Restless: Chapter 1

[raine_yuy]

disclaimer: nothing's changed. i still don't own Gundam Wing.

note: haha. ok, my brain is sooo overloaded. too many things all at once. my muse tends to torture me with overwhelming ideas. well, here's the first chapter to Restless since people seemed to have been intrigued by the prologue. enjoy!






"So, how did it go? Any blood shed?"

A tall striking woman stood before an impressive figure of a powerful man. It did not matter that the man was sitting behind a pile of folders and papers, nor did it matter that his head was bent and his attention riveted on a piece of paper. None of those detered from the obvious poise of wealth and magnetism that emanated naturally from the top of his long silky platinum blond hair to the expensively boot clad feet of his long frame. He spoke of influence and impossibly proper upbringing. Noin let her gaze gently caress him before annoyance finally caught up to her. She shook her head of short raven black hair and sighed wearily.

"Zechs, you could have handled that situation better," she finally got his attention. "She counted on you to be able to at least stand up for her."

Milliardo Peacecraft, Zechs to those who were well acquianted with him, dragged his gaze away from the paper he held long enough to study the frown that formed between the woman's elegant eyebrows. And because her hand held her head and her eyes were not trained on him, he allowed himself to wonder just how soft her hair was and how tender the skin underneath her collar felt. He quickly averted his gaze as soon as she lifted her head to glare at him.

"Relena? Count on anyone?" he let out a small laugh of disbelief that did not quite sound so derisive. "You know her. She would have resented even one sign of support i offered. That or suspect me of having something to hide behind it. Everything and everyone is a suspect to her. Even her own damn brother."

Emotions were finally leaking out of the cold exterior, Noin thought in relief. And guilt was close behind, she noticed when Zechs stared off into space, lost in his own world. "And you did exactly as she suspected you would," her own guilt made her ruthless. "Are you really surprise that she treated you as an enemy?"

"It's for her own good Noin," Zechs whispered softly, looked out the window and pretended fascination with the rain. "It's the only way we can keep her safe."

"By locking her up. By taking away the only thing that she ever longed for," she answered in an equally soft tone. "I don't pretend to understand what drives her Zechs, but it's not hard to understand that all the girl asks for is to be set free."

Anger took hold of his raging emotions as his eyes met Noin's. His voice held both hot fury and fear. "Free? Free to do what exactly? Free to dare every devil to meet her challenge and take her life in the most extraordinary way she can find to end it?" His voice rose with every word that followed. "Jesus Noin, how many times must she jump out of a plane? How many times must she climb impossible rocks and mountains? How many car races must she enter? And those damn trips she makes to the most dangerous places in the world just for the hell of it. Are you so blind that you don't see what it all comes down to? Relena has lots of interesting ways of inviting death doesn't she?"

Throughout the passionate speech that formed out of love as much as loathing, Noin sat in silence. Perhaps he was right. Relena was better off locked and bound to keep her safe from herself. The recent adventure had broken a few ribs and had cost a small limp to her right leg. That damn race that had almost cost her her life. Noin flinched at the memory. The image of the girl lying pale beneath cold white sheets with only the machine to indicate that her heart still functioned. That had been two months ago. Relena had recovered quite well as she always seemed to do. But her family had finally reached it's very limited patience with their reckless child and had made a decision. Relena was to finish school in the Peacecraft mansion amongst the most influential and promising young adults of the world nation. They left her no choice. It was either to obey the family, or take away her only materialistic weakness. The Peacecraft family threatened to sell her granfather's farm. A farm that Relena treasured because it was the only solid thing left of her beloved grandmother who had passed away. She had inherited it. But she was only allowed to have complete and legal possession of the property in the condition that she finished her education. Otherwise, her family had the legal right to sell it to whomever. Noin had seen the purity of Relena's fury at the clever manipulation her family had backed her into. The girl's eyes had turned into icicles of bitterness and promised retribution. It had given her goosebumps for Relena trully hated only one thing. Binding of any kind. She hated staying in one place for too long, as if for fear of growing roots and having it freeze her on the spot. Noin had always been fascinated by her bottomless energy. And she had loved the girl because of her spirit. And because Milliardo Peacecraft had loved his sister with a force Noin did not resent nor envied but admired. And now both Relena and Milliardo were suffering.

"I'm very much afraid it would be a long time before she forgives any of us," her voice was tired but still soft and somehow soothing. "We brought her back to the one place she had hoped to escape forever. Where's the right in all this Zechs? When it feels so wrong."

He longed to comfort her, to hold her close and whisper words to take away the guilt and pain. But he had enough trouble dealing with his own pain and the fear that the sister he loved more than anything might never find it in herself to forgive his betrayal. "I did what i thought was best Noin. I did the only thing i could to keep her alive. How much longer do you think before she got it into her head to fly off to some godforsaken place and get herself hurt again before she even fully recovered from the last accident?"

Noin dragged out her breath in a heavy sigh and closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were clear and wiped clean of any emotions. "She got there this morning. The five you sent had been there for a week now and are familiar with the school i'm sure so they won't have to familiarise themselves with the place. They'll keep eyes on her while the family stays away for a while," she delivered the report in her normal formality.

"Good. Then everything is settled. I'm sure everything will be fine Noin," It was more to assure himself than the woman standing before him. "She'll be fine."

Noin hesitated before she asked the next question, "Zechs...one of the five you sent to look out for her," she noticed the way he avoided her eyes. "One of them...is Heero Yuy."

He stared out the window again and studied the falling rain. They were quieter now, less consistent. "Yes..."

A small frown marked her brow. "Zechs, i don't think she'll ever forgive you for that one," she shook her head in resignation. "She'll never forgive you for bringing her back to him."

"It won't matter if she never forgives me for that betrayal Noin," he answered in hush tones. "As long as she's safe. As long as she can be saved."






<i>How can you see into my eyes like open doors
Leading you down into my core
Where I?ve become so numb without a soul
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead it back home</i>

The words blasted throughout the four cornered room and entered the bloodstream. Gloved hands slammed into a punching bag set up at the far corner of the room with full uncontrolled force. Again and again and again. The black clad figure showed no signs of tiring. It was as if the body was possessed by something deeper than shadows. It had life and it had anger.

<i>(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can?t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can?t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I?ve become</i>

The song drove the fists deeper into the hard stomach of the red punching bag. Sweat traveled down the length of spines and toned arms. Her skin was coated with a fine sheen of it, making it look sleek. Relena Dorlian was a possessed woman, driven by the bitter aftertaste of betrayal. Her family betrayed her. It didn't hurt as much as it burned her pride and dignity. To use her grandfather's farm against her. They thought they were so clever, forming as a whole family to outrank her. And Milliardo...only from that betrayal did she feel any semblance of pain. Seh flinched when her right knee began to throb as the still healing muscles protested against the strain of her activity. Still, she kept throwing punches.

<i>Now that I know what I?m without
You can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life</i>

Perhaps, her anger would have been less destructive had they sent her to another place. Anywhere but here. Every corner of the mansion held memories she longed to drown. She had passed by a window that had a view of the massive garden the Peacecraft gardeners tended to with loyalty. She had almost bolted out of the place there and then. But then shame for such unacceptable weakness had frozen her in the spot. She was better than that. Hell, she jumped out of planes without second thoughts. She had gone into jungles with predators both of the four legged and two legged kinds with no thought as to how she would survive. A garden held no comparison when it came to evoking fear. And yet that was exactly what she felt. What no height nor animals had ever done to make her want to run the other way, a simple garden had. Already, the place was getting to her.

<i>(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can?t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can?t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I?ve become</i>

And then there was him. She wondered what the hell had brought him to the place. He wore the standard uniform so therefore he was there to learn with the students. He had always been adamant about education whereas she had brushed it aside as unnecessary and a waste of precious time. It made sense. Then why was she still so suspicious? But then again, as her brother had told her once, she didn't know what the word trust meant. She knew Heero was more than smart enough to get into the Peacecraft School. Hell, he was the smartest person she had ever met. But then there were those other four guys she saw him standing with. Obviously the group he preferred to socialize with. She had recognized their eyes even as she was certain they had never met. She had seen those eyes in the hundreds of men her family employed. Eyes she had termed as "all-seeing". Another crime to add to the long list of her family's betrayal against her. More than ever, she felt imprisoned.

<i>Frozen inside without your touch without your love
Darling only you are the life among the dead</i>

Hardly spent of her frustrations, she relented to her knees demands and walked over to the bathroom that came with her private room and splashed cold water over her face to cool her hot blood. She grabbed a towel and wiped the excess moisture from her face. She studied the room she had requested. They had offered her the use of her old room but she had been firm on finding another. The student's own dorms were on the other side of the wing from her private one. She had deliberately arranged for it to be so. She needed the distance in the eventuality that she lost the hold on her emotions and let it out by breaking valuable figurines. She smiled at the idea of students converging on her room to find it in chaos. She might end up hurling something across the room and hitting the nosy vultures too. She imagined the scandal that would follow and smiled an unkind smile.

<i>All this time I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I?ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems
Got to open my eyes to everything
Without a thought without a voice without a soul
Don't let me die here
There must be something more
Bring me to.....</i>

She stripped one heavy boxing glove off and threw it at the CD player, hitting her mark and silencing the music. She stepped out into the balcony and desperately fed fresh air into her lungs. It was a good day to fly a cessna. Or go skydiving. Anything to be in the air and not bound to the ground. Her chest tightened with something close to panic. Then her hands started trembling. It was happening already. Her heart beat too fast and too loud. She wondered if she dared to jump off the balcony. Normally she wouldn't think twice but her injuries were still healing and the ground was too far down. She'd break even more bones. She just needed to control herself. She closed her eyes and focused on slowing her heart. Then she worked on stilling her hands. More steady, she took one final breath and watched the sun drown in the distance as the sky turned into a deeper blue. Prussian. A flicker of pain raced like shadows across her face before the wind chased it away. <i>Heero...i'm sorry.</i>

Fate had dealt her another chance to drag the same man into a second hell.



to be continued...

[tornin1/2]

i LOVE this fic, i haven't read or reviewed much fics since my exams began, so i'm just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that the first one i read is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good.

Please, please, please get the next one out soooooon.
I love this fic!
torn

[Kiyoko]

This story is so cool! You need to have her get into a fist fight or something. Anyway, I'm hooked on this story and I hope you bust out the second chapter soon. I'll be waiting.

[RDP]

Poor Peacecrafts. Relena feels betrayed? And Milliardo just wants to save her. Very cool story - keep it going!

[Aieki Chan]

cool song...relena feeling betrayed? how sad...

[Nikouru]

Wow... Once again, a great job! Poor Relena wanting to be
free... but can't. I can sympathize with Milliardo wanting her to
be safe because of her reckless behaviour... Well, great chapter
can't wait to see what happens next!

[Pure]

wow, waz there another part b4 this? how did relena become so bitter? and y doesn't she want to be bound anywhere?

i also have another question...nothing to do with yer stry...but im curious...when the ppl post you see their name but they also have a pic under...how do you show that or get one?

~Kat~

[chibi-chii]

I like your story ^_^ and Pure, all you have to do it do this process:

[melrose_stormhaven]

beautiful...very nice. Relena, the extreme sport expert. Wheeeee...