Caught In The Middle 2/2

[raine_yuy]

<b>Disclaimer:</b> Standard.

<b>Note:</b> Well, i missed the angst. Har har. I didn't really have control of where the story was going, it just had its own stubborn destination, which was of course, my usual style of writing. Anyway, i feel bad for having so many incomplete fics so i thought i should at the very least, have an ending to one of them. Enjoy lovies!

<b>Song:</b> Forgive Me by Evanescence
<bgsound src="http://members.rogers.com/aa_music_aa10/forgive_me.wma" autostart="true" loop="infinite">




<b>Caught in the Middle 2/2</b>






Trowa Barton regarded his surrounding without really seeing what was there. He knew there were roses around him, courtesy of the Peacecraft?s attentive gardeners. Funny, but as far as he knew, Relena Peacecraft was not very fond of roses. He had never bothered to ask her why.

He closed his eyes and let his head fall back on the bench that sat in the middle of the fairytale garden. A garden he supposed was meant for a Princess. But the Princess had died such a long time ago. The innocence and naivety of the girl blown to ashes with the first crumble of the mansion during the first war. The spirit had been crushed beneath rubbles and blood. The heart buried with the soldiers that had sacrificed their lives to protect what that Princess had represented. Trowa let out a soft sigh and wondered why Relena hated roses.

He had presented her with one the day she had flown in his arms in the exact spot where he contemplated his memories now. The day she had abandoned her calm demeanour and exposed her bleeding wounds. The biggest one bearing the name, Heero Yuy. And he had put his arms around her, whispering soothing words that meant nothing and yet meant everything. He had wanted to weep with her. He had wanted to vent his own pain and give words to his own pestering wounds. But she would have been deaf to them. All she had wanted from him was the comfort of his body and the chance to forget a man. So he had sacrificed his pride and sold his soul to the devil. All for the chance to pretend she had been whispering his name while ravaging his mouth.

Trowa forced the memories flooding his mind back with a rough swallow. That night had seemed like a lifetime ago. The glow of her skin against the moon and the smell of roses on her skin had seemed only a dream he had made come true in his imaginations. But in the end, even while he had held her and possessed her body, her heart had cried out for another. And he had cursed his own heart, Relena, god, and last but never least, Heero Yuy. For his heart would not listen to reason, Relena would not give up on her love, god had given humans hearts and the chance to be severely hurt, and Heero Yuy had rejected what Trowa Barton would have died for to simply touch.

And he had touched her, indeed. And he had tasted heaven during borrowed time. And he had felt no shame in taking advantage of her grief and her need to feel alive. For so long, he had waited to come alive as well. He had known that only her touch would give him life. And only her tears would give him sorrow deep enough to kill. Odd, he thought, that one could measure the depth of love by the depth of pain it can cause a person. And the pain he felt seemed to want to last forever. And so must the love he had tried so hard to deny himself because it was never meant to belong to anyone but one man. One idiotic, stupid, dim-witted man who did not deserve such undying loyalty and faithfulness from a beautiful, courageous woman. For who, but those who are the bravest of hearts, would dare to even consider loving a man like Heero Yuy?

For one defeated moment, Trowa grunted his emotional pain and laid his pounding head on his hands. He started when a cold voice spoke behind him.

?Good. You?ve already started your prayers.?

Trowa froze at the sound of a gun being cocked. He knew that voice. He knew that tone. He knew the intent behind the gun pointed at the back of his skull.

?Heero.?

?Trowa.?

?Heero! Stop!?

And the sound of laboured breathing and running feet. Trowa also knew that voice even with the panicked tone and gasping breaths. Every night, he heard that voice whisper his name in the sweetest of declarations. God, what a curse she was to him.

He turned with his hands up in the air to indicate that he meant no retaliation. The look in Heero?s Prussian blues spelled his death in capital letters. He dared to look into Relena?s own pain-filled aquamarines. And Trowa wanted to clobber Heero to lend some sense into him. Didn?t he realise just how much he was hurting Relena?

?Am I allowed to ask what crime I?ve committed against you before you pull that trigger?? He kept his tone calm, cool, indifferent despite the fact that he wanted to snarl and bare imagined claws. Adrenaline pumped through him at the thought of arm-to-arm combat with Heero Yuy. Perfect soldier. Cold machine. Steel through and through. Yeah right, Trowa smirked.

?You touched her, Barton.?

His glance skirted back to the ashen woman who stood behind Heero?s shadow. So, she had revealed that little fact to him? Trowa couldn?t understand why. He had thought that it was a secret they meant to keep to themselves. Taking the chance that Yuy would blow his brains out without a thought; Trowa smiled and let a devilish glint enter his deep sea-green eyes.

?She let me.?

Relena?s gasp broke the ensuing silence both in horror and deep shock. ?Trowa!?

Heero turned his deadly eyes on their subject of discussion as if only realising now that she was indeed the reason they all were standing in the middle of a paradise with a weapon ready to fire. And while Heero was avidly distracted by the guilt written all over Relena?s reddened face and expressive eyes, Trowa quietly slipped a hand behind his back to palm his own gun. He never meant to go down alone and without a fight. And as it so happened, he wanted a little payback of his own. A revenge on Relena?s own name. He had witnessed enough of Relena?s suffering for the anger to have taken root deeply into his heart. Heero Yuy must pay for all the pain he had caused her.

?Well hell,? Heero?s tone bordered on both bitterness and pain. It was the first of emotions he had shown. ?So after you declare your so-called love to one man, you go running to another and offer him your body??

Trowa saw the way it had mortally wounded Relena. Her eyes bled from within.

?How dare you! How dare you imply that I lack morals and honour! How dare you claim any right to my decisions and my personal life!? Sobs had caught between the words she hurled at Heero but no tears welled from her bleeding eyes. ?You have no right, damn you! You?you??

Trowa moved to offer her his arms but found himself at the waiting end of a large metallic hole, which was Heero?s gun.

?If you have no intention of easing her pain Heero, at least let someone else do it for you.? His own emotions lend enough force to his usual calm tone. ?Christ, Yuy! Are you fucking blind? Haven?t you wounded her enough? Look at her! She?s bleeding inside out!?

God, he had the strongest urge to pull the gun from behind him and waste every bullet he had on Heero?s unbending form. And he had thought that Yuy secretly cared for Relena as much as she cared for him. Well, he wasn?t always right.

?Touch her again, and the next breath you draw will be your last.?

The possessiveness in his voice drew Trowa?s attention. ?You sound like you own her, Yuy. She has a choice you know. And when I touched her, she made it. You have no claim to her.?

?The hell I don?t, Barton. You might have possessed her body, but her heart, the one thing you truly want from her is mine. You lose.?

A glint of metal caught by the sun turned both their attentions from each other and centred on the forgotten woman that lay like a trophy between them. She held a cold, lethal weapon in her hand. And the tears she had not shed before trailed down her white cheeks now. The combination of death that came in the form of the gun and the fragility that came in the form of silent teardrops held both men captivated.

?Wrong.? Her voice held conviction and a strength they both remembered as the one she had used when she was Queen of the world. ?You both lose.?

With superb control on the weapon trained on the former gundam pilots, Relena walked toward them in calculated steps. She reached Trowa first, putting a gentle finger to full lips that dared not open. ?Thank you, for the comfort. For the warmth. For the forgiveness I found after you offered everything and I gave back nothing. Thank you, for giving me a taste of true love. Whoever she is, tell her that she?s the luckiest woman in the world to have found you. And I hope she never lets you go. You?re a treasure, Trowa Barton. A one of a kind.? She granted him a kiss so tender it made him ache and whispered brokenly, ?And I wish you were the one to have a claim on my heart.?

She let him go and he felt her loss to the very bottom of his soul. He would never get to touch her again. And in sudden premonition, he was certain that nobody would have the pleasure of ever touching her again. That she was lost not only to him, but to the entire world. She was finally, irrevocably and completely, broken.

She had approached Heero, who had lowered the gun to his side as if too tired to hold it up. By then, Relena?s tears had seemed to have lost their current and only a solitary tear was left to trail its lonely way down her soft, delicate cheek.

?Yes, you do own my heart. And I would have gladly given it to you over and over again after you flung it back to my face. I was willing, Heero, to offer you all that I was able to give. Heart, body, soul.? She took the hand that was free of any weapons and laid her cheek there as if to borrow some warmth and comfort. ?But I am not a possession. I am not a prize to be won. I am not an object that you can lay claim to as if I have no mind of my own. No heart. You can only call your own what I offer you freely. But in return, you must also offer to me what you have been holding back. But stubborn fool that you are, you?re too strong to admit to your own desires. You?re too proud to offer me what I have been hoping for. Praying for. Bleeding my heart out for. And now??

Unspoken were the words, ?It?s too late.? But Trowa and Heero completed the sentence inside their own minds. Then she was widening the distance, walking alone, her honey blond hair dancing with the wind in the most erotic movements and daring them to dance after it. But they stood immobile as if pinned there by their own indecisions and by her rapidly fading footsteps. She was no one?s possession. They held no claim to her. And she had made her own choice.

The startling sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the desolated garden, breaking the rhythm of the dancing wind and the swaying grass. Roses-covered ground bled crimson and wept with grief. And stillness chilled the flesh of the living. Then came the inhuman cry of love loss caught between two mortals. And death laid claim to both hearts.




<b>THE END...</b>

[RyanEX2000]

While I felt Trowa's frustration and Relena's pain,you were a glorifying Trowa's person a bit there Raine.

But it was still a very good and heartfelt read.Angst...you're so good at it it's almost scary.

One thing though...
The end of the first chapter stated how if she had just talked to Heero(amazing how it's never done,eh^__^)she could have avoided the bloodbath.That kinda gave the impression that she lived.
But then again that might have been your intention.

[Nikouru]

Beautifully written... but very sad! I was hoping for the usual "happily ever after" ending, but this ending made it seem more original. Relena was right in saying that she's no possession, it's just a shame that both Heero and Trowa didn't figure that out sooner.

Great job on this story and I look forward for your next one!

[AngelOfDeath]

I think that since I write almost solely happy stuff that there has to be some sort of balance out there. . . and you preserve it.

So sad!

I don't exactly see why she had to kill herself (or was it Heero who killed her, or did he die too.... I read the end a couple times but I must just be somewhat loopy right now.) But then, when it ends with a death it's always that much more dramatic.

[Morrighan]

Awww.... That was beautifully written, raine!!! Even though it was sad....

[War Dove]

Heh, wasn't the ending I was expecting, and it seemed to fit and for some odd reason I'm not depressed by it.

[dark-angel]

Oh my no.