A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow [Ch.2]

[Calla Lily]

Chapter Two: Enter the Musicians
- - -


Zechs: [on the phone yet again] Heero, are you there, are you listening to me? I really want you to do this, you have to, understand?

Heero: [on the other end, twiddling his thumbs around as he stares at the e-mail he just received from Treize?s musical corporation, Tall Geese] Hn.

Zechs: Will you do this for me, you know how much it would mean to Treize if you were there, but it?s ultimately up to you whether you decide to join us or not.

Heero: Will Relena be there? Have you asked her already?

Zechs: Actually, yes and she agreed to go through with it. Find another partner? Are you insane, I won?t allow that during the concert, you hear me?

Heero: Then I?ll kill you.

Zechs: Empty threat, I don?t believe those words anymore. Why can?t you just come for this one night? It wouldn?t be the same without you, the perfect musician on stage once again for a glorious evening featuring all the greatest folk musicians to reunite at Treize?s memorial. It?d be a wonderful event.

Heero: Hn.

Zechs: Is that a yes?

Heero: Hn.

Zechs: Good, I?ll contact you later on but I have to phone Relena and tell her you?re coming.

Heero: What?

Zechs: You?re leaving Colony L1 by shuttle tomorrow morning so you can meet Relena on earth and start rehearsing straightaway.

Heero: I don?t need to rehearse, I?m perfect.

Zechs: You haven?t sung in three years. You?re rusty and she probably is too. Listen to me, if you need anything at all, and I mean anything, just call the office and I?ll fix it up, understand?

Heero: Hn.

Zechs: That?s great, Heero. Just great! [hangs up] Wow, the asses I have to kiss just to get this concert in order. [rubs his temples and shouts into the intercom] Lucrezia, I think I need my coffee now. Black, alright?

Lucrezia: [over the intercom] I?m not your secretary, go get it yourself. Oh, and we?re out of sugar, Duo has decided to dump the whole box into this coffee just before you arrived. Stay clear of Level Two since he?s turned on the karaoke machine.

- - -

Zechs: [sitting down at his chair and holding a cup of apple juice in his hand, thanks to the lack of sugar cubes and a broken coffee machine] I have to tell you, holding a concert such as this is the most fitting thing we could do in memory of my best friend, Treize Kushrenada. Its funny how we first met, we were just two sophomores in high school when we were called to serve in the wars.

Naturally, we signed up and headed off to boot camp. Way back then, we were just privates and hung around in our bunks, strumming the occasional tune on the guitar and thinking about our girls back home. Actually, that was a lie because our girls had also decided to sign up, and no, they were assigned to a different brigade. [takes a sip of his apple juice and makes a sour face, it is cold]

Anyways, Treize became my partner in many of those tasks our captain gave us, and discovered that we both had a passion for music. Many nights we hung around the cabins, making up tunes on our guitars and writing lyrics. I was the writer, he was the composer. Then, we were sent home with graduation degrees, and that was when the war really started. I was ready to go back but Treize said, ?That isn?t our place, to fight in those mobile suits and kill one another senselessly.?

I guess I saw the light in his eyes because I didn?t sign up since I joined him in a musical duo [previously known as Tall Geese] and started to tour the roads with Lucrezia by our side. Before you know it, our songs became a hit everywhere and major record companies were asking us to sign up with them. We had Romafeller Music manage us for several years as we sold our first records, before moving on to the lesser known Barton Records. I?m not exactly sure why we did that, but that was where he met his first wife, Leia Barton.

About our musical career? Well, Treize was very passionate about his work, he was an excellent swordsman for he fenced as a hobby, and was very fond of making models, especially trains and vintage cars and mobile suits. I know, I know, that a soldier who refused to go to war should enjoy making miniature toys of destruction. The guy was odd in that way. But anyways, he didn?t like being under the stiff control of Barton and so he left, taking his young daughter, Mariemaia with him. [reminisces] Was I already married to Lucreiza at that time, or were we dating? I don?t remember much, except that the girl has an amazing second voice, and liked to be my back-up singer quite often.

Lucrezia: [towards Zechs] Yes, I loved to be his back-up singer; he had the most wonderful tenor I?ve ever heard. We were only dating then and to tell you the truth, I was worried the trio would break up with the arrival of Mariemaia and all, but somehow we stuck together. Mr. Kushrenada was a wonderful father; he dedicated many songs to that little girl such as Strawberry Hair and Your Blue Eyes and all those classics hits he was well known for.

Zechs: [taking over] However, there was a bit of a problem with his first wife, after a few months there seemed to be a period of depression for him, or so we guessed.

Lucrezia: [nods head] That?s right, he did seem to be a bit distant after we left Germany and Barton Records behind. He was very melancholy, drinking his wine almost every day, we?d see him holding a bottle of bath bubbles in one hand and some pinot blanc in the other, and he?d be humming ?rubber duckie, you?re the one? quite often. Isn?t that right, Milliardo?

Zechs: [to Lucrezia] Don?t call me that, I prefer Zechs for professional interviews. But getting back to the subject, Treize finally found happiness when he met Lady Une. I must admit, she was a bit of a psycho when he first introduced us to her, I thought she was just another groupie who obsessed over a man in a nice blue suit. Eventually, she let her hair down and I came to realize that she?s not such a bad person after all.

Lucrezia: Just make sure her glasses are on; she tends to misplace those often and gets into a rightful fit when she can?t find them.

Zechs: That?s when you run to the front of the touring bus and ask the driver to hit the pedal.

- - -

Relena: [sitting on a couch, leaning just a bit forward and clasping her hands together] Heero Yuy? Oh, I don?t know about him anymore, we used to be such great friends and shared lots of laughter together on the road. I remember some parts of our career together, and it was only a few years ago I know, but it?s hard to recall everything. They loved us, the audience simply loved us and I?m not that sure why. We were just Heero and Relena, singing together on stage with a brown teddy bear, his neck tied with a red ribbon, sitting on a stool beside us as we performed. It was always that way and I?m not sure what changed.

Maybe it?s because we were easy to relate to, that seeing us together we represented true love, and you know what I mean? True love, romance, sweetness, some intensity and confusion, but most of all? first love. [sighs] To be quite honest, I believed the image just as much as anybody, and really did feel something with Heero. I guess I sold it well. The boy was nice, and we had some really sweet moments together, but there some this? this something in him that I just can?t name. A charismatic energy that surrounded him that although he had a great voice, just couldn?t connect to the audience the way I felt it. People ? girls especially ? would try to get close to him but he wouldn?t let them. I was close to him, or I?d like to believe. [she nods in self approval]

Heero was a very smart, very intense young man? and distant, you know? I?d try to approach him and he?d back off just a little. I?d move closer but he?d back off again. [she uses her hands to emphasize the meaning of her words] He was always like that despite our friendship, I?d come close and he?d back off. He even said he didn?t deserve to live, and that was more than once. You always wanted to get inside of Heero, to understand him, but it was just impossible. He was dubbed The Perfect Musician by the media headlines while I was the Princess, but it really was impossible to understand him. So complex. He never told me much about his past, nobody knew; not even Treize our former manager, but I do remember that one show?

- - -

[Flashback: a television performance five years ago on the Dorothy Catalonia Show, Heero and Relena sang their greatest hit by far, which was followed by the infamous ?kiss.?]

Heero and Relena: [sitting beside each other, their wooden stools slightly apart to form a U while the teddy bear was propped up on a small table behind them.] ?Oh when the veil of dreams has lifted??

Relena: [reminiscing] Oh yes, those were good times?

Heero and Relena: ?And the fairy tales have all been told??

Relena: [puts her chin upon her hands, deep in thought of memory lane] I?m not really sure what led him to kiss me right then and there?

Heero and Relena: ?There?s a kiss at the end of the rainbow?? [suddenly, without warning, Heero Yuy bends over and in front of all the cameras and audiences, kisses Relena on the lips before moving away]

Relena: I?ll never forget that moment?

Heero and Relena: ?More precious than a pot of gold.?

Relena: [sighs] I?d be nice to see Heero Yuy again, for old time?s sake.

- - -

Trowa Barton: [another great musician discovered by Treize Kushrenada] It?s indescribable, such a perfect moment.

Quatre Winner: [another musician] A superb moment in the history of folk music, and it probably remains so today.

Trowa: That kiss?

Quatre: So unexpected, nobody would have believed that he had done it, and in front of the cameras as well! And the way Miss Relena blushed; it was a truly magnificent performance. She was quite embarrassed afterwards and didn?t feel like talking about it.

Trowa: I agree. Think about it, Heero kissing?

Quatre: ? and maybe, it was also a great moment in the history of all humans, to see a softer side of the perfect musician, whom we don?t even know his real name. It?s true that many artists like to change their birth names once they reach success ?

Trowa: Like me, Triton Bloom.

Quatre: But Heero Yuy? No one even knows who his parents are, where he was born, what school he went to as a kid, whether he wears boxers or briefs...

Trowa: Where did you get that?

Quatre: I found a copy of TM weekly, it must have been one of my sister?s. Quite a shocking tabloid, you should hear what they say about you?

- - -

Lucrezia: Oh, Heero and Relena was the biggest discovery of them all, music would have never been the same without them. Remember their first track, Just Communication? That really put them on the charts, which was closely followed by their theme song, Blissful Ignorance.

Zechs: Didn?t they have an album of that exact same name?

Lucrezia: [to Milliardo] Of course they did, it went double platinum in just two months! It still remains their number one album compared to all the rest, even after years of separation. At first, they tried to keep things on a professional level, you know, quiet bantering and stuff, but then they started to say personal things in the studio rooms, not at all pleasant to hear.

Zechs: Such a sad moment, to see him just walk out the door at the end of a concert at the ESUN complex. He said he?d kill her. Again.

Lucrezia: But Heero Yuy was a wanderer, he always had been. He?d suggest going to the L3 colony, and Relena Peacecraft would follow, he?d go to the moon, and she?d follow, he?d go to the sea?

Zechs: [to Lucrezia] I think we get the point. But the main problem right now is whether Heero and Relena will be able to patch up their relationship before the concert begins? [to Lucrezia] All this talking is making me hungry, do you want to go for lunch now, or later?

Lucrezia: [looks at watch] Now, thank you for coming by to see us, but we really must be going. Tomorrow? Sure, why not? Lady Une and little Mariemaia will be stopping by so you can have a chat with them too.

Zechs: Heero Yuy? Yes, for sure he?s coming. Interview? You?ll have to talk to the other boys first to get a good word in. Who, you ask? Do you not remember the Gundam Barbershop Quartet? See, now you remember. Sorry, but we really have to go for lunch now, Duo Maxwell can be found on Level Two in the soundproof rooms. If he?s not there, check the infirmary for anyone who?s passed out on a high sugar intake. Have a good day.

- - -

A/N: Still like it? Please review or send me a line.

[Tomorrow]

Very intriguing premise... I don't know if I've ever read a story with quite this spin before. Wonderful originality, and I really like the formatting you've chosen. I look forward to more. ^_^

[Morrighan]

Awwww... So cute!!!

Can't wait to see more!!

[Chibi-sitter]

Lucrezia: [over the intercom] I?m not your secretary, go get it yourself. Oh, and we?re out of sugar, Duo has decided to dump the whole box into this coffee just before you arrived. Stay clear of Level Two since he?s turned on the karaoke machine.

Awww this is cute!!!
and I like Heero answering "Hn" to Zechs

Next one!!!...
*runs off*