Disclaimer: as usual, I don't own anything of this, except my feverish imagination...
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Chapter 2: WHAT HAPPENED AFTER
Telgar Weyr
Winter, the final term
The Weyrleader watched the guests occupying their seats in the Hatching Grounds; after, his gaze jumped here and there, making sure the candidates were ready, the riders were paying attention, the fresh meat to the new hatchlings were all right. That was going to be his first Hatching as Weyrleader, and he wanted to do his best.
The Weyrleader fitted his new robe( he was never able to put it on well). His gaze wandered, stopping in the new WeyrLady, his lady...at least, to govern the Weyr. They got along together, but they were only good friends, not stablished lovers. She had discrete preferences for a certain brown rider, he...well, he was a complete butterfly, always here and there; they both managed that kind of matters in silence, although, in the mating flight they had been...he cut that train of thoughts abruptly, and he turned his gaze to the crowded Hatching Grounds.
Something was bothering him. Firstly, he thought it was stress and worries about getting a perfect Hatching, but in proportion as things happened with no troubles, stress didn't decrease...what made him worry more.
Why are you worried? his dragon's smooth mental tone made the rider smile faintly.
"I don't know, buddy. I'm not used to this, maybe. Aren't you feeling nervous?"
Why would I have to be nervous?. On the highest top inside the cave, Korynth hummed in a questioning way.You are the Weyrleader, the hatch is big and there's a queen egg. Bronze's last comment made the man's gaze landed on the sands, over the gleaming golden egg protected by the queen Kayreth's claws, and later over a corner in the room, where the girls that aspired to be a WeyrLady were waiting.
He shook his head.
"Bah, there's no point about this. Enjoy yourself with the spectacle". The comment was accompanied by a lot of loving thoughts to his lifemate: Korynth hummed in answer, his big eyes shining in a beautiful blue.
The humming grew louder and the senior queen roared and stepped back: the Hatching was to start. The young Weyrleader seated, ready, attempting to put apart for a while that feeling, that heavy feeling that something was being forgotten.
* * * * * *
This time she hadn't been so lucky: having been taken warning from the last Hatching, her mother had been sure to keep her younger daughter next to her; because of this she was here in that moment, sat in the middle zone of the steps, trying to concentrate in the Hatching while that fool guy didn't stop speaking about stupid things.
Many dragonets had been Impressed when, finally, the queen egg opened. The tiny golden dragon, shining due to her wet skin, walked a few dull steps and put her conical head over a little brunette's lap: the girl wasn't very pretty, however her eyes shone like jewels when she annouced the new queen' name.
While she was watching the scene with a smile, she could notice a light sigh from many of the young ladies - and not so young ones - that were sat surrounding her.
All of them would have given anything to be in that little brunette's place, she thought, not only due to the responsability for defending Pern but also the privileges included in their position as dragonriders. Except the Crafts, there were few opportunities to women to be authentically independents, and riding a dragon was no doubt the best one. Although...
Despite of this, that position keeps being a golden jail, the girl divagued, five types of dragons and, if you are a woman you only can ride a golden one, and you only can aspire to co-govern the Weyr while your dragon queen is able to offer herself to the bronze males in a mating flight. The really fighting dragons were assigned to men and...
A poke on her arm cut her train of thoughts: her mother, who was watching the girl's concerned face in astonishment,
-What was you thinking about, my daughter? The Hatching is over, the feast is going to start - she smiled speculatively -I hope you has liked the companionship.
-I don't know -the girl replied, blue ice in her eyes - I wasn't listening to him.
* * * * * *
A very few people remained in Hatching Grounds, of course there were no weyrlings with their new charges. All of them were feeding their dragonets or settling them for their first nap: after so many time inside their eggs, all the little ones were anxious to go out and find someone unique, a partner that took care of them and a soul to love him or her. All of them except that one, the Weyrleader thought, faintly annoyed.
It was a big egg, so big as the queen one, and every candidate had looked it out of the corner of their eye, ready to the faintest movement that revealed a close opening: that egg had to hide, at least, a well-sized bronze. However, not even a vibration had changed the egg's location, and the riders were forced to admit, reluctancy, that the egg wouldn't open and its dragon was lost. With a last fluttering of his cloak, the Weyrleader gave a last look over the egg's direction and went out to preside the Hatching feast.
* * * * * *
What a pity, she thought, spying the Hatching Grounds' entrance. She had escaped from his mother for a while - she had never been sooo boring !- and she had come back to the Hatching Grounds, attracted by the lonely egg that didn't get opening. When she was sure nobody was there - everybody in the feast, she thought in a funny ad a bit cynical way -, she walked across the warm sand until where the egg kept up, and she stopped a few steps before arriving. Surrounded by broken shells it seemed bigger, firmly settled in a small hole in the sands, with a strange shell: it was speckled in dark, not smooth like other eggs' one.
Before she noticed she was doing, the girl found her hand on the dark shard, with a gentle touch. Nothing. A curious trill annouced her little golden firelizard's arrival, that landed on floor and extended its nose carefully until touching the egg.
-Well, he seems not to be interested, my little beauty - she commented - or maybe he didn't feel anybody suitable for him- She extended her arm but, strangely, the firelizard didn't want to move towards there, but she preferred a stone prominence next them. The little golden one was trilling in a strange way, low and monotone, humming. The girl shrugged. A firelizard wasn't a dragon, it didn't depend on his human partner so much: if Faan liled that place, she didn't mind it. She left the Hatching Grounds with light steps, making sands hardly crakcled under her feet, conscious in a disturbing way about the egg she was leaving behind.
* * * * * *
The Weyrleader picked the rest of the cake in his plate. Although he was smiling and sometimes introducing a comment, he wasn't paying too much attention. That feeling about next troubles, not only it hadn't decreased but also it had grown during the feast. In the high tops, an awake Korynth roared, worried due to his rider's thoughts, his big eyes shining in an intermittent red. His anxiety had awaked the senior queen too, Kayreth, that was watching him surprised, a surprise that the WeyrLady felt a little bit later and made her stare at the Weyrleader. Yes, it was true the young rider was disturbed due to something, but why?
* * * * * *
Lonely, only illuminated by the starlight - it grew dark a long time- the Hatching Grounds had a ghostly aspect, the sands moved and the shells broken in little groups: the feast was in its top and there would be no time to clean until the daybreak. So it was logical there was nobody when the egg opened. No noise, no movements, only a crack that appeared in the middle of the shell suddenly....and here it was, a too big dragonet, with a dark, wet skin. And it was alone.
The little one moaned and the high stonewalls returned a loud echo, scaring it more yet; its feeling of loneliness and need was surprisingly strong. There was no light, no other dragons encouraging and, what it was worse, there was nobody it could love, a friendly mind that loved it, that took care of it, that could be offered the loyalty and love that only a dragon was able to give. For a moment, a presence had been felt and, due to this, it had decided to go out of its safe and warn refuge, but now.....
Its moans became a sob that went on lower and lower until dying. It was then, in that silence, when its eyes were going to close forever when it heard the humming - faint but real - that was coming fro somewhere upper: Clumsily, the little dragonet raised its disproportionate head, looking for the origin of that sound.
A firelizard, a golden queen, was perched in a prominence, her eyes gleaming in kind green, her humming changing in a cheerful trill when she felt the little dragon's attention over her: stumbling over its own legs and the shells on the ground, the hatchling approached her and moaned again. She answered with a train of trills... and that game continued a few minutes, until, suddenly, the little queen spread her small wings and took off, flying in circles, going and coming from the Hatching Grounds' entrance, emitting small encouraging trills, until the little dragon reacted.
As if it had made up its mind firmly, the dragon baby started to walk, avoiding obstacles painfully, let the firelizard guide it, that little queen and the faint light - not seen, but guessed- beyond the warm sands, its eyes shining in red due to anxiety. Because its was looking for.
* * * * * *
Much later, the Weyrleader wondered how had it been possible that dragons were so late to notice the situation, when they were supposed to feel things like that many days before happening. Or if, examinating what happened after, they wouldn't have done for a purpose. The fact was the young Weyrleader was enjoying himself with the rest of the guests, listening to the harpers, when the Weyr turned into a madhouse.
Hurry up! You must find it! As if his dragon's alarmed thoughts hadn't been enough to
clear him up, the dragons were roaring with all their power, anxious, waving their wings, calling their riders. Before the Weyrleader had had time to stand up, the WeyrLady was already there.
- Kayreth is frantic, she doesn't stop claiming someone has to be found, she doesn't listen to me...and just today - she whispered, pointing to the guests in a vague way. Many of them had stood up, too, the ancient and unreasonable fear to the dragons in the deepest of many gazes.
- I'm going to try Korynth tells me what is happening. Please, stay and try to soothe people. T'rowa, B'main, come with me - while he walked towards the projecting, followed by the sly lieutenant and the nervous wingleader, he tried to get some answers from his excited bronze.
You have to find it. It is alone and defenceless, it will hurt itself more, was Korynth's answer to his rider's questions.
"Quiet down a little bit, old boy". The three riders crossed the empty common rooms quickly, looking fot the main projecting in the Weyr.
It mustn't stay alone. We couldn't notice it and now it's wandering alone, it was so quiet. You have to find it. Korynth's anxiety started to affect his rider, whose steps turned quicker. " By the First Egg, Korynth, who is alone?" he demanded.
The little one.
"Is a child lost in the Weyr?", it wasn't impossible, with so many guests, he remembered a time that....he forced himself to pay attention. "Why are all of you guys so worried about a child that you are turned the Weyr in a madhouse?"
There's nothing about a child.
"Korynth, old buddy..."
The egg opened.
"Old boy, today there have become opened thirty-nine...." The Weyrleader stopped abruptly and his partners were on the point of bump together.
The egg.
The egg it didn't opened before, the egg it was supposed to be lost.
"When? Where? Why did nobody notice ?" Why didn't the dragons notice, he thought.
I'm not sure, it was Korynth's confused answer, I felt it when it was going out of the Hatching Grounds, looking for a lifemate. If it can't find anybody...
"Is it already out of the Hatching Grounds?" Then, yes, there were serious troubles. A little dragonet without a formal partner wandering in the Weyr...Only the First Egg knew who could Impress it. And many guests had gone to the upper balconies after the feast, to enjoy a cold but beautiful night. If a Lord Holder had the idea to look at the wrong place in the most inappropiate moment...The Weyrleader shook his head.
"Where is it now? Where is it going?"
It's going to upper part. That confirmed the rider's worse suspects. It hurt itself with the stones. A painful tone inside the bronze's voice.
"Talk to it, tell it stay in a place where we can take care of it, ask it for not keeping going upstairs."
A long silence. The Weyrleader waited, still, strained like the cord of a bow, exchanging worried gazes with T'rowa and B'main. They didn't need warning about the importance of that issue, they were well informed by listening to their dragons: Rorth, T'rowa's bronze, and Pyreth, the B'main's enormous blue, had repeated their riders Korynth's words.
It doesn't want to listen to me, it will listen to nobody. It's on the point of burst himself due to anxiety, its time is getting over. it was the bronze's worried answer.
"Then we'll be there for it, buddy. Talk to Kayreth, she has to tell Noin she's ready to collect some candidates. Which kind of dragon is it?"
It looks like a big bronze.
"Looks like? What's happening, Korynth? I'd never seen you hesitating so much. Are you all right?"
I'm fine. It's only...something isn't as it should be, as it's correct
"Nothing has been normal since a while, old boy."
You don't understand. For the first time in his life, the young Weyrleader felt fear inside his dragon's mental voice. Something's going to happen, all of us can feel it.
So they can feel it, eh?, the young rider thought, he too, in fact, he had been feeling it during all the night.
* * * * * *
It was a pity that annoying guy ruined the pleasure that incredible sight caused her, she thought while she hid her distaste as she could, resting herself on the short stonewall that served as a balustrade. In front of her, the wonderful panorama beyond the Weyr's high tops, illuminated by the starlight. Sighing inside, she turned and went to one of the stone benches, feeling, despite the distance, her mother's watchful look: the exit was very near and the honoured mistress didn't want that - in her opinion - worthy candidate to marry was left alone with a turn and a few quick steps.
* * * * * *
Its legs' scratches were hurting it badly, it had stumbled so many times, only its own anxiety and the little queen's encouraging trills made it persist. And then another stone stairs. It turned to come back and...
Upstairs. Someone upstairs. Frantically, its eyes whirling in savage red, the little dragon started to go upstairs painfully.
* * * * * *
Her patience was almost over: if she couldn't make him shut up, she would leave him alone and her mother could go to hell, she had never known someone that enjoyed himself so much dur to hearing his own voice. Only his, because she'd stopped paying attention for ages, listening to the guy's voice like a strong buzz, but a buzz could become really disturbing....she came back with a gasp: he had trapped her arm, his eyes in a sudden, bright, dangerous way.
Well, that was sufficient: she got out of him with a rude movement, stood up, smoothed her dress, went to the nearing exit....and again she was seated, but this time in a corner of the stone bench.
What a stupid teenager!, she turned angrily...to find him in the further corner, stepping back, with his eyes like big dishes...stepping back?
Suddenly, the girl was conscious about the heavy sensation that had appeared on her lap from nowhere and looked down to find out what was happening....
* * * * * *
The Weyleader and his partners had just arrived at the last stairs when the dragons roared a welcome with joy.
Everything's done! a relieved Korynth annouced.
"What's done? Has someone Impressed the dragonet?" I wish he's neither a Lord Holder nor a Master Craft, the young rider hoped.
Nobody like those ones, his dragon reassured. A strange choice. The Weyrleader's prompt relief vanished: strange?
Yes, but that's no conventional dragon, so it's logical nor the rider is.
"With news like those, I don't know if going upstairs or running away, my darling"
Oh, don't worry, they will do it well, very well, Korynth reassured him, Hearth has chosen the best one, but maybe a high price must be payed, the dragon's doubtful mental voice intrigued the Weyrleader. Although it was accepted dragons lived the present moment, it was true, too, they demonstrated a strange clairvoyance in some times.
I told you it was suitable, they only needed a good chance and we got it for them.
Those words surprised the rider. When had his dragon told him something like that?
The last Hatching.
The Weyrleader forced himself to remember while he went upstairs. Korynth wasn't a very talented searched for candidates, and he preferred to leave blue ones and brown ones the task of loohing for them in Crafts and Holds...so, if he had said something about some suitable candidate, it had happened in the Weyr. But how could it be possible Korynth felt a proper candidate in the last Hatching, instead of the others dragons? What's more, they both had missed the most part of that Hatching, they had been late, as usual, because he had managed awfully with his formal robe and because...
Because. They. Had. Been. Interrupted.
- Are you all right? -T'rowa knew his weyrleader too well to use his formal title: the rider had stopped at the balcony entrance, he was staring at people who seemed to be surrounding something or somebody, but really he didn't see anything. He was remembering. He was fitting words and feelings, times, doubts...
"No way!", he told his dragon tightly.
Why not? I told you she had got the best characteristics, his dragon answered. In that moment, people noticed dragonriders' arrival and opened a way for them...
She was as he remembered her, the young rider thought, the challenger eyes, the honey-coloured hair, those pale hands that were embracing the neck of a too big bronze dragonet protectively: the dragon baby had rested its head on her lap and viewed her adoringly.
T'rowa and B'main looked at each other in astonishment, the Weyrleader passed his hand across his brown hair nervously, he was sweating but nothing compared to what was going to happen after, how the hell he was going to explain a girl had Impressed a bronze dragon, a warrior dragon, and not a queen.
Queens fight, too Korynth commented, a bit of annoyance in his voice.
"You know what I mean, old boy"
She's not a delicate WeyrLady, she's a warrior, so she needs a warrior dragon, Korynth firmed securely.
"OK, OK, but why a bronze male? It could have been a green female, it seems to be more..natural.." Wrong reply, he thought just when he finished speaking, besides men Impress green dragons and nobody controverted if that fact was natural or not...except when green females flied to mate, he thought sarcastically, above all because many riders didn't seem to want a female substitute in those occasions. He frowned: it was going to be a troubled situation when that bronze wanted to fly to mate, there wouldn't be a green dragon that refused a flight like that, the chance was simply too good..and unique.
That won't happen
"No rider will have any prejudices when his dragon has bleeded his hunting, old buddy", the dragonrider refuted "And nor she'll be in conditions to refuse.."
Korynth snorted in the high tops. Rorth and Pyreth chorused him.
Maybe you will be who won't have that chance, the bronze's sharp tone admitted no replies. She's riding a bronze queen. Which male dragon in the Weyr would refuse an opportunity like that?
* * * * * *
Finally, people moved away and she could breathe quieter, she and her bronze treasure. She hand't looked for it, she hadn't been Searched for the Hatching, she had only wished something better than eternal darkness for that lonely, big egg....
You're the best and I love you. Although she was used to listening to other dragons, nothing can be compared to listen to the own dragon. She smiled, not noticing the beauty her shining eyes gave her face. "I know, my little dear heart, I know". She caressed the huge conical head of the bronze queen...no, a bronze female, she corrected herself; if she was bronze, she could flame and she would be sterile, however...her thoughts were interruped by some dragonriders' arrival. She breathed deeply, stood up with Hearth beside her, moaning hungrily; her dragon needed feeding, but, before that, her position in the Weyr should be cleared, at least a little bit.
People moved away when dragonriders passed, two bronze ones and a blue one. The taller brunette was very familiar to her. Where had she seen him before?
Only when he came next to her and stare at her in a inquisitive way, she recognized those dark eyes, in that moment worried eyes: her forced guide in the previous Hatching. Why him, precisely? And what was the meaning of those strips over his shoulders?
* * * * * *
He saw her frowning when she saw him, and softening her expression when a bright of survey appeared inside her blue eyes: she remembered him, although nobody could have assured, according to her gaze, if it was a pleasant memory or not. I wish it was, the Weyrleader thought, that fact would give him a certain advantage - a worthy advantage - if the things became too equal...
But what are you thinking about, by Faranth's egg, he reproached himself, you're the Weyrleader, remember? and, at least in the mating flights, you're owed to Noin, and Korynth to Kayreth. He shook his head to clear it, his bronze's comments had made him very nervous.
The most urgent thing was compounding that strange situation: the girl had Impressed a dragon but not a golden queen, therefore she couldn't be considered as a WeyrLady, but you couldn't assure that bronze female couldn't get a hatch, there had never been some dragon of her type: what would happen if she could flame and have hatches? Too many questions and too many few answers, the bronze rider muttered.
Why are you so worried about things you're going to discover sooner or later?, Korynth asked.
The young dragonrider sighed, his lifemate was true, as usual. " I know, I know, old buddy. It's only I'd want to guard all the sides to avoid troubles". Troubles that were going to appear, it was so true as Threads fell from the Red Star.
Stop thinking about that now, Hearth is very hungry the bronze said, The best thing you can do is starting with the basic topics
The basic topics? For a moment, the young Weyrleader stared at the girl and her bronze dragon - Hearth, Korynth said? - and decided, actually, to start with the basic topics.
- Well, although you are supposed to know this, due to the fact you've Impressed a dragon you must stay in the Weyr - she raised her eyebrows: tell me something I don't know. The statement danced inside her gaze so clearly as if she had pronounced it. Bad start, he thought, maybe it would better come to the point ? A Hearth's hungry moan encouraged him to banish any preambles and enter into the most dangerous matters directly.
- For the moment, you'll have to move into the WeyrLadies' rooms, at least until some kind of arrangement can be done - Noin wasn't going to like that very much, but he was decided not to redound to that topic, no matter nobody said, he wasn't going to send a girl like that one to the Weyrlings' barracks, somebody could be damaged...and not precisely her, that was something about he would have beaten.
The blue eyes that didn't stop staring at him shone faintly, not only approving but also understanding the matter.
- Come on, we'll help you to feed your dragon in a proper way, it's easy but you have to avoid her choking- while he was speaking he nodded faintly in B'main's direction and the blue rider disappeared downstairs quickly.
The girl didn't move. He gave a few steps before noticing she wasn't walking behind him and half-turned, his hands in his hips.
-Well? - he said impatiently.
-Could I know, at least, who are offering themselves to go with me to feed my dragon?
Was his mind, or a certain amused -amused!-tone had been put in that question? Amusing and a little dangerous tone.Were they going to finish arguing every time?No, no, he had to control himself, this moment was too important. Suddenly, he noticed surrounding people's whispers, far but paying close attention: it had to be finished there, he wasn't disposed to discuss the Weyr's private issues in front of a lot of strangers, maybe quick introductions...a bit late, the Weyrleader thought perhaps it had better start in that way. The most basic topics.
- I'm D'uo, Korynth's rider, the Weyrleader - a surprised gaze in that light blue eyes. Well, very well, now he was who was enjoying himself - this is my lieutenant, T'rowa, Rorth's rider .
She tilted her head for the other bronze rider and started to walk to the stairs, with Hearth besides her. D'uo let her pass by his side, staring at her, her graceful way of walking, enhanced by the bronze female's hesitating steps. Later they would have to heal the hurts and bruises Hearth had suffered due to her wandering across the Weyr, looking for her lifemate, looking for...
Wait for a moment. All right, something more about basic topics, but this time...
-Could I know who I'm going to feed her dragon with?- T'rowa raised an eyebrow for his leader's evil-minded tone. D'uo ignored him. As that feeling of discomfort had disappeared - at least a big part of it -, his cheerful character imposed again: so she liked oral assault, didn't she?, now then that game could be played by a couple...
But she demonstrated to be a suitable opponent. She stopped, she turned, her hands crossed over her lap, strange violet sparks inside her light blue eyes:
- I'm Relena, bronze Hearth's rider.
And again, she turned to go on downstairs, to the Weyr's inner part.
Gundam's Headquarters
Practising Zone, the early evening
After having been observing that afternoon war game in the War Hall's screens, the pilot touched his hurt arm carefully and decided his appointment with the surgeon was going to wait a bit more. Instead of going to the infirmary, he passed the long corridors quickly, hardly giving other people's greetings back with a faint nod, hurrying up to the pilots' entrance. Suddenly the chattering, that had been growing in proportion as he arrived near the big hangars, - pilots, technicians, mechanics -, was over as if it had been cut with a blade: instead of it, a heavy, fragile silence like a crystal spider-lamp hanged up with a consumed thread.
And that could mean an only thing, the hurrying pilot thought. The thing wasn't that he was in bad mood. No.
Simply, he had lost all the mood he could have.
Finally, the breathless pilot arrived at the door of the stairs that let go down the main hangar, and he stopped to check the situation.
He was walking in his accustomed way, graceful and elastic, slipping quiet like a cat, the helmet in his left hand, the right one matching his movements, his face relaxed. To a stranger, the living image of the unconcernedness. To the people in the main hangar, the concern because they didn't know what would happen. To the pilot who was observing the scene, a disaster that would have to be stopped...before too many things became a mess.
* * * * * *
Walking slowly, step by step, staring at a point in front of him, concentrated in his movements, his feet, his hands, his helmet. Concentrate. Don't think just now, you must only pay attention to the movement, to the rhytm, muscles must be relaxed, don't think. Not yet. Thinking just now isn't a good idea. Ignore it, ignore your mind, let it shout, don't pay attention, not yet, not with so many fragile things surrounding you, concentrate, concentrate....
-Mmmm? Today hasn't been a good day for you, eh Heero?
Ay.
He stopped and remained motionless, each arm in its side, staring at the slender person in front of him, rested on the door jamb in apparent indolence, his blonde hair falling in a messed lock over part of his face. Blue eyes against blue eyes. Sea storm against beach waves. Street cat against Siamese cat, quiet only in appearance, but both ready to fight.
The other people had caught their breath, waiting for a crash that, however, didn't happen. Heero forced himself to reply in a calm voice:
- I hope, at least, you have enjoyed yourself with today's game.
-Oh, you can be sure about that, I only regret you has done it the day I can't take part on it - he touched his hurt arm lightly - or , simply, did you get bored because you always won? or..?
- Shut up, Quatre, it's over - Heero cut him, before I have, we have to complain this, he thought.
- Alright, it happens I have nothing to do...-under his relaxed, sarcastic tone, Quatre's worry grew. Heero was a perfectionist person, somebody capable of discussing a not- clear handling, a too rude movement, a slow shooting....for hours.. and just now he didn't want to speak about it? Something was wrong... with a sudden gasp he noticed Heero had taken his chance and went out in his room's direction. Oh no, my friend, it isn't going to finish here, the blonde pilot thought, and slipped quickly behind his stressed partner, observing his dark hair's perfect matching movement from afar.
Heero's rooms
Later
That large window was Quatre's favourite one, too big to be a normal window, too small to be a balcony...but wide enough to seat on it laterally, if you weren't afraid of heights.
Resting his body over a side, with his feet on the splay, his legs flexed, Quatre heard the noise Heero was doing inside the bathroom while he was observing the stars; he couldn't know that, from that window, his friend passed nights without sleeping. Watching.Waiting.
The sky spectacle didn't avoid Quatre noticing what was happening in the other room. Trained from childhood to distinguish the faintest tint, the blondie was also able to take the faint rudeness in the movements - faint but real - and some exasperated murmurs, what were more unusual: it wasn't going to be easy making Heero confess, it was never like that, there was a point and then you were forbidden to going on, there was no way of yellow floor tiles.... but he was Quatre, Gundam Sandrock pilot, if anybody could make Heero speak was him.....or, at least, he could try it...
- I don't remember having invited you to enter. Why have you come?
With no noise to betray Heero's presence, only years of practice prevented Quatre from gasping. Instead of it, he crossed his legs.
-Do you want to speak about it?
-No.
-Heero...
-You haven't answered my question - Heero passed his hand across his wet hair, what made it look darker.
-Oh well, if you insist.. when have I needed a formal invitation to visit a friend who lives casually in the same building?
- Is that an answer?
- It's a kind of explanation.
- Don't spread your mind, you know I don't like surprises like this. What do you want?
- You would like nothing today, Heero. Come on, stop making the difficult guy, at least more you're accustomed - Quatre intuited, didn't see, how the dark pilot frowned - if you don't want to tell me...what's the matter?
Heero had started to measure the room with long striders, frowned, hands crossed behind his back. The storm Quatre had foreboded was here, ready to explode. And it exploded.
- Four - he hissed.
Quatre raised an eyebrow, a question inside his blue gaze, but Heero didn't pay attention to him, concetrated in his own anger.
-Four errors. Four damned errors that would have killed me in a real battle. Four learner's errors! - suddenly, a vase fell and the alarm clock smashed in the mirror and lot of crystal pieces flied... but suddenly all of them were building the mirror again: Heero hadn't uncrossed his hands behind his back.
He never seemed to notice it completely, Quatre thought, and , to himself, it was...disturbing; it wasn't the first time he had seen something like that, but despite of that...
Heero remained murmuring:
-This must be over, must be finished...I'll go there, I'll check what's happening and I'll come back. Only that. I'll prove myself that everything is OK, that there is no reason to worry...- Suddenly, he wasn't able to move and lifte his gaze to meet a light blue eyes staring at his intensely.
Quatre had left his dangerous seat and now he was in front of him, his slender hands over the other boy's shoulders, holding him with amazing strength.
- You have known things again.
It was an assertion, not a question. Heero shook his head, trying to ignore him, trying to get out of those hands that were holding him. Maybe, if he could think about it sufficiently...but no, it wasn't safe and not always he could get....taking it. Sometimes it appeared. Sometimes not. Besides, when it appeared he wasn't able to control it, and he didn't want to hurt Quatre..
-You're strained like a bow cord - the blondie's voice startled him - You know you shouldn't keep that kind of things only for you.
-It's my own business. If somebody else need informing, I..
-Neither you guy would tell him. And it isn't only your business. You are in a team, remember?
-You could choose other leader - Heero whispered.
-Oh, it's OK, what happens is all of us are something more than a mere combat team...if you're in troubles I'll help you, all of us will help you. And now start to tell me the story because I'm not going to leave until you have told me everything. Has your privileged mind been able to follow me until now? - Quatre freed his prisoner and came back to his dangerous seat in the large window.
Again, Heero thought, I've made that mistake again, I've undervalued him again. Despite the time he know him, Quatre can always surprise him if he thought it was a suitable time.
Heero was dangerous, but that was the kind of danger you could detect if you payed enough attention: it was impossible yo know when the danger would burst, or, actually, if it would do it, or which direction would be chosen, but the menace was there, it was the second skin of Gundam Wing dark pilot. But Quatre....
Quatre would never awaken other people's suspicions as Heero usually did. The slender blondie - with his light blue eyes, his silky small-fringe always fallen over his forehead, his always suitable words for his interocutors and ocassions - attracted and handled people as he wanted, working beyond the shadows. Steel wrapped with silk, Heero thought, but it was always steel, and he knew very well the fortune of those that hadn't considered that, maybe, everything they were looking at - what Quatre wanted them to look at - wasn't the complete truth. No matter if that had happened in a battle, a meeting, an undercovered mission...Undervaluing the smart blondie had been many ones' last error, the soft hands that had just held him with so much strength had got many other abilities, quite less innocent ones.
And in that moment, Quatre was staring at him from the large window, sure of getting what he wanted, sure of having slipped himself again with success along the thin edge that parted a dark Heero from a deadly Heero.
But what a dangerous guy you are, little one, Heero ended silently, very well, but some day you'll make a mistake and then...
* * * * * *
Flashback
Despite of all the strokes, the small spaceship didn't open. Instead of it, it remained fixed inside a crack, few steps away from a chilling vertical stone wall, whose bottom part was a lot of metres far away. Quickly covered by the dust due to the strong wind, with the most of the electronic systems damaged or simply non operational, the spaceship wasn't noticed by the powerful scanners and radars that were searching for it in that sidereal quadrant. Inside, the main computer executed a very strange sequence of orders: instead of emitting the ultrasonic signal that would let others detect the ship, it sent the remaining power to keep working the life-support machine, to keep its passenger alive - or what survived from that person. In normal circumstances, the machine itself would have done the best to finish in the least painful way for its charge.
But those ones are no normal circumstances.
And nor that passenger was normal.
* * * * * *
- We'll go with you.
- I'll go there alone. That quadrant is supposed to be empty, it won't take much time to me to know I was wrong, nobody has been interested about something there, at least since the colonial project failed.
-Oh, come on, when has you been wrong about something like this? No, no, no, I'll talk to Wufei and we'll go for a walk with you around outsides...
The growing shadows in the room didn't let Quatre notice Heero's advance and, a few moments later, he was against the wall, his feet on the air, attempting to catch a breath against the steel tongs that had grasped Quatre's leather jacket.
Not even a noise had been able to warn the danger to the blondie, Heero deserved his reputation of being a lethal and dangerous warrior, above all when he was controlled by that frozen anger, that emotional distance that sharpened his mind and his movements, that disabled him to feel no longer. His hands were white and felt painful due to his efforts to support Quatre in that way, but not even he looked at them. His dark blue - now almost black - eyes were fixed in the blode pilot's ones, a very few centimetres between their faces, breathings mixing - one quick and altered, another so slow and rhytmical as a clock.
- Alone - Heero hissed - With my Gundam. If there's nothing it's over, if there's something wrong...well, I'm not going to warn it with a escort that can be seen everywhere in the galaxy. Remember, if somebody needs to be protected, I'll do for you, so you're going to be very quiet and unconcerned, Quatre, have you been able to understand that? - he pressed for a moment and released his grip rudely; the blonde pilot fell on the floor in a bad way, however, a moment later he stood again, putting his jacket on, breathing deeply and murmuring very low. Heero, who had approached the large window, didn't turn to his partner: his gaze was fixed again in the stars that had just appeared in the sky.
- All right. If that's what you want...
Heero didn't answer. He hated other people caring of him and he used to care nobody,although sometimes, with Quatre, Wufei and a few others, he could behave worst than a broody hen. Simply, he dind't want any companionship in that issue, he was perfectly capable of manage himself. He had always done it.
A hand fell on Heero's right shoulder smoothly. Turning his head, the dark pilot faced Quatre again. There wasn't any trace of joke in the blondie's face, serious, with a blend of worry and bad resignation inside his blue gaze.
- At least , try to be careful, you're hearing? You know we don't like sweeping the pieces, the space is too big. - A last kind hug in that slim shoulder and Quatre left the room, pacing the long corridor to the stairs.
He didn't surprise when he discovered Wufei's tall, slender silhouette in the first corner: with Quatre and Heero out of their habitual locations, well known what a troubled day had been, the quiet mystic had had to make no efforts to make the correct conclusions. He said nothing. He limited himself to stare at the blonde pilot with a question in his eyes: Quatre raised his eyebrows and opened his arms. Sufficient. They both walked together in silence, their steps lost and again, the long corridor kept quiet.
And then, other steps can be heared. Steps going in the other direction, steps going away from the two Gundam pilots, faint steps searching for the protectivenes of the shadows. Silent steps. Steps that were watching.
In his room, Heero remained looking at the stars, distracted...
*************************************************************
Good, I hope the next chapter isn't so long
!As usual, your desires are my orders!
Wyrth
! i hope u keep on writing cause i'll be waiting for the next chapter! 
well cheo for now
