make her way across the yard, Zac immediately taking his place by her
side.
“Well? Are you coming?”
I visibly shook myself, before jumping down, jogging to catch up
with her. I reprimanded myself for
being so distracted. After all, I was
there to talk about Heero. And there
was the issue of why her house was surrounded by media.
As we walked towards the house, I started repeating;
“She loves Heero, she loves Heero, she loves Heero”
*******