Second Semester
Chapter Thirteen
“The look in his eyes…”
Hilde took a surprised little inhale of breath as a soap bubble popped before her, breaking the girl out of her dishwashing revere. This was the third time she had caught herself humming. And it wasn’t the happy-go-lucky hum she might have usually done while completing her chores around the suite. It was that unmistakable hum--the gentle, almost caressing, absentminded hum--that caused other listeners to deviously conclude, “Ah, so the girl’s in love!”
Hilde was now thankful she was alone, for the girl knew if Sariah had caught even a whisper of her tunes, her very perceptive roommate would begin a tirade of soft, but pressing questions about Hilde’s love life that she really did not wish to divulge. Although Sariah’s personality was normally mild, as of late, Hilde’s friend had not let her get off so easily when avoiding questions of romance.
Apparently everyone had thought it high time that Hilde should finally rope her man. Even Trowa, as he had so willingly offered to be roped…
“I’ve found that it takes a lot to keep on running. Running away from things because you might get hurt or you’re just not sure you’re good enough. I’ve stopped running, Hilde. And I’ll be waiting here when you’re tired of running away as well.”
The girl meshed the two analogies as her mind vividly played out a scene in which she, a gallant cowgirl complete with ultra-cute western hat, impressively lassoed a shirtless Trowa (it’s always fun to make Trowa shirtless in mental images ^_^). But once she caught him, she just kept running around him, circling around the now placid man…she couldn’t stop running…
The dark-haired girl let a soft smile slip into disheartened sigh. After rinsing her sudsy hands, she fished up a towel and dried them, wondering what she had done to deserve the affections of a man like Trowa, and at the same time, trying to reason her reluctance to be whisked away in his arms.
She was just not sane, that was the only thing that could be determined, the girl concluded, flopping upon the suite’s plush easy chair and basking in the sunlight washing through the broad window next to her.
Trowa was just too kind, too considerate, too gorgeous, too…she remembered his delicious voice close to her ear…god, he was too good.
Hilde felt completely undeserving. So long she had been without love, she had lost love even for herself. It was much easier to constantly flutter away from emotions, shy away from anything too serious. The pixie everyone liked to compare her to was completely on the mark…she had such trembling, flittering wings that never let her stay still long enough for anyone to truly touch her. Maybe she wasn’t running…maybe she was fluttering, staying just out of reach. For Hilde knew what happened when the taunting butterfly’s wings were touched…it could no longer fly.
The vidlink beeped at her then, shocking her out of reflective mode as she rushed to her room. It had been so quiet around the suite, the normally bubbly girl had reverted into her tendency to slip into a ponderous state when no one was around for her to laugh with.
Sariah’s bright face beamed as she checked up on her roommate, who must have been quite lonely having the suite all to herself for the week of Spring Break. But the blond haired girl didn’t miss a trip as she noted Hilde’s dazed expression before her roommate forced an ever-impressive smile.
“Hilde, have you been thinking too hard again?” Sariah inquired with a mock-stern look on her face.
Hilde now smiled genuinely as her roommate jested with her, only replying, “And hello to you, too!”
“I just wanted to make sure everything was alright. Remember what we went over.”
“Yes, mother,” Hilde shook her head gently at Sariah’s over-protectiveness. When discovering Hilde was the only one who would be staying at EU for the break, Sariah immediately began worrying. She first tried to get out of the trip her father had planned, then tried to coax Hilde in accompanying her. But Hilde refused to be a bother, to both Sariah and her own guardian, Sally Po, and thought it better to get time to herself, for a week break really wasn’t that long to take the trouble of traveling all around.
“What was our first rule?” Sariah asked, her eyes pleading Hilde to play along.
Oh for heaven’s sake… “Don’t talk to strangers,” Hilde rolled her eyes.
“And speaking of strangers, don’t answer the door unless you’re expecting someone. Furthermore, no crazy parties, and please don’t get into anything other than your sparkling apple cider,” Sariah continued in her best motherly tone. “But then again, even so much of that and you sure do act like your dru--”
“Ok, ok, I get it,” Hilde interrupted. “I will restrain myself. Jeez.”
“And finally,” Sariah said, completely amused, “absolutely no guys allowed in our room, except…?”
I can’t believe I agreed to this…Hilde thought.
“Except?” Sariah questioned again. She was certainly enjoying this.
I can’t believe she even mentioned this…Hilde’s thoughts roamed further.
“Exceeeeeept?”
“Trowa,” Hilde grumbled almost inaudibly, completely flustered. Sariah smiled widely, then apparently thought nothing of it, relating the events of her first day of vacation.
Luckily, Hilde had not heard a peep out of Trowa. Ever the gentleman, he was giving her time to compose herself and, as promised, letting her come to him. And besides, what would keep him here? He had a home to go back to, so it was unlikely she would be graced with his presence during the break, not even fathoming her snatching him away to her room. Bad Hilde!
After Sariah’s call, the dark haired girl couldn’t believe it was only the first day of break and groaned openly. Sariah had left her with a worried look, as the busy businessman’s daughter would be whisked away to the farthest reaches of the colonies to help her father with tours and openings of new offices, meaning that she would probably not have another opportunity for a check-up call. How the hell was Hilde going to last a week with no one to distract her from her mind’s wanderings?
~*~*~
The following night Hilde lay in bed, listening to the sound of quiet. It was amazing, no party music drifting up from the usually noisy people in the room below her…no giggles or screeches through paper thin dorm walls of her other sugar-high suitemates who could somehow stay up far later than Hilde thought humanly possible…no rustling of sheets now and again from Sariah’s side of the room. It was just her, and she hugged her blanket a little tighter, feeling safe from the cool, quiet night under the downy marshmallow bed-coat, even though she was clad only in a small tank and boxers.
Though it was quite late, Hilde was still restless, and could do nothing more than stare at the drawn-out shapes the shadows made about her bedroom walls. But she was grateful for her attentive state when a knock came at her door.
Immediately, the girl grew tense. Who could it be? And at this hour? She waited, hoping it was something of her imagination. And she almost breathed a sigh of relief at the stillness, when it came again.
She rose immediately, padding softly out of her room, and crept through the hallway to the commons area.
The moonlight now lingered against the large window separating the cozy interior of the suite to the outside open hall and railing. Hilde felt her heart quickening as the rapping came a third time, a little more desperately, yet still quite soft for such urgency, until it seemed to fade away.
Hilde was beginning to worry now. Great, of course this had to happen while she was alone, in the middle of the night, and not a day after Sariah warned her of the important rules she should follow for her protection. Perhaps it would have been better to have had Trowa in her room…*Smack*! The girl hit herself.
C’mon, Hilde-girl, now you’re just going into hysterics. What to do? What to do? Okay, let’s sneak up to the window and have a look-see…
But whoever was standing outside of her door was drenched in darkness, and Hilde could see nothing at the angle she was peeking her gaze through the glass.
Okay, onto Plan B. Hilde snatched up a frying pan as quickly and quietly as she could and assessed the situation. She had decided she would call to her visitor through the door. Damn these old doors on this friggin’ castle, she silently cursed, her eyes burning the spot that severely lacked a peephole. She knew her call would give herself away as being home, but the fading of the last knock had bothered the girl tremendously. Besides, she was quite a skilled fighter if she did say so herself, and decided if she could hold her own when grappling Duo during their occasional friendly wresting matches in the old days, she could certainly handle Mr. Let’s Frighten Hilde to Death Midnight Knocker.
“Who- who is it?” she said, but noticing the timidity in her voice, she called louder. “Who’s there!?”
It was a moment before she heard a rustling outside of the door and what she thought was a masculine grunt, before a familiar, though strained, “Hilde” caught her sensitive ears.
Eyes widened in shock, the girl quickly undid the lock and swung the door open…
She couldn’t see his face clearly at first, but his moon-haloed silhouette was easily recognizable.
Shocks of spiked hair outlined against the moon’s pale light immediately caught Hilde’s attention as her jaw dropped, as well as the frying pan she was holding.
She just kind of stared for a moment, neither of them moving. Only the dark figure’s labored breathing began to register in Hilde’s mind as she tried to speak, but could not, her eyes blinking rapidly to absorb the sight before her.
Trowa’s eye flashed as he stared at her, fighting to control his breath. He was hunched, but even so, still much taller than she, and his left hand was gripping his right shoulder protectively, dripping with a deep, thick liquid.
Hilde could smell the sickening scent of blood, and registered the stained tears scattered on his uniform, a few on his arm, one noticeable lack of fabric on his thigh revealing a deep gash. His clothes, too, were unusual. He was clad fully in black, the material hugging his body so tightly Hilde had to insist her mind not to think of such things at a time like this. Finally, she recognized a “P” etched onto the shoulder of his left arm. So he had been on a Preventers’ assignment, in a spy suit no less. Spies were not meant to be this bloodied…something had gone horribly wrong.
Hilde gasped at the realization, only to have the man before her take a slow, heavy step towards her. “I didn’t know where else to go,” he said lowly.
“Trowa,” she heard herself whisper, surprised at the calmness in her voice, “we have to get you to a hospital.”
“Don’t--” he breathed with a shake of his head before he collapsed in her arms, and she crumbled to support his fall.
~*~*~
Hilde struggled to her senses, desperately thinking where to put this broken man. Her eyes scanned the room and fell upon the couch, but she immediately saw that Trowa was much too tall and his wounds looked so painful, there was no way he was going to be comfortable.
It was decided then, she would put him in her bed. Mustering up all the strength she had (and she was quite strong), Hilde hooked Trowa by his upper chest and dragged him as gently as she could towards her room. She had thought he would wake when she clumsily pushed his body up onto her bed, but the boy looked as if he would not be roused for some time. This proved advantageous to Hilde, who stood over him to assess the work that needed to be done. Figures these Preventers’ boys would think themselves too big and bad for the hospital, Hilde thought, irritated. But she knew that taking him there would lead to questions about some highly classified issues. She would instead call Sally immediately after she tended to him to make sure he was out of danger.
She had treated some of her comrades during her time at OZ, and let her hands lead her on instinct to help her injured friend. She scanned his wounds, settling on his right shoulder where he was losing the most blood. Besides this, and a nice slice on the leg, from her outer examination these were the worst. He had been lucky.
Returning to her patient with an armful of gathered make-shift medical supplies, Hilde began her work. She hissed in a breath as she un-zipped the front of his slick, black second-skin and peeled it back from his upper body. She discarded what was left of the material from his right shoulder and examined the wound, thankful the bleeding had slowed. She dipped a cloth in warm water and pressed it there lightly, eliciting a slight wince from the boy in his sleep.
Moving to his muscled thigh, Hilde seemed to consider it a moment before gripping the ends of the teared fabric. “Forgive me,” she whispered, still embarrassed even though Trowa was unconscious, as she tore the material further, revealing more toned flesh so she could clean and bandage the wound properly.
Satisfied with her work on his leg, Hilde went back to check on his shoulder. She took the now red soaked towel and replaced it with a fresh one, again applying light pressure to stop the bleeding. Trowa moaned slightly and Hilde reached out her free arm to his cheek in an attempt to calm him, now noticing a cut on his cheekbone below his eye, and gently tried to stroke her fingers soothingly around it. She frowned at how hot his sweaty skin was, and moved her hand to his forehead, noting he certainly had a very high fever.
The poor boy. She let out a sympathetic sigh at his sorry condition. He was probably more fatigued and fevered than anything else. What had he been doing to end up in such a state? Hilde moved to get some ice and a compress for his head when was satisfied that the bleeding from his shoulder had stopped, never noticing his whimper at the loss of her touch.
~*~*~
Hilde trudged back to her room utterly exhausted after the conversation with Sally. After tending to Trowa’s wounds as best she could, she immediately called the Preventer’s doctor, both for a reasonable explanation for her dear friend’s battered state, and for more help on how to heal him.
Sally had been shocked to hear from Hilde in the middle of the night, but she was more relieved than anything else. The Preventers had not heard from one of their best in the field for nearly forty-eight hours, and were about to assume the worst.
After receiving a thirty-minute “heal all” lesson from the experienced military doctor, Hilde was let in on the secretive details concerning Trowa’s mission. It had already slipped from Sariah that the boys were involved in something important, but she did not appreciate the magnitude until after hearing Sally’s tale.
Apparently, the Preventers were aiming to disarm the infamous black-market mobile suite dealers for good, seeking to take out their production strong hold on a seemingly abandoned colony. It didn’t seem as though it was very protected from early surveillance, probably so as not to arise any suspicions the colony was still active. But due to an insider tip-off (the traitor was now in custody), the crime-lords knew of the Preventers planned attack and hired back-up. Trowa was the man who was recruited to actually infiltrate the base and set up an array of hidden bombs without being detected. However, he ran into some unexpected company just after the bombs were set, and barely managed to escape alive as the illegal factory went up in flames.
“I’m sure he can tell you the rest,” Sally said, with only a hint of sleep in her voice, which was incredibly good for four o’clock in the morning. “But I can tell you what he did was one of the most heroic acts I ever saw. He would never tell you this, but he actually volunteered himself for the position, and requested it be a one-man operation, knowing full well he would have a better chance of success if he had a team of agents to support him. I mean, the mobile suit factory was the whole damn colony! The task was huge and, besides the unexpected bad guys, security was almost hopeless to break.”
Sally’s voice grew more tender as she continued on, “But he did it alone to protect the rest of us, and the other men originally assigned to the job. This operation was so important we knew the former Gundam pilots were the only men who we could count on. However, Trowa knew Heero had just confessed his love for Relena, he knew Duo was still a mess of emotions and avoiding the place entirely, he knew Quatre had just found the girl of his dreams in your roommate, and he knew—he knew Wufei and I had just gotten together!”
“Oh my Gosh!!! You and Wufei!!!! It took you long enough!” Hilde almost shouted excitedly at the news of the blossoming romance between two of the most stubborn Preventers’ agents, who were rumored to have had feelings for each other for years. But Hilde quickly remembered to contain her voice so as not to wake the heroic man sleeping in her room not too far away. Besides, Sally was giving her an awful sharp stare as if to say “Look who’s talking.”
“Yes, but anyway, that’s not the point,” Sally sputtered. “Trowa knew all these things. He wanted to protect everyone, whether it be their newfound love, or lack thereof, both of which could cause distraction occurring so close to the mission. He also knew that in destroying the base, he would destroy the greatest threat to our newfound peace. He would sacrifice himself so that his friends, and the world, would be safe.”
Hilde felt a rush of emotion overtake her. “But what about him?” Hilde strangled the words out of her, feeling hot tears brimming in her eyes. “He never—he never gets anything. He just keeps giving…giving.” Hilde felt her heart pounding hard and fast. “He never asked for my love, he just…loved me!” the girl realized through tears.
If Sally could have reached her hand through digital space to comfort the quietly sobbing girl, she would have. But she could not, and thought it best to keep silent and let the poor dear have a much-deserved cry after such a trying night.
“Did he ever think what we would feel if he were gone?” she asked quietly, settling from her passionate tears.
Why was she so angry with him now? How could he think he could just leave her like that? How could he—
Hilde gasped. Did I ever know that I loved him before now?
The older woman shook her head mumbling quietly, “Looking back, it was such a dangerous assignment. We should have never let him do it.”
“Why did you?” Hilde asked softly.
“Because…” Sally pondered, “because of the look in his eyes. Because of the determination, the steady calmness. His will was so strong to protect, his gaze so unafraid of sacrifice, of death, that deep inside I guess I knew he would make it out alive.”
Sally’s blue eyes sparkled at Hilde. “But I think most of all, for the first time, through everything else, I saw the will to live. It was like he had unfinished business, like he had a reason to survive. I knew that even though he would have still been content to accept death at any time, he had some stronger will to keep on living. I’ve never seen it in his eyes before. That is why I let him go.”
“I see,” Hilde said, brushing away the salty remains of her tears. “Thank you, Sally,” the girl said in a hushed voice, yet it was steadier now. “I must check on him now.”
Hilde ended the call, deep in thought. So that contentment she saw in Trowa’s eyes and in his smile during the lazy afternoon after the lacrosse game was enough for him? Just his hand on her cheek made him feel he could go off and destroy an entire colony without having to worry if he never came back? Well, a touch on the cheek may have been enough to satisfy Trowa, but he certainly had something else coming to him, if Hilde had anything to do with it.
The girl sauntered back to her bed to find the boy resting peacefully. Her drama melted at the sight of his angelic face, and the sound of his even breaths, a vast improvement from the earlier ragged gasps of air.
How was it that just the sight of him disarmed her? How could she have not known the love she felt for him, this flood of calm his presence bestowed, a wave tinged with the pleasures of butterfly wings. It was a warm sensation, fluttering, as if the air that touched her was made of pure love, and for the first time, she realized that she could still fly with her feet on the ground.
~*~*~
AN: First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who commented last time: Silversong, Beck, Jade, Aku Ryo, Pout, Sashes, and Kanya Barton.
You all are amazing.
Thanks so much for the replies. *huggles*Second of all, I'd like to apologize for how slow this chapter came out. I was kinda suffering some writer's block, and then I had to go break my arm playing soccer.
So now that's it's finally feeling better I had a chance to type this up, slowly but surely. Also, I think there's only gonna be one more chapter to go! *tear* And perhaps an epilogue. I dunno yet.Thirdly, I would just like to make a note about Trowa's "spy suit". Yeah, this is totally made up, but I thought it would have been quite practical, not to mention super sexy. In my mind, it looks like the flight suits they wear in GW, except completely black and if possible, a little tighter. Also, it would probably be made out of a flame resistant and breathable material, very lightweight and strong. (Though perhaps not strong enough to protect from some nasty blades). Anywho, this is just the engineer and fashion designer coming out of me. ^^;; I will stop talking now.
Finally, to give credit where credit is due:
Source on treating wounds:
http://www.cwru.edu/stuaff/UHS/cuts%20and%20scrapes.htm
The anime Rurouni Kenshin:
The theme of the power of the will to live fit so perfectly for Trowa in here, and this show was the inspiration. I also got the idea of Hilde treating Trowa's leg wounds from one of the episodes...that and I just wanted to give Hilde an excuse to rip Trowa's pants off...well, pant leg anyway.
My giddy beta reader for this chapter Jin:
Your comments IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS mean the world to me! You are so silly! YAY! Thanks so much for all your help.
Kay-chan:
I know that somewhere you're reading this. *sigh* It's a miracle how a shirtless Trowa has the power to bring people together
... and make people extremely giddy. Hope you liked the chappie! Thanks for all your support!
