(D2 Entry) Butterflies of the Night, ch 11

[Fallen Angel]

Title: Butterflies of the Night
Author: Fallen Angel fallen_angel_2012@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13 for now, but contains LEMON in ch. 13
Categories: Alternate Universe, series, romance
Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing and am making no money from this. Don’t sue.

Author’s Note: Thank you so much to all who reviewed this story so far. I’ve made it to over 100 reviews on fanfiction.net and am so happy I’m going to post this next chapter earlier than I planned. The tension is really rising now and things are getting exciting. Some things will be lost, others found. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 11: Fears

{


“Mister Winner, I have something to tell you.”

Quatre raised his head slowly. He didn’t want to take his eyes away from Dorothy for a minute, in case, in her sleep, she suddenly stopped breathing. But Mariemaia had given her the antidote, and she was sleeping soundly in her own bed now, so hopefully the worst was behind them.

“What is it, Mariemaia?”

Sitting opposite him on the other side of Dorothy’s bed, Mariemaia smiled. “I’m going to call off the plans for our wedding, if that’s okay with you.”

“Have I done something wrong?”

Mariemaia shook her head. “Falling in love is never wrong,” she said, with a wisdom beyond her years. “You’re a very kind person, and I think that’s why you tried to hide from me the fact that you’re in love with Dorothy. But sometimes you must be cruel to be kind and this, I think, is one of those times.”

“I never said I was in love with Dorothy,” protested Quatre.

“But Mister Winner, you don’t have to. I’ve been watching you say it with your eyes for the past hour now. You may not be able to say it to Dorothy and maybe she hasn’t been able to say it to you, but you’re in love.”

“Mariemaia…I…”

She held up a hand to silence him. “Please don’t try to apologise. Don’t feel bad about this. I think it’s romantic that you’ve found someone you care for so deeply. To be honest, I would much rather wait for that love myself than watch you regret losing yours.”

Quatre sighed in resignation. “I suppose you’re right. Thank you, Mariemaia. You will make a good wife someday.”

“But not to you.”

“No,” he admitted, taking Dorothy’s hand in his. “Not to me.”


{ { {


Duo paced the small room at the Ichikoko worriedly. “This is all my fault. If I’d only caught Trieze leaving the theatre, Miss Relena wouldn’t have been kidnapped.”

“As much as I’d like to blame this on you,” said Wufei from where he was seated on the floor, “this isn’t your fault. Trowa told me that his sister thinks there might be secret passages beneath the theatre, used by the samurai in days of old.”

“It doesn’t make me feel any better about what’s happened. Where is Trowa, by the way?”

“He’s talking to Sally and Miss Noin, trying to calm them down without giving away what’s really happened. We need to keep this as quiet as possible. It was also lucky his sister, Catherine, was able to keep the show going without it’s two main performers. And will you stop pacing: it’s making me dizzy.”

“I can’t help it. I’m restless,” said Duo, coming to a halt. “I feel like we should be doing something more. Let me see that note again.”

Wufei handed over a small piece of paper they’d found tucked in Heero’s waistband when they’d bandaged his wound. At first they’d thought it might be his, till they read it.


‘If you care for the wellbeing of Miss Relena, bring Heero Yuy and the seal to the Kiyomizu temple at midnight tonight.’


“Trieze must have gotten desperate when he couldn’t find Heero amongst the crowd,” said Duo when he’d read the note. “He probably decided that using Relena to get to him would be quicker.”

Wufei scowled. “The fool didn’t even realise that Heero was right beneath his nose the entire time. That costume saved his life in two ways - it protected him from a more fatal wound and disguised him. Being in the dark wouldn’t have helped.”

“True. And speaking of help, I’m beginning to think that Lady Une may have been helping her husband as well, from what you guys have told me.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” agreed Wufei. “Everywhere I turn these days, it seems women are surprising me.”

“As in Sally Po?” asked Duo, teasing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on. You hide out in her room for nearly a week, you talk about her on a first name basis…I’m not a spy for nothing.”

“Hah! That’s a joke,” said Wufei. “Okay, Mister Spy, what does Trieze mean in this note when he says he wants the seal?”

“It’s my official seal,” came a voice from the hallway. There stood Heero, in a plain cotton shirt and pants, leaning against the doorway. His face was pale, but this only made the dark glare in his eyes look more obvious. The phrase, ‘murder in his eyes’ came to Wufei’s mind.

“Heero,” said Duo, rushing over to support him and help him into the room. “What are you doing up? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, buddy, but you’ve been stabbed in the back. You should be lying down.”

“Can’t,” he mumbled, “Too much to do. We have to get Relena back.”

“Sure, sure,” Duo said, helping Heero sit down. “But me and the others will worry about that. You’re in no condition to do anything.”

“How can I sit down, when this is my fault? You said it yourself before I came in: Trieze is using Relena to get to me. We have to find a way to rescue her.”

“Heero, I hate to be the one to tell you this, buddy, but we don’t have a leg to stand on, so to speak. You know this is gonna be a trap and if we make one wrong move…well, I don’t want Relena to get hurt anymore than you do.”

“What we need is a card to play,” said Wufei. “You know that you can’t hand over the official seal to Trieze…it’s your way of giving him power to sign documents in your name. He’ll kill you once he has it…make up some story about you giving it to him with your wishes. He’ll bring the peace treaties to a halt in your name. Many will die and you won’t be alive to stop him.”

“I won’t let Relena die. Not for me,” said Heero grimly.

“Then you have a plan?” asked Duo. “Because without one…”

“Excuse me.”

The men turned to the door and standing there was Mariemaia. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, “but Mister Winner wanted me to inform you that Dorothy will be alright and…and why are you looking at me like that?”

Heero’s eyes were fixed on her in a mixture of amazement and satisfaction.

“Duo, I do have a plan. Mariemaia, could we speak with you for a moment?”


{ { {


Relena awoke in the darkness.

Her head hurt abominably, like she’d had too much sake, and her vision was blurry but she could distinctly smell incense and rich pine. It smelt like…a temple? But what was she doing in a temple, especially at night - for the air was cool like nighttime. Instinctively she tried to move, to stretch her aching limbs, but found herself bound to something, her hands tied behind her.

Panic began to settle in as she struggled to grasp her last memory. She’d had to perform at the Mizuno Theatre and she’d been on stage with someone - Heero! Heero was there, that was certainly no trick of her memory. She remembered being confused at seeing him. Then they heard footsteps…Heero had warned her to be quiet when something hit her on the back of the head and she’d passed out.

But if that was the case, what was she doing here? It certainly wasn’t the Mizuno. And where was Heero?

Just as she was beginning to think the worst, a light appeared in the distance and she could make out a figure carrying a torch. She could also see now that she was on the topmost level of the Kiyomizu Temple, a large construct of pagodas in pine and red tiling, bound to one of the massive pillars overlooking the valley which was Kyoto.

The figure was closer now, and Relena’s eyes had cleared enough for her to see it was a man. Unfortunately, she knew straight away from the walk that it wasn’t Heero. A shiver ran up her spine: this was her captor.

“Where is Heero?” she asked the moment the man came close.

He leaned in close to her and she could see he was well dressed: one of the more upper class of Japan. Clear, green eyes regarded her from under brown hair with a smile somewhat cold and knowing that, strangely enough, reminded Relena of Dorothy.

“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced,” the man said in a conversational tone completely out of place in the situation. “Though your reputation precedes you, Miss Relena. My name is Trieze Kushrenada.”

Relena’s eyes widened. “Kushrenada? Not the Kushrenada. I’ve heard of you…what do you have to do with all this? And where is Heero?”

Kushrenada’s pleasant smile faded. “Heero Yuy. That’s a good question Miss Relena. I could ask you the same thing. It’s why you’re here after all. If you could tell me where he was, I could let you go.”

The pieces began to fit together quickly enough for Relena. That was what Heero was doing in Trowa’s place at the theatre: hiding. And this is who he was hiding from. With all the skill she’d gained as a geisha she kept her face expressionless.

“I have no idea where he is.”

Trieze sighed. “Perhaps if I explain things to you, you’ll understand why I’ve been driven to such drastic measures. Believe me when I say the last thing I wanted to do was involve you. But Heero Yuy is a hard man to keep track of, and I had inside sources that informed me Heero knew of my schemes.”

“But why scheme at all?” asked Relena. “What has he done to you?”

“It’s not what he’s done, Miss Relena, it’s what he’s going to do. In a matter of days, he will travel to Tokyo to sign this peace treaty. I’m sure he’s chosen to do this with all good intention, but in fact he will be signing the death warrant of everyone in Japan. Peace is an impossible dream, Miss Relena, and Heero Yuy’s treaty will only open the doors for invasion.”

“No,” said Relena, shaking her head vehemently. “I believe in Heero. He can bring an end to this war, I know it.”

Trieze leaned in close, so close she could smell his expensive talc. “Your naivet? is sweet, Miss Relena, but it is clouded by your feelings for Heero and feelings I know he returns. That is why I have brought you here. I must bend Heero to my will. I must possess his official seal. He cannot sign the treaty without it.”

“He won’t listen to you.”

A slight look of sadness and pity crossed Trieze’s face. “Then he will have to die.”


{ { {


Quatre looked upon the still sleeping form of Dorothy Catalonia. He wasn’t sure if she could hear him - in fact, he highly doubted it - but if she could, he wanted her to know where he was going.

In case he never came back.

“Dorothy,” he whispered, holding her hand in his, “Dorothy, I have to go now. I have to go with the others to rescue Relena and stop Trieze. I just wanted you to know…in case something happens to me…I do love you. I’ve called off my marriage to Mariemaia. I meant what I said the other day: I could never love anyone else the way I love you.” He leant over and kissed her softly on the lips. “I just wanted you to know that.”

“I already…knew.”

Quatre lifted his head in surprise. Dorothy’s eyes were slowly opening, their clear blue-grey depths focused on him.

“Dorothy!”

She didn’t return his smile. “What happened?”

Quatre took a deep breath. “You were poisoned. Trieze knew that you couldn’t go through with his plans. But Mariemaia is here and she was able to make an antidote.” He paused. “I know she’s your cousin. I know Trieze betrayed you and that he was trying to use you as a spy against Heero.”

Dorothy nodded slowly. “I see. But there’s more you aren’t telling me.”

Her voice was strong again, but Quatre was still afraid. For all she was, for all she’d known and experienced, he couldn’t deny that he wanted to protect her from the evils of the world. Something in his face must have shown this, because her hand tightened on his.

“Quatre, for too long we thought we were protecting ourselves by not saying what we felt. Now I see so much pain could have been spared if we had.”

“You’re right.” He sighed. “It seems Trieze has taken Relena captive. Heero must meet with him tonight at the Kiyomizu temple with his official seal.”

Dorothy shot up in bed. “What? No, he can’t!”

“Dorothy, try and relax. We do have a plan. Mariemaia is here and has agreed to help us…we’re going to make a trade.”

“No!” The blonde woman tightened her musician’s fingers around Quatre’s so tightly it almost hurt. “You can’t trust Trieze. He’ll know you’re planning something: even if you weren’t, he would never play fair. Not when there’s this much at stake.”

“Even when his own daughter is concerned?” Quatre couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“He involved his wife, didn’t he? You know Lady Une is his right-hand woman: she was probably the one who got to Relena. You don’t understand Trieze at all; if he believes it to be right, he will do anything. And he has spies everywhere! He knew about…” Dorothy clamped her mouth shut but it was too late.

“He knew about what?” Quatre narrowed his eyes at her and for the first, but not the last time, Dorothy saw that there was more fire in the young businessman than she’d thought. Strangely enough, she was both frightened and thrilled by that: the potential that deep down, the man she loved had a fire that could match her own, even better, surpass it.

And she did love him. And if she was to believe he loved her, he needed to know the truth about her. “I suppose there’s no point holding back,” she admitted. “If things don’t turn out as I hope they will, all of Kyoto will know soon enough. Did I ever tell you I had a danna, Quatre?”

“I knew I suppose. Trowa told me he wasn’t a very kind man.”

She laughed: bitterly, almost painfully. “Wasn’t very kind? That’s an understatement. He was cruel, Quatre, like a man who buys a wild horse just to see its spirit broken. Don’t get me wrong, not all men are like this. But this man was young, as was I, and just a little insane and drunk with his own power.”

A lump developed in Quatre’s throat as a cold pit of hate grew in his stomach. “What…what did he do?”

She turned her face away from his. “At the time I didn’t realise it was wrong, what he did: putting me down, hurting me when we…” she closed her eyes and Quatre knew all to well what she was trying to say. “I was too young to know it wasn’t meant to hurt and too embarrassed to ask. I thought, somehow, that it was my fault, that I was always displeasing him and that I must not be ready to be a geisha if my danna was always criticising me. But as time passed and I spoke quietly to other geisha I discovered the truth: my danna was a sadist.”

Quatre made a hissing noise of anger but Dorothy kept going. If she stopped now, she would never find the courage to go on.

“One night we were…we were in his room at one of the inns…and he, well he was being himself, I guess. By now I’d learnt how to partition my mind elsewhere when he was causing me pain: I would play shamisen in my head, or walk with my father in the woods near my home. This night, though, my danna must have known what I was doing and he was more brutal than ever, in ways I would much rather not mention. And I guess I just lost control…the next thing I knew, I was above him, strangling him. He wasn’t expecting it and I had so much built up anger. He died very quickly.”

“You…you killed him?” Quatre’s eyes were wide but Dorothy couldn’t see them. She couldn’t even bear to look at him, to see him seeing her for what she really was.

She nodded. “I had one of the other geisha I trusted help me dispose of the body. After that I worked harder than ever to pay off my debts: I was already popular and an accomplished shamisen player. And then…well, you know the rest. I never told anyone and when the reports came out that he’d gone missing, I secretly spread rumours about him running away with a woman of the night he’d met in Kyoto. The family was so afraid of scandal, they dropped the investigation.” She raised her eyes to Quatre’s. “Now you know. Are you still so sure you love me?”

Quatre didn’t reply, only laced his fingers through hers, never meeting her gaze. “And you’re sure he’s dead?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s a good thing, or I would have killed him myself.” Finally, he raised his eyes to hers and she saw the anger there and - even more amazing - the understanding. “No one should be forced to do what you had to do, Dorothy. And it doesn’t change how I feel about you. If anything, I admire you even more for enduring it for so long.”

Dorothy’s grey-blue eyes widened but she couldn’t find words for how she felt.

Quatre laughed. “It seems, Dorothy, I have finally found a way to render you speechless.”

Her eyes narrowed mock-menacingly. “It’s Miss Dorothy to you, or have you forgotten, Mister Winner? And I am never ‘rendered speechless’.”

“Oh, really? Then, Miss Dorothy, or perhaps, Mrs. Winner, I am asking you to marry me. What do you say to that?”

And once again, Dorothy was speechless. Although this time, it was because her lips were far too busy kissing Quatre’s to bother with something like words.

After all, Dorothy had always believed actions said so much more…


Author’s Note: That was horrible about Dorothy’s danna, I know, and in no way meant to represent what really happens. However, in all aspects of life, there are men who do not respect women and it seemed the best way to explain Dorothy’s initial inability to trust….By the way, I haven't forgotten about Relena in the least. Stay tuned...next chapter we'll see if Heero is able to save Relena. Or will it end up being the other way around? Oooohhhh. exciting....:p well, not really for me...I know what happens...

[dragonlady9]

Love the story!! Write more soon, please!!!