Over The Top (2/3)
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 12:51 am
Party on. I'm still cheating... I haven't been putting in much historical material and what I am putting in might still be wrong. As it is the next and last installment will HAVE to have some interesting historical bits because I say so, and because I actually got a book to look things up in so there is no excuse! As it is I feel bad for mangling Hilde's name in the last chapter, but it isn't really all that important so we needn't quibble.
Anyway. . . disclaimer in the previous part.
Enjoy my hasty installment!
He had suspected this would happen for a while when a town was not manifesting nearby. Where had all the people gone? Maybe this explained why the city was larger than he had originally suspected. There were probably farms around here as it looked like there were fields ahead. Miles and miles of fields, but they nevertheless implied that people were around to tend them. Anything was better than just sitting here. Running out of gas was an embarrassing hitch in his timetable. Relena had wrapped herself in his robe and he started to feel a chill. Why couldn?t spring be warmer than this? Better yet, why couldn?t his regulation hospital pajamas be thicker? In addition he was painfully aware that he still just had slippers on. This was not a hiking outfit by any means. With a sigh that he had to stifle so that Relena wouldn?t notice it, he started off in a direction that seemed promising.
"Where are you going?" She jumped down from the passenger seat and began to follow him, having to run a little to match his pace.
"Just stay there." It was best to ditch her. He would find a way to get himself to where he needed to be. The loss of the car was regrettable, but unavoidable. It would be a liability to keep Relena. This way whomever was looking for her would have what they were after and probably loosen up any search so that he could easily evade them. He continued on. After a moment or two Relena started to come to some conclusions of her own.
"Are you just going to leave me here?" For one thing she was angry that he would just casually dump her here in the middle of the country when it would take who knows how long for someone to come. For another thing it was going to start getting dark soon. She ran in front of him and he just moved around her to follow the dirt road to the fields beyond the last few trees.
"Wait!" Relena had to run to keep up with his long strides, and her shoes began to hurt. They weren?t built for this. "I refuse to just stay there. Until we get to civilization you are stuck with me. I?m your responsibility. You have to protect me!"
As much as he never wanted to admit it to himself that she had a point, he had to concede some logic to her statements. It was his fault she was out here, and he did say all he wanted was her car. Bringing her with him may be a liability, but perhaps it was a necessary evil until the situation improved. Besides, maybe she could get him some money. Rather than agreeing with her he simply slowed his pace from a march to a regular walk. Now she just had to hop a little to keep up, and with her mouth set in a grim line she kept pace.
Going past field after field, Heero kept looking for something that resembled a light in the growing dusk. The slippers were useless after the first mile or two and he left them behind. His feet had grown soft in the years in the hospital and soon he could feel the blisters and the cuts. If he was in pain, he gave no sign. That he was cold, he couldn?t help but show as the shivering was a response he could only stop for a time. If visibility had been better Relena would have noticed, but she was more concerned with just keeping track of him in the growing dark.
Finally, and to Heero?s great relief, he saw a light in the distance. It was almost night now and light meant other people, food, clothes, and possibly money depending on how unscrupulous he was feeling. He grabbed Relena?s hand and practically dragged her in the direction of the light until she noticed it too and exclaimed in relief. Heero found himself reluctant to let go of her hand, but after a time he did.
They passed the barn, well kept and large. The house was also fairly nice though not fancy. Naturally, he expected farmers to be rather utilitarian and practical, but the sight of all this somehow shocked him as his last memory of farms involved burned out shells of buildings and being surrounded by constant gunfire. Not pleasant memories to be sure and she shoved them aside viciously. He was scary enough to look at during the best of times and he needed to talk to these people. Circling round to the front, he knocked at the door.
Relena was nervous. Should she tell these people what happened to her? It seemed like Heero wasn?t after keeping her with him and to his credit he had never really harmed her (aside from making her walk rather a long distance in shoes that could be filling up with blood for all she knew but that the very least caused her feet to throb). What?s more, they both looked terrible and needed to have an explanation of some type. Did he know what he was doing, just knocking so brazenly? A matronly looking woman answered the door. Her hands flew to her mouth as she saw Relena.
"Child! Are you hurt?! Come in, we?ll get a doctor right away!" She was still covered in Heero?s blood, and in his robe. Even with the blood dried, she must look a mess with her hair in disarray and her dress dirty and rusty.
"No really, I?m fine, ma?am. You don?t have to trouble yourself. It?s just that we?re lost and our car is out of gas. As you can see we?ve had quite a time of it." Giving a little nervous laugh Relena tried to keep herself talking. Her father had always said she could talk herself out of any situation, a regular diplomat. ?You should have negotiated the treaty,? he said when the war was ending ?I know that for sure there would never be a war again with you leading the way.?
The middle-aged woman narrowed her eyes. If they weren?t hurt then they presented a strange picture to her conventional expectations. "Warren. Come on in, we have visitors." A man who looked tan and wrinkled from many days of working in the sun appeared with a wary glance in their direction.
"Why are you here?" Obviously Warren was not going to give them a warm welcome.
"We were on. . a. . . scavenger hunt." That seemed like an easy enough thing to play off of. What with the strange pleasures of her wealthy set, perhaps they would just assume this was a lark of some sort.
"Oh really?"
"Yes, but we got lost and then our car ran out of gas. As you can see, my companion got cut while fiddling with the car." They looked at his bandaged hand, which Heero instinctively tried to hide. "I?m afraid we?re in dire need of some help, if you?d be so kind." She was a rotten liar. Lying gave her a sick feeling in her stomach. Telling the truth was so much easier.
"Why?s that man in his nightclothes then?" Warren remained unconvinced.
"It?s the new fad. It?s all the rage." Her lies were so outrageous she thought for sure that the lord would strike her down where she stood. Relena tried to meet the level stare of the farmer and not flinch. Heero tried to stare down the farmer with a glare worthy of someone much older and much fiercer, but no one was looking at him.
The narrowing eyes of the man did not widen and Relena instinctively knew that they would have to come clean. A surge of reluctance hit her. She didn?t want this to end. As much as it was unpleasant, it was also exciting. More importantly it was diverting, and almost like some strange fiction story. It was almost worth continuing just to tell Hilde later, now that she was reasonably sure Mr. Yuy would not harm her.
A kindly glance from the lady reassured Relena. A sheepish look greeted the kind gaze. "I know why you?re out here lookin? so peculiar. Don?t you worry, my lambs, we?ll help you. I remember what it is to be young, yet. And eloping is so terribly romantic." Relena blinked, just once, processing the comment with speed that made even Heero start a bit.
"Oh thank you!" Tears of relief at not having to make anything else up came to her eyes. "I can?t tell you what a trying day it was, driving all over the countryside!" This was all true. Let other people construct the lie, even if it still made her uneasy.
"Mr. and Mrs. . . ?" Warren spoke up, still cynical but looking slightly less gruff.
"Yuy." Heero filled in as if he were afraid of Relena saying anything else. He was a fool for having not prepared a story and letting her improvise when lying was something he saw she did poorly. "Heero and Relena Yuy."
The rest of the night was an embarrassment for both of them. The fact that they were married already helped ease the impropriety of their actions. It wasn?t as if they were off to live in sin, from the farmers? prospective, simply escaping to be together. Whenever the farmer?s wife, who?s name was Linda, asked about the elopement then Relena would immediately burst into tears and it was easy for Linda to assume the worst. Warren kept his eye on Heero, only leaving when Linda ordered him to get some clothes to give to the new groom.
While Relena sobbed the very real stress of the day away in the ample and strong arms of the farm wife, she thought about this new information. Heero Yuy. And now in the eyes of these people they were married. This would mean they would be given a single room. The information should have upset her, but Relena found that all that happened was a steady increase in her heart rate. It beat in her ears louder than the rap of a drum by the end of the evening.
"Here?s where you?ll stay. It used to be our Jerry?s room, and it isn?t much but it?ll have to do. I suspect you?ll be glad for some rest after today." Linda gave them a sly smile and Relena blushed as she held the nightgown that had been leant to her for the night to her chest. She watched the door close and turned after a moment to see Heero undressing. The sight of muscular shoulders shocked her as never had a man disrobed in front of her after she had surpassed childhood and swimming with her friends at summer houses.
"Mr. Yuy!" Her exclamation was somewhat loud. He turned with a roll of his eyes and Relena saw some of his smooth chest before she turned her back to him. "I don?t think that that is a very proper activity to be doing in my presence."
"Listen, doing this anywhere else would be suspicious." From the sounds it seemed as if he had barely paused in putting on his bedclothes. She heard him messing with the covers of the small bed in the room and turned again.
"What are you doing now?" There was no way to stop the blush that she thought was covering her whole body. Heero pulled a blanket from the bed that was draped in several and plopped down on the floor with it. Obviously he was just going to stay there. At least he had allayed her fears of sharing a bed with him, but the prospect of changing in his presence was still troubling. Checking all the time to make sure he wasn?t looking in her direction she struggled out of her dress and into the nightgown. Removing many pins, she then took down her hair that fell to the middle of her back. It was a little tangled, but she would fix that tomorrow. Best to just get some sleep.
Unfortunately for the pair, sleep was not fast in coming. Relena was unwilling to go to sleep in the same room as her sometimes captor and all around suspicious and violent travelling companion. He was a military man, and judging from his previous residence he was also crazy. None of these were thoughts that made her night restful. When she succumbed to the raw exhaustion of the day, her sleep was fitful.
Heero, for his part, was ultra conscious of Relena. He had not looked while she was changing but just the knowledge of what she was doing set his imagination up for an experience that quickly made him uncomfortable. It was almost beyond bearing that this was happening to him. He had never desired to visit the brothels of France, and women in the states rarely held appeal for him, so why did this one woman make him unsure of his own ability to control himself. Even the thought of sleeping with her in that small bed, practically wound around one another to fit, filled him with the urge to act on his feeling. They had said they were married, and it would be strange not to be found together in the morning. He had arguments prepared for her expected negative response to his action. Yet he couldn?t bring himself to do it. She wasn?t for him to have. It was the madness of obsession, having thought nothing but of her habits and possible reactions to his plan for weeks on end. That?s all these feelings were, and nothing truly alarming. It was to be expected, even. With these lame assertions, he lulled himself into a dreamless sleep.
*
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*
Relena woke with a hand covering her mouth. Her scream disappeared into Heero?s palm and her eyes rotated wildly in panic. He put a finger to his lips to indicate her silence and her struggling abated. She hit him with a pillow as soon as he backed away. It was a rather stupid way to wake someone up.
"You could have just pushed at me a bit." She hissed.
"I did. You just ignored me." She knew she was a deep sleeper, but it was still a rotten way to resort to. Noting that Heero was dressed in day clothes already she rose from the bed ? and then wished she hadn?t as she remembered too late that all she had on was a nightgown. Heero looked at her hair. Unbound, it looked soft and he had to force his arm not to reach across the gulf of the bed to twine his fingers in it. He knew he wasn?t crazy, but this woman would rapidly make him so if he stayed with her. Stiffly coming at attention, he walked out of the room.
Relena found some clothes on a chair and began to dress herself. It was a simple dress, well worn and patched in a couple places. It was somewhat silly on her, being too baggy in spots (especially the chest to her great chagrin). Slightly more upsetting was the way she felt like the antithesis of urban in it. Her whole life had been built around the city and this was something she just didn?t feel at home in. Not that she was ungrateful.
Walking out, she saw that there was some food and a note on the table. Just some fruit and a muffin, but she was starving and it seemed like the best meal she had eaten in weeks. The note was from Linda and was short and very kind about how she wished them luck and how they could keep the clothes. Heero didn?t appear to be anywhere, but she was more than happy to find a brush on her own and brush out her hair and wash her face. She was finishing braiding her hair (after abandoning fixing it up with all those impossible pins), when she heard the familiar chug of a car.
Running to the window, holding on to the end of one of her braids, she saw Heero and Warren in the front seat. They climbed out and Heero solemnly shook the hand of the older man who, equally grave of temperament, accepted it and parted ways to go about his own chores. Heero walked inside and found Relena looking rather more fetching than the blood encrusted and mightily riled lady of yesterday. With a blink he recovered from the new assault to his senses and spoke tersely.
"I?ll drop you off in the next town. I?m sure you can easily reach someone. But I am taking the car. I shall return it when my task is done." He motioned for her to follow him outside. Linda, who was airing out some rugs, came in just in time to see them off with a hug and wishes for their future marital happiness. They had been so nice that Relena felt quite guilty for misrepresenting herself, but vowed that she would send them a gift of some kind after she got back home.
The ride in the car was slower today, but not by much, and both were silent for a time. Relena didn?t know what to say, and Heero was disinclined to talk in general, but after a while she couldn?t hold back anymore.
"Why were you in the hospital? You don?t seem crazy." Except for the start of this all, she added silently to herself. Heero felt no need to answer that, but if she kept asking him things it would only be irritating. Might as well use a Socratic solution.
"Why were YOU in the hospital?" Despite himself, he found he wanted to hear her answer. It wasn?t merely an attempt to divert attention away from himself. Relena looked thoughtful, then mournful.
"I was visiting my fianc?." The car swerved viciously, almost off the road. "GAH! What was that!"
"Thought I saw a cat. What were you saying?"
She hadn?t talked to anyone in a long time about Quatre. It seemed like as good a person as any. Maybe he had answers for her. Maybe he knew a way to bring Quatre back. Maybe this was a stupid thing to do, to trust a stranger this quickly, especially one that had done little to earn such trust. But the temptation to unload her burden, even if for a little while, by telling the story made her feel a little less fragile inside.
"It started a long time ago," she began, for it wouldn?t help to not explain the background when it was tied to intimately to the present circumstances. "Quatre and I used to play a lot together. We were the same age and our fathers were in similar business so it seemed well enough for us to get along, what with my only sibling being so much older than I and uninterested in my games. At some point our fathers thought it would be a good idea to unite our fortunes and arrange a marriage between us. We got along so well, after all." Relena sighed deeply, as if past memories were floating through her brain like feathers from a gutted pillow.
"It seemed well enough for a while, and we didn?t take them very seriously, but then the war came and lots of things became more serious than they should have been. Quatre began to argue with his father. He wanted to take action. He wanted to be involved and not stand aside exempt. For a while it was fine. The draft board couldn?t even consider him so long as he was 18. Then they lowered the accepted age. Quatre used some pressure to get himself accepted in. He was taken away to a camp somewhere and I didn?t hear from him until he wrote from France. It was a million to one chance that he went in the first place, but it happened. It was even less of a chance that he see the front line fighting, but he did. He was there such a short time, but once the war ended." Heero got a dangerous look in his eye at that statement. "He was sent home only half a person. His mind was shot. He jumped at every loud noise or even if people tried to talk to him. Not just sickness of the mind, but a terrible fever as well for disease was what originally sent him home so quickly. It was only a matter of time before he was put into the hospital I guess. No one could stand to see him as a shadow of who he had been."
Her throat tightened, but she pushed on, unable to stop the flow of words as emotion intertwined. "I went to see him at first because it was my duty, as his fianc?, but then I kept going because everyone else stopped. I?m the only one left who has faith in him. Perhaps one day he?ll recover."
"And then I suppose you?ll get married and live happily." The words were bitter, and as she had expected something softer and perhaps even sympathetic, her ragged and exposed emotions swerved into something darker.
"I don?t suppose you understand what loyalty is. I don?t suppose you respect it. What more could I expect from an escaped mental patient?" The car stopped with a jerk as Heero practically slammed on the brake.
"Get out."
"What?" She was the righteously angry one here. This was more than confounding.
"Get. Out. Now." Those blue eyes of his blazed dark and he bowed his head to let his messy brown hair cover them a little. Having gone perfectly still in response to the thinly veiled threat in his words, Relena sat there in shock. He reached over quickly, opened the door, and gave her a push that sent her sprawling into the road. Judging from the way it hurt, she?d have quite the bruise on one hip in a little while. As soon as she was free of the car, Heero took off down the road.
Relena got up and started to somewhat limp down the road after him. She felt lenient before, but now Heero Yuy was going to catch more hell then he could imagine. Such insensitivity! Such unwarranted aggression! Her brain seethed with punishments until the pain and the piteous state of her circumstances forced her to reexamine what had just happened. Obviously she had touched a nerve of some kind and he had responded in a reflexive manner. What he did was uncalled for, but she had been no peach either. A half-hour down the road she decided to stop and just wait for a while. Someone was bound to come by, right?
The car that did show up was not the one she expected. Heero sat there, not inviting her back in, but not moving on either. He turned the car around after they had stared at one another for a while and then they continued their battle of wills. In the end a sore rump, a bruised hip, and a smarting conscience drove Relena back into the car, else they sit there until doomsday.
"Are you ok?" She got the idea that this was some sort of apology, or as close as she would receive.
"I think I bruised my side."
"I?ll take a look at it when we stop." He didn?t think of what this implied at first, but when the thought filtered through he found a little color stain his cheeks for a fraction of a moment.
"I?ll be fine." Relena lapsed into silence rather than tempt fate with more questions. After a time, the tension became too much even for Heero and he was the one who broke it.
"You were wrong, you know, about being the only one who saw him." Relena?s attention, previously and purposefully focused on field after field of dirt, almost swallowed Heero up in its surprise and sudden eagerness. "There was another girl, light blond hair, eyebrows in points like the tip of a knife. She came every week, just as you did." It was true. Once they had been there at the same time, but the sharp eyebrowed lady had spotted Relena and made a swift escape before she was seen.
"Dorothy?"
"I didn?t know your names."
In light of this new peace offering, which relieved Relena more than Heero could have imagined at finding herself not alone in her crusade to bring back her friend, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It was impulsive and at once she regretted it, but everything in Heero seemed to tighten and release once she pulled away. She was not one to carry grudges, now she felt they were even.
"So why didn?t you choose her?"
"What?" It seemed as if the question was entirely out of the blue.
"Why did you choose me and not Dorothy. . . I mean the other blond girl?" It was a good question. Why had he chosen Relena? The other girl appeared to have all the same airs and qualifications that marked out Relena as a likely target. What made Relena special?
"Chance." It wasn?t entirely honest, but it would have to do until he knew the answer for himself.
*
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*
"Stop at the bank before you let me go." Relena dug around in her purse a bit.
"Why?"
Producing a piece of identification of some type, she waved it at him. "I?m going to give you some money. You still want some right? A few coins won?t get you anywhere." It was that darn drive to give to charity again. It was going to be the end of her one of these days. Heero nodded and they walked in together after parking the car in front. Some of the locals stared at them. It was a strange sight, this proud looking woman and dangerous looking man with their nice car. Someone whispered that they must be gangsters. A cop spotted them and, hearing the rumors, made a fast but surreptitious break for the jail.
"I?d like to withdraw a hundred please." Heero put his hand over hers as if to halt the transaction.
"Too much."
"Nonsense. You?ll need something to help you start this new life of yours and daddy can afford it. Oh, he?ll fuss to be sure but I?ll just tell him you made me and to let it go. I bet Milliardo will be the only one who will really complain for any real length of time." Heero arched his eyebrow. "Milliardo is my brother." Heero?s eyes widened as Relena signed for the money.
"Milliardo Peacecraft?"
"Well, well, what a small world, if it isn?t Private Yuy again." A tall man with almost white blond hair fully as long as Relena?s but tied behind in a ponytail strode into the bank followed by several police officers bearing clubs openly. Activity in the bank ceased. "And my sister as well. You?re lucky she looks to be unharmed, contrary to reports, or I would have had you hanged before sundown. Now are you going to come quietly this time?"
"No, sir." Heero responded as he grabbed Relena?s hand that held the money and pulled both her and the cash out the back. Three police officers were there to meet them as Milliardo shouted the charge to retrieve them from the other side. The three hapless officers had never met with the likes of Heero Yuy, and later they said he fought like a demon. Once the chaos of the small battle ended, one guard was clear across the room and face down over a desk, another had been nearly thrown into those that had rushed from the front of the bank, and the last had almost had his windpipe crushed and struggled to breathe on the floor.
Relena huffed a little as Heero set a pace much faster than she could really handle, but she kept it up anyway, driven by adrenaline. Once they neared the train station his purpose became clear. The sound of pursuit was approaching them rapidly, headed by the commanding voice of her brother, but began to be muffled by the familiar pulsing grind of the train as it started to pick up speed. Finding an open boxcar was easy, and they hopped into it and huddled in the back. Heero still clutched her hand and Relena still clutched the money. Her purse was far behind them in the bank.
"I guess it can?t be helped." Heero said, more to himself than anything. "You?ll have to come with me to Chicago."
*
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*
Ha HA! To Chicago! In the next part we get gangsters, flappers, and Prohibition! Along with lots of fun (right, sure) war stories as well as why Milliardo knows Heero and why Heero was in the mental hospital in the first place. Geez, so much to fit in. Could be a bit before I finish. Have patience with me, please!
Anyway. . . disclaimer in the previous part.
Enjoy my hasty installment!
He had suspected this would happen for a while when a town was not manifesting nearby. Where had all the people gone? Maybe this explained why the city was larger than he had originally suspected. There were probably farms around here as it looked like there were fields ahead. Miles and miles of fields, but they nevertheless implied that people were around to tend them. Anything was better than just sitting here. Running out of gas was an embarrassing hitch in his timetable. Relena had wrapped herself in his robe and he started to feel a chill. Why couldn?t spring be warmer than this? Better yet, why couldn?t his regulation hospital pajamas be thicker? In addition he was painfully aware that he still just had slippers on. This was not a hiking outfit by any means. With a sigh that he had to stifle so that Relena wouldn?t notice it, he started off in a direction that seemed promising.
"Where are you going?" She jumped down from the passenger seat and began to follow him, having to run a little to match his pace.
"Just stay there." It was best to ditch her. He would find a way to get himself to where he needed to be. The loss of the car was regrettable, but unavoidable. It would be a liability to keep Relena. This way whomever was looking for her would have what they were after and probably loosen up any search so that he could easily evade them. He continued on. After a moment or two Relena started to come to some conclusions of her own.
"Are you just going to leave me here?" For one thing she was angry that he would just casually dump her here in the middle of the country when it would take who knows how long for someone to come. For another thing it was going to start getting dark soon. She ran in front of him and he just moved around her to follow the dirt road to the fields beyond the last few trees.
"Wait!" Relena had to run to keep up with his long strides, and her shoes began to hurt. They weren?t built for this. "I refuse to just stay there. Until we get to civilization you are stuck with me. I?m your responsibility. You have to protect me!"
As much as he never wanted to admit it to himself that she had a point, he had to concede some logic to her statements. It was his fault she was out here, and he did say all he wanted was her car. Bringing her with him may be a liability, but perhaps it was a necessary evil until the situation improved. Besides, maybe she could get him some money. Rather than agreeing with her he simply slowed his pace from a march to a regular walk. Now she just had to hop a little to keep up, and with her mouth set in a grim line she kept pace.
Going past field after field, Heero kept looking for something that resembled a light in the growing dusk. The slippers were useless after the first mile or two and he left them behind. His feet had grown soft in the years in the hospital and soon he could feel the blisters and the cuts. If he was in pain, he gave no sign. That he was cold, he couldn?t help but show as the shivering was a response he could only stop for a time. If visibility had been better Relena would have noticed, but she was more concerned with just keeping track of him in the growing dark.
Finally, and to Heero?s great relief, he saw a light in the distance. It was almost night now and light meant other people, food, clothes, and possibly money depending on how unscrupulous he was feeling. He grabbed Relena?s hand and practically dragged her in the direction of the light until she noticed it too and exclaimed in relief. Heero found himself reluctant to let go of her hand, but after a time he did.
They passed the barn, well kept and large. The house was also fairly nice though not fancy. Naturally, he expected farmers to be rather utilitarian and practical, but the sight of all this somehow shocked him as his last memory of farms involved burned out shells of buildings and being surrounded by constant gunfire. Not pleasant memories to be sure and she shoved them aside viciously. He was scary enough to look at during the best of times and he needed to talk to these people. Circling round to the front, he knocked at the door.
Relena was nervous. Should she tell these people what happened to her? It seemed like Heero wasn?t after keeping her with him and to his credit he had never really harmed her (aside from making her walk rather a long distance in shoes that could be filling up with blood for all she knew but that the very least caused her feet to throb). What?s more, they both looked terrible and needed to have an explanation of some type. Did he know what he was doing, just knocking so brazenly? A matronly looking woman answered the door. Her hands flew to her mouth as she saw Relena.
"Child! Are you hurt?! Come in, we?ll get a doctor right away!" She was still covered in Heero?s blood, and in his robe. Even with the blood dried, she must look a mess with her hair in disarray and her dress dirty and rusty.
"No really, I?m fine, ma?am. You don?t have to trouble yourself. It?s just that we?re lost and our car is out of gas. As you can see we?ve had quite a time of it." Giving a little nervous laugh Relena tried to keep herself talking. Her father had always said she could talk herself out of any situation, a regular diplomat. ?You should have negotiated the treaty,? he said when the war was ending ?I know that for sure there would never be a war again with you leading the way.?
The middle-aged woman narrowed her eyes. If they weren?t hurt then they presented a strange picture to her conventional expectations. "Warren. Come on in, we have visitors." A man who looked tan and wrinkled from many days of working in the sun appeared with a wary glance in their direction.
"Why are you here?" Obviously Warren was not going to give them a warm welcome.
"We were on. . a. . . scavenger hunt." That seemed like an easy enough thing to play off of. What with the strange pleasures of her wealthy set, perhaps they would just assume this was a lark of some sort.
"Oh really?"
"Yes, but we got lost and then our car ran out of gas. As you can see, my companion got cut while fiddling with the car." They looked at his bandaged hand, which Heero instinctively tried to hide. "I?m afraid we?re in dire need of some help, if you?d be so kind." She was a rotten liar. Lying gave her a sick feeling in her stomach. Telling the truth was so much easier.
"Why?s that man in his nightclothes then?" Warren remained unconvinced.
"It?s the new fad. It?s all the rage." Her lies were so outrageous she thought for sure that the lord would strike her down where she stood. Relena tried to meet the level stare of the farmer and not flinch. Heero tried to stare down the farmer with a glare worthy of someone much older and much fiercer, but no one was looking at him.
The narrowing eyes of the man did not widen and Relena instinctively knew that they would have to come clean. A surge of reluctance hit her. She didn?t want this to end. As much as it was unpleasant, it was also exciting. More importantly it was diverting, and almost like some strange fiction story. It was almost worth continuing just to tell Hilde later, now that she was reasonably sure Mr. Yuy would not harm her.
A kindly glance from the lady reassured Relena. A sheepish look greeted the kind gaze. "I know why you?re out here lookin? so peculiar. Don?t you worry, my lambs, we?ll help you. I remember what it is to be young, yet. And eloping is so terribly romantic." Relena blinked, just once, processing the comment with speed that made even Heero start a bit.
"Oh thank you!" Tears of relief at not having to make anything else up came to her eyes. "I can?t tell you what a trying day it was, driving all over the countryside!" This was all true. Let other people construct the lie, even if it still made her uneasy.
"Mr. and Mrs. . . ?" Warren spoke up, still cynical but looking slightly less gruff.
"Yuy." Heero filled in as if he were afraid of Relena saying anything else. He was a fool for having not prepared a story and letting her improvise when lying was something he saw she did poorly. "Heero and Relena Yuy."
The rest of the night was an embarrassment for both of them. The fact that they were married already helped ease the impropriety of their actions. It wasn?t as if they were off to live in sin, from the farmers? prospective, simply escaping to be together. Whenever the farmer?s wife, who?s name was Linda, asked about the elopement then Relena would immediately burst into tears and it was easy for Linda to assume the worst. Warren kept his eye on Heero, only leaving when Linda ordered him to get some clothes to give to the new groom.
While Relena sobbed the very real stress of the day away in the ample and strong arms of the farm wife, she thought about this new information. Heero Yuy. And now in the eyes of these people they were married. This would mean they would be given a single room. The information should have upset her, but Relena found that all that happened was a steady increase in her heart rate. It beat in her ears louder than the rap of a drum by the end of the evening.
"Here?s where you?ll stay. It used to be our Jerry?s room, and it isn?t much but it?ll have to do. I suspect you?ll be glad for some rest after today." Linda gave them a sly smile and Relena blushed as she held the nightgown that had been leant to her for the night to her chest. She watched the door close and turned after a moment to see Heero undressing. The sight of muscular shoulders shocked her as never had a man disrobed in front of her after she had surpassed childhood and swimming with her friends at summer houses.
"Mr. Yuy!" Her exclamation was somewhat loud. He turned with a roll of his eyes and Relena saw some of his smooth chest before she turned her back to him. "I don?t think that that is a very proper activity to be doing in my presence."
"Listen, doing this anywhere else would be suspicious." From the sounds it seemed as if he had barely paused in putting on his bedclothes. She heard him messing with the covers of the small bed in the room and turned again.
"What are you doing now?" There was no way to stop the blush that she thought was covering her whole body. Heero pulled a blanket from the bed that was draped in several and plopped down on the floor with it. Obviously he was just going to stay there. At least he had allayed her fears of sharing a bed with him, but the prospect of changing in his presence was still troubling. Checking all the time to make sure he wasn?t looking in her direction she struggled out of her dress and into the nightgown. Removing many pins, she then took down her hair that fell to the middle of her back. It was a little tangled, but she would fix that tomorrow. Best to just get some sleep.
Unfortunately for the pair, sleep was not fast in coming. Relena was unwilling to go to sleep in the same room as her sometimes captor and all around suspicious and violent travelling companion. He was a military man, and judging from his previous residence he was also crazy. None of these were thoughts that made her night restful. When she succumbed to the raw exhaustion of the day, her sleep was fitful.
Heero, for his part, was ultra conscious of Relena. He had not looked while she was changing but just the knowledge of what she was doing set his imagination up for an experience that quickly made him uncomfortable. It was almost beyond bearing that this was happening to him. He had never desired to visit the brothels of France, and women in the states rarely held appeal for him, so why did this one woman make him unsure of his own ability to control himself. Even the thought of sleeping with her in that small bed, practically wound around one another to fit, filled him with the urge to act on his feeling. They had said they were married, and it would be strange not to be found together in the morning. He had arguments prepared for her expected negative response to his action. Yet he couldn?t bring himself to do it. She wasn?t for him to have. It was the madness of obsession, having thought nothing but of her habits and possible reactions to his plan for weeks on end. That?s all these feelings were, and nothing truly alarming. It was to be expected, even. With these lame assertions, he lulled himself into a dreamless sleep.
*
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*
Relena woke with a hand covering her mouth. Her scream disappeared into Heero?s palm and her eyes rotated wildly in panic. He put a finger to his lips to indicate her silence and her struggling abated. She hit him with a pillow as soon as he backed away. It was a rather stupid way to wake someone up.
"You could have just pushed at me a bit." She hissed.
"I did. You just ignored me." She knew she was a deep sleeper, but it was still a rotten way to resort to. Noting that Heero was dressed in day clothes already she rose from the bed ? and then wished she hadn?t as she remembered too late that all she had on was a nightgown. Heero looked at her hair. Unbound, it looked soft and he had to force his arm not to reach across the gulf of the bed to twine his fingers in it. He knew he wasn?t crazy, but this woman would rapidly make him so if he stayed with her. Stiffly coming at attention, he walked out of the room.
Relena found some clothes on a chair and began to dress herself. It was a simple dress, well worn and patched in a couple places. It was somewhat silly on her, being too baggy in spots (especially the chest to her great chagrin). Slightly more upsetting was the way she felt like the antithesis of urban in it. Her whole life had been built around the city and this was something she just didn?t feel at home in. Not that she was ungrateful.
Walking out, she saw that there was some food and a note on the table. Just some fruit and a muffin, but she was starving and it seemed like the best meal she had eaten in weeks. The note was from Linda and was short and very kind about how she wished them luck and how they could keep the clothes. Heero didn?t appear to be anywhere, but she was more than happy to find a brush on her own and brush out her hair and wash her face. She was finishing braiding her hair (after abandoning fixing it up with all those impossible pins), when she heard the familiar chug of a car.
Running to the window, holding on to the end of one of her braids, she saw Heero and Warren in the front seat. They climbed out and Heero solemnly shook the hand of the older man who, equally grave of temperament, accepted it and parted ways to go about his own chores. Heero walked inside and found Relena looking rather more fetching than the blood encrusted and mightily riled lady of yesterday. With a blink he recovered from the new assault to his senses and spoke tersely.
"I?ll drop you off in the next town. I?m sure you can easily reach someone. But I am taking the car. I shall return it when my task is done." He motioned for her to follow him outside. Linda, who was airing out some rugs, came in just in time to see them off with a hug and wishes for their future marital happiness. They had been so nice that Relena felt quite guilty for misrepresenting herself, but vowed that she would send them a gift of some kind after she got back home.
The ride in the car was slower today, but not by much, and both were silent for a time. Relena didn?t know what to say, and Heero was disinclined to talk in general, but after a while she couldn?t hold back anymore.
"Why were you in the hospital? You don?t seem crazy." Except for the start of this all, she added silently to herself. Heero felt no need to answer that, but if she kept asking him things it would only be irritating. Might as well use a Socratic solution.
"Why were YOU in the hospital?" Despite himself, he found he wanted to hear her answer. It wasn?t merely an attempt to divert attention away from himself. Relena looked thoughtful, then mournful.
"I was visiting my fianc?." The car swerved viciously, almost off the road. "GAH! What was that!"
"Thought I saw a cat. What were you saying?"
She hadn?t talked to anyone in a long time about Quatre. It seemed like as good a person as any. Maybe he had answers for her. Maybe he knew a way to bring Quatre back. Maybe this was a stupid thing to do, to trust a stranger this quickly, especially one that had done little to earn such trust. But the temptation to unload her burden, even if for a little while, by telling the story made her feel a little less fragile inside.
"It started a long time ago," she began, for it wouldn?t help to not explain the background when it was tied to intimately to the present circumstances. "Quatre and I used to play a lot together. We were the same age and our fathers were in similar business so it seemed well enough for us to get along, what with my only sibling being so much older than I and uninterested in my games. At some point our fathers thought it would be a good idea to unite our fortunes and arrange a marriage between us. We got along so well, after all." Relena sighed deeply, as if past memories were floating through her brain like feathers from a gutted pillow.
"It seemed well enough for a while, and we didn?t take them very seriously, but then the war came and lots of things became more serious than they should have been. Quatre began to argue with his father. He wanted to take action. He wanted to be involved and not stand aside exempt. For a while it was fine. The draft board couldn?t even consider him so long as he was 18. Then they lowered the accepted age. Quatre used some pressure to get himself accepted in. He was taken away to a camp somewhere and I didn?t hear from him until he wrote from France. It was a million to one chance that he went in the first place, but it happened. It was even less of a chance that he see the front line fighting, but he did. He was there such a short time, but once the war ended." Heero got a dangerous look in his eye at that statement. "He was sent home only half a person. His mind was shot. He jumped at every loud noise or even if people tried to talk to him. Not just sickness of the mind, but a terrible fever as well for disease was what originally sent him home so quickly. It was only a matter of time before he was put into the hospital I guess. No one could stand to see him as a shadow of who he had been."
Her throat tightened, but she pushed on, unable to stop the flow of words as emotion intertwined. "I went to see him at first because it was my duty, as his fianc?, but then I kept going because everyone else stopped. I?m the only one left who has faith in him. Perhaps one day he?ll recover."
"And then I suppose you?ll get married and live happily." The words were bitter, and as she had expected something softer and perhaps even sympathetic, her ragged and exposed emotions swerved into something darker.
"I don?t suppose you understand what loyalty is. I don?t suppose you respect it. What more could I expect from an escaped mental patient?" The car stopped with a jerk as Heero practically slammed on the brake.
"Get out."
"What?" She was the righteously angry one here. This was more than confounding.
"Get. Out. Now." Those blue eyes of his blazed dark and he bowed his head to let his messy brown hair cover them a little. Having gone perfectly still in response to the thinly veiled threat in his words, Relena sat there in shock. He reached over quickly, opened the door, and gave her a push that sent her sprawling into the road. Judging from the way it hurt, she?d have quite the bruise on one hip in a little while. As soon as she was free of the car, Heero took off down the road.
Relena got up and started to somewhat limp down the road after him. She felt lenient before, but now Heero Yuy was going to catch more hell then he could imagine. Such insensitivity! Such unwarranted aggression! Her brain seethed with punishments until the pain and the piteous state of her circumstances forced her to reexamine what had just happened. Obviously she had touched a nerve of some kind and he had responded in a reflexive manner. What he did was uncalled for, but she had been no peach either. A half-hour down the road she decided to stop and just wait for a while. Someone was bound to come by, right?
The car that did show up was not the one she expected. Heero sat there, not inviting her back in, but not moving on either. He turned the car around after they had stared at one another for a while and then they continued their battle of wills. In the end a sore rump, a bruised hip, and a smarting conscience drove Relena back into the car, else they sit there until doomsday.
"Are you ok?" She got the idea that this was some sort of apology, or as close as she would receive.
"I think I bruised my side."
"I?ll take a look at it when we stop." He didn?t think of what this implied at first, but when the thought filtered through he found a little color stain his cheeks for a fraction of a moment.
"I?ll be fine." Relena lapsed into silence rather than tempt fate with more questions. After a time, the tension became too much even for Heero and he was the one who broke it.
"You were wrong, you know, about being the only one who saw him." Relena?s attention, previously and purposefully focused on field after field of dirt, almost swallowed Heero up in its surprise and sudden eagerness. "There was another girl, light blond hair, eyebrows in points like the tip of a knife. She came every week, just as you did." It was true. Once they had been there at the same time, but the sharp eyebrowed lady had spotted Relena and made a swift escape before she was seen.
"Dorothy?"
"I didn?t know your names."
In light of this new peace offering, which relieved Relena more than Heero could have imagined at finding herself not alone in her crusade to bring back her friend, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It was impulsive and at once she regretted it, but everything in Heero seemed to tighten and release once she pulled away. She was not one to carry grudges, now she felt they were even.
"So why didn?t you choose her?"
"What?" It seemed as if the question was entirely out of the blue.
"Why did you choose me and not Dorothy. . . I mean the other blond girl?" It was a good question. Why had he chosen Relena? The other girl appeared to have all the same airs and qualifications that marked out Relena as a likely target. What made Relena special?
"Chance." It wasn?t entirely honest, but it would have to do until he knew the answer for himself.
*
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*
"Stop at the bank before you let me go." Relena dug around in her purse a bit.
"Why?"
Producing a piece of identification of some type, she waved it at him. "I?m going to give you some money. You still want some right? A few coins won?t get you anywhere." It was that darn drive to give to charity again. It was going to be the end of her one of these days. Heero nodded and they walked in together after parking the car in front. Some of the locals stared at them. It was a strange sight, this proud looking woman and dangerous looking man with their nice car. Someone whispered that they must be gangsters. A cop spotted them and, hearing the rumors, made a fast but surreptitious break for the jail.
"I?d like to withdraw a hundred please." Heero put his hand over hers as if to halt the transaction.
"Too much."
"Nonsense. You?ll need something to help you start this new life of yours and daddy can afford it. Oh, he?ll fuss to be sure but I?ll just tell him you made me and to let it go. I bet Milliardo will be the only one who will really complain for any real length of time." Heero arched his eyebrow. "Milliardo is my brother." Heero?s eyes widened as Relena signed for the money.
"Milliardo Peacecraft?"
"Well, well, what a small world, if it isn?t Private Yuy again." A tall man with almost white blond hair fully as long as Relena?s but tied behind in a ponytail strode into the bank followed by several police officers bearing clubs openly. Activity in the bank ceased. "And my sister as well. You?re lucky she looks to be unharmed, contrary to reports, or I would have had you hanged before sundown. Now are you going to come quietly this time?"
"No, sir." Heero responded as he grabbed Relena?s hand that held the money and pulled both her and the cash out the back. Three police officers were there to meet them as Milliardo shouted the charge to retrieve them from the other side. The three hapless officers had never met with the likes of Heero Yuy, and later they said he fought like a demon. Once the chaos of the small battle ended, one guard was clear across the room and face down over a desk, another had been nearly thrown into those that had rushed from the front of the bank, and the last had almost had his windpipe crushed and struggled to breathe on the floor.
Relena huffed a little as Heero set a pace much faster than she could really handle, but she kept it up anyway, driven by adrenaline. Once they neared the train station his purpose became clear. The sound of pursuit was approaching them rapidly, headed by the commanding voice of her brother, but began to be muffled by the familiar pulsing grind of the train as it started to pick up speed. Finding an open boxcar was easy, and they hopped into it and huddled in the back. Heero still clutched her hand and Relena still clutched the money. Her purse was far behind them in the bank.
"I guess it can?t be helped." Heero said, more to himself than anything. "You?ll have to come with me to Chicago."
*
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Ha HA! To Chicago! In the next part we get gangsters, flappers, and Prohibition! Along with lots of fun (right, sure) war stories as well as why Milliardo knows Heero and why Heero was in the mental hospital in the first place. Geez, so much to fit in. Could be a bit before I finish. Have patience with me, please!
what an interesting chapter! I can't wait to find out what happens next, so please post the next (and sadly the last...) chapter soon!
Chicago heh? This is really an amazing story so far. Congratulations, you got me hooked!!! 
