Blissful Ignorance

Chapter 3

Warning: There is some swearing in this chapter... just to let you know...


It wasn’t the fact that her brother left that upset her; she got used to that through out the war. It was Quatre’s staying here to help fill Trowa’s place in the circus that bugged her. Trowa knew this, yet he continued to go through with his vacation. To make matters worse, there were no other available trailers, so Quatre had to stay in Trowa’s room.

Catherine wanted to beg Trowa to stay, but in order to do that she risked looking like a baby and that did not go over well with her. She just decided to ignore Quatre to the best of her ability, which was hard since he was around her a lot.

Retreating from her thoughts, Catherine rolled out of bed. She put on a pair of shorts, that if any shorter wouldn’t be called shorts any more, and a light green tank top. Catherine grabbed her purse and headed to the mall to enjoy her day off. ‘At least I won’t be by Quatre today,’ she thought.

She spent several hours shopping and would have continued if her stomach didn’t interrupt her. At the food court she bought a sandwich and headed for an empty table. Catherine pulled out a book she bought and started to read it. It was a new romance book in the series she had recently been introduced to. ‘If only this love happened in real life,’ Catherine thought.

"Is any one sitting here?" a voice interrupted her thoughts.

Catherine groaned, she quickly thought of who she could say was sitting there, but she couldn’t think of anyone.

When Catherine didn’t answer the young man sat down. The man ran a hand through his black hair, while his gray eyes roamed her body.

"So Cathy, how are you?" he asked.

"Fine," she said shortly. ‘Why did Eric have to be here. Won’t he understand that I don’t like him any more, after all I did break up with him,’ Catherine thought.

"There is hardly anyone here, you could sit at another table," Catherine said trying to control the annoyance in her voice.

"No, thanks I like this table," Eric said. He moved his chair from a cross the table to where Catherine was. "In fact I love this view best."

He put his arm around Catherine’s shoulders and pulled her close. "You shudder. Is it because of me?" Eric said smirking.

"Yeah," Catherine said causing Eric to smile. His smile faded when Catherine finished her sentence, "because you disgust me. Now please get off."

Eric’s face went red and he rose his hand to strike Catherine. She closed her eyes and waited for the blow. When it never came she opened her eyes and found Quatre holding back Eric’s hand.

"It’s not proper to hit a woman. Now do as the lady says and get lost," Quatre said. He glared at the other man.

Eric yanked his wrist away from Quatre saying, "and who would you be?"

"Quatre Raberba Winner, former Gundam pilot of Sandrock." Quatre moved next to Catherine. "Come on Catherine, let’s leave." Catherine already had her bags in her hand and turned to leave with Quatre.

"Catherine, your nothing but a fucking whore," Eric yelled to the retreating figures.

Quatre balled up his fists, but Catherine put a hand on his arm to stop him from doing anything.

"No, its ok. Let’s go," Catherine said.

Quatre looked at Catherine. Her blue eyes pleaded with him beneath the layer of water that was beginning to form in her eyes. "Alright."

"Did you walk or drive?" Quatre asked.

"I walked," Catherine answered in a soft voice.

"Do you want a ride, I brought a car," Quatre asked. He was still mad at that guy in the mall. How dare he speak about Catherine like he did.

"Thank you," Catherine said softly. "I owe you one.

"It was nothing, I’m just glad I could stop him."

"Eric was always a bastard."

"Well, does this make us friends now?"

Catherine looked up at Quatre and gave him a slight smile, "I guess it does."


***

Quatre sat down at the disk in his temporary room to answer the videophone. Trowa’s face was soon visible.

"Hello Trowa."

"How is everything there?"

"It’s alright. Catherine and I have become friends," Quatre said to a happy Trowa.

"So Cathy is doing alright?"

"Well, today in the mall some guy was annoying her. This jerk tried to hit her. Can you believe that?" Quatre said.

Trowa’s face was getting red, "was the guys name Eric?"

"Yeah. He was an ass!"

"I’m surprised he didn’t actually hit her," Trowa responded.

"He was about to before I stopped him. Who is he?"

"Eric went out with Cathy two years ago. He smacked her around a little, which she always took the blame for. But one day he over did it and Cathy saw the light. Eric sent her to the hospital with a broken arm, bruised ribs, and tons of bruises. Needless to say, he was sent to jail," Trowa said. Quatre was in shock. This was the first he had heard about this. "Is everything okay now?"

"I hope so."

"Do you think I should come back?"

"What ever you think," Quatre said.

"Is Cathy really doing bad?"

"Right now she is sleeping. I think she will hold up all right," Quatre said.

"Alright, I’ll stay here for a while. Will you contact me if Eric comes around again?"

"Sure, but Catherine and I have already become friends," Quatre responded.

"Well, that’s great. Look, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later," Trowa said as the screen went blank.

‘What is he up too. Wasn’t his plan just to stay away long enough to get Catherine to stop hating me,’ Quatre thought.

"Quatre Raberba Winner, former Gundam pilot of Sandrock." Quatre moved next to Catherine.

Someone's getting cocky...I don't know if anyone would be going around saying that they were a former Gundam pilot like that...it was an honorable thing to do, but it should bring back the memories...I don't think that I would be too proud of it myself at least not enough to go around boasting about it, even if it was to protect Cathy.