Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Relena walked up to her brownstone, blue eyes darting down towards the door of the basement apartment as she’d done every day this week. Someone new had moved in down there. She’d only caught glimpses of him, but what she’d seen had peeked her interest. Broad shoulders and a narrow waist, a mess of unruly brown hair, but it was the striking blue eyes that captivated Relena.

She’d been coming in one day while he was going out, a warm spring rain had been falling, and was probably the only reason she hadn’t lingered to try and greet him. Their eyes had met briefly, and Relena had seen a world of pain flash through those deep cobalt eyes, before he’d turned away. She’d dashed the last few steps to the protection of her door, and watched as he jammed hands into jeans pockets and walked down the street.

Shaking her head slightly Relena found herself looking at her mailbox, and she reached inside wondering if there would be another letter for him in there today. It had started almost as soon as he’d mysteriously moved in. Relena didn’t remember seeing any moving truck or even hearing the commotion of someone carrying boxes. She wasn’t even sure what day he’d just been there, and then the letters started to arrive.

They were plain envelopes, no return address, simply addressed to Heero Yuy. Relena could only assume that was him, and she liked the sound of his name, liked the way it felt on her tongue when she said it. She blushed at her own foolishness to think, she’d even considered how well Yuy followed her own name, but hasn’t every girl done that at least once in their life?

Reaching into her mailbox, Relena pulled out the usual junk mail and bills for herself, and was a little disappointed when she didn’t find anything addressed to her neighbour. But as her foot shifted to turn her back towards her front door, it collided with something solid. A box almost the exact shade of her brownstone, sat beneath her mailbox. Looking down she saw it too was addressed to Heero Yuy.

Relena’s heart beat a little faster, for the letters she’d simply slipped them into his own mailbox, not wanting to disturb him for so little a thing. But this, it would be wrong of her to just leave a package by his front door where anyone could up and take it. It would be the right and proper thing to knock on his door and make sure he received it properly. 

Smiling at her fortune, Relena returned her own mail to the box, and crouched down to lift the box for Heero. It was surprisingly heavy, and she swung it to the side a little so she wouldn’t trip coming down her stairs. Coming down the stairwell to the basement apartment’s door Relena reached out a finger to hit the buzzer, hoping he’d actually be home.

A moment later Relena’s hopes were granted as the door opened inward a crack. She saw a flash of dark eyes under a mop of thick bangs. “Hi,” she started somewhat awkwardly, “I keep getting your mail.” Relena wanted to kick herself the minute the words left her mouth, she didn’t want this to sound like an imposition. She wanted this to be a conversation, a reason to get to know this mysterious and gorgeous stranger.

Heero opened the door a little wider, and his head came out briefly, glancing with darting eyes towards the street and the roof lines of the other brownstones lining the street. “No one knows I’m here,” he said, eyes returning to Relena then.

“Somebody does,” she said brightly, wanting very much to have him speak more, he had a voice deep and smooth. Relena’s eyes glanced towards the mailbox for this apartment and saw that the letters she’d been receiving for him were all still there. “You didn’t noticed the letters in your box?”

He looked at her, and it was a piercing gaze, “No one knows,” he said again, voice sounding dangerous.

Relena huffed a slight breath, shifting the heavy box in her arms, “Is your name not Heero Yuy?” she asked then, tipping the box slightly so he could see the name on the package.

His eyes flashed as he looked at the box, and the door to his apartment opened wider. Before Relena realized what was happening, he’d pulled her inside. “Where did you find this?” he demanded.

“On my doorstep...” she said, feeling a little nervous at his demeanour.

Heero took the box from her hands with a curse, then for some reason briefly brought the package to his ear. Holding it carefully with just one arm, Heero gestured deeper inside the empty apartment. “Move over there,” he ordered, and Relena found herself complying without understanding why.

He opened the door to the apartment and with careful but deliberate movements, threw the heavy box away from himself before slamming the door. That was the last clear image Relena had before the explosion hit.

Chapter Text

Relena gasped in a breath, and immediately began to choke on thick dust. Her ears rang, like someone was yanking on the cathedral bells with all their might so the entire world could hear. Her lungs still burned with their need for oxygen, and Relena took a more cautious breath, and that’s when she noticed the heavy weight crushing her to the floor.

Opening eyes, that snapped shut against the particles floating in the air, Relena only caught a flash of her surroundings. Carefully she tried to see what of her body could move. Her left arm was pinned beneath her, but she could feel her right and quickly wiggled her fingers to make sure they were there too.

Relena opened her eyes just a crack, staring out through thick lashes as she shifted her hand and came into contact with something hard and warm. Something was on top of her, or rather someone, that thought brought a flash of memory darting through Relena’s head. Dark intense eyes, somewhat hidden by a mess of unruly bangs. 

“Heero?” Relena said his name, or at least she thought she did, it was hard to tell for sure over the roar still echoing in her ears.

Twisting beneath his weight as best she could, Relena tried to take in the scene. Sunlight cascaded through clouds of dust, shining into the room from where the front door had once stood. Heero lay on top of her, his chestnut brown hair looking rather grey with the thick coating of dust still settling about the destroyed room.

Heero’s weight shifted on top of her, his limbs jerking suddenly around her, and Relena caught a flash of those intense blue eyes, as he head came up slightly. Relena didn’t like what she saw there, it wasn’t panic, or fear, but a blind animal instinct. His attention darted from her to the room and back again, before he was suddenly trying to move.

“Are you alright?” she felt herself ask, but still couldn’t quite hear her own voice.

He tried to get off of her, eyes clearly searching for an escape. But as he continued to try and gather himself Relena saw pain lance across his face. Relena twisted onto her back, freeing her left arm which began to tingle immediately with the return of natural blood flow. Heero’s eyes continued darting, like a caged animal searching for release.

Relena got her feet planted on the floor and pushed herself from beneath Heero, who seemed frozen half raised from on top of her. As Relena pushed herself up into a cautious siting position, she saw why. Gasping in horror, Relena instantly began coughing again, there was still so much dust hanging in the air.

Heero had used his body to shield her, and she could see wooden pieces of shrapnel, sticking out of his shoulder, waist and thigh. Relena’s eyes swept from his injured body and back to the destroyed front of the apartment, wondering how it was that it hadn’t been worse.

“We need to get you to the hospital,” Relena heard her voice this time, sounds of the world around her suddenly coming into sharp focus. 

“No,” Heero hissed, eyes alight with the need to escape, “That’s where they’ll look...” he muttered, breaths coming sharply through his nose. Still holding himself half up over Relena’s legs he drew a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet. He stumbled almost immediately his right leg not wanting to support him.

Relena was shocked to find herself on her feet, hands out ready to catch him. “You’re hurt,” she told him, though it should have been obvious to him.

His eyes flashed, “No hospital,” he said again, chest heaving with his agitation.

She stared at him, there were so many questions, but this was not the time to be asking them. He clearly wasn’t thinking straight, and his life was most definitely in danger. “Can you walk?” she asked him, and for a moment he just stared at her, but finally took a tentative step, his right leg buckling so Relena’s hands darted out to support him.

She could feel his heart pounding through his chest, Heero’s body and clearly his mind stuck in fight or flight. Slipping herself beneath his left shoulder, Relena carefully took hold of a belt loop on the other side of his jeans. “Come with me,” she said to him when he stiffened at her attempts to help. “I know a place, where you’ll be safe,” she assured him.

Heero eyed her with a great deal of caution, clearly wondering if he could trust her or not. In the end Relena felt pretty sure it was the sound of distant sirens that made the decision for him. And together they moved towards the back exit of his apartment.

Chapter Text

She had promised him a place where he’d be safe. The words had left her mouth before she’d even really considered them. Now Relena was leading him through back alleys and deserted streets, just praying her first thought had been the right one.

Heero who had been holding himself stiffly since she’d taking his left arm across her shoulders, was leaning more heavily against her with each block they passed. His breathing was ragged and sweat slicked his face and the arm she was grasping to keep him upright. Relena raised her head from where she’d been practically counting the passing cracks in the sidewalk gauging the distance from their destination. She breathed an audible sigh of relief when she saw the building’s back entrance just a few yards ahead.

“Almost there,” she said to him, and saw his head come up, as eyes hazed with pain took in their surroundings. 

Reaching into her pocket Relena fished around until she found the single key on a ring she kept there. Heero’s stepped slowed a little as they drew closer, and Relena could feel him stiffen again. She glanced at his face before following his eyes to the sign above the door. 

“Trust me,” Relena said to him, knowing she was asking a lot of a man she didn’t even know.

His eyes sought hers, and in those deep pain filled eyes, Relena could see the questions, the risk he was taking in trusting her. At last he gave his head a brief nod, and Relena quickly inserted her key into the door and pulled it open to help Heero inside. “Sally?” she called, from the back storage room of Sally’s clinic.

“Relena?” Sally’s surprised voice said from deeper inside the building, “I wasn’t expecting to see you today,” the older woman said as she walked into the storage room. Sally came to a complete stop when she saw the pair of them, “Relena, what the hell is this?” she demanded.

“Sally,” Relena said her friend’s name, tears springing to her eyes as the shock of the last hour or so suddenly wore off. “I didn’t know where else to go,” she said voice wobbling, and she bit her lip hard to stop herself sobbing.

“Why not the hospital?” Sally asked in shock.

“No,” Heero said with a slight shake of his head.

Just as Relena said, “Someone’s trying to kill him, he says they’ll look for him in the hospital...”

“That explosion,” Sally said looking shocked, “that was at your place?”

Relena nodded, biting her lip again to keep herself from melting down right there on the spot. “Please Sally,” she begged.

Heero tried to shake Relena’s hand off his left arm, and he twisted as though ready to head out the door again. “This was a mistake...” he mumbled. 

Sally’s sharp intake of breath, stopped him. “Hold it right there,” she said, crossing the space to Heero’s side. The young man stiffened as she closed the gap between them, and moved to get a better look of his back. “You’re not going anywhere like that,” Sally said bluntly, her demeanour all business now.

“Relena, bring him into the last exam room, it’s got the largest table,” Sally ordered, “I’ll be right in to help, just let me lock up the shop first.”

“This is a bad idea...” Heero muttered to himself as Relena tried to help him deeper into the building.

Relena caught her fingers back through his belt loop trying to take as much of his weight as she could manage to help him along. “She knows what she’s doing,” Relena assured.

Heero gave Relena a flat look as they made their way inside the last exam room. “She’s a vet,” he said bluntly, his voice thick with pain.

“Wasn’t always,” Sally said just as bluntly as she came up behind them. “I chose to make the switch when I got tired of my patients talking back,” the doctor said with a wry smirk as she stepped around them. Sally was carrying a large blanket with her and quickly spread it over the cold surface of the exam table. 

“Alright, lay down so I can take a look at these wounds,” she ordered, but Heero was still holding himself stiffly beside Relena, not looking the least bit pleased by this turn of events. 

“Trust me,” Relena whispered again, not sure why the words left her lips, and even less sure why they seemed to get Heero moving towards the table.

Sally lowered the surface as far as it would go, and stepped over to help get Heero settled on the blanket, before she raised it up to its full height again. The doctor quickly snapped on a pair of gloves, before she reached out to inspect the first piece of shrapnel in Heero’s shoulder. “I’m going to cut away your shirt,” she said, before remembering herself and belatedly adding, “okay?”

Relena moved around the table to the opposite side from Sally where she could see Heero’s face better. His eyes were lidded, but he nodded his head in acceptance and Sally quickly went to work cutting away the material so she could better see the damage in both his shoulder and waist. 

“You’ll lose the pants too I’m afraid,” Sally said, seeing the large chunk of wood protruding from Heero’s upper thigh. She exchanged a look with Relena, that seemed to say she wasn’t the least bit sorry.

“Just don’t tell anyone I’m here...” Heero said fiercely.

“Whose there to tell?” Sally asked as she made short work of cutting away Heero’s ruined jeans. “There’s a cocker spaniel in the back coming around from surgery, but I doubt she’d care...”

Relena looked into Heero’s frustrated and glassy eyes, “Trust me,” she said again softly, the fingers of her left hand coming to rest lightly on Heero’s now exposed upper arm. “She really does know what she’s doing.”

“That she does,” Sally agreed, as she placed aside the scissors, “Before I get going here, do you have any allergies?”

“No,” Heero grated, his expression darkening.

“I’m going to prepare a some locals for you,” the doctor said as she moved to her cupboards to begin preparing syringes. “I’d prefer to knock you out completely for this, but we just aren’t equip for that here.”

Relena’s eyes trailed away from Heero’s face and down his lean body. Sally had left him in his shorts, socks and shoes, the rest of his clothes were hanging off the table on either side of him. Relena yanked her eyes away from his well toned legs and looked directly at Sally, now was not the time to be thinking about how gorgeous this man was.

“What can I do to help?” she asked hoping her voice betrayed nothing of what she’d been thinking.

Sally glanced away from the needle she was preparing. “Keep him talking if you can,” she said nodding towards the chair against the wall. “This is going to take awhile.”

Relena drew the chair over closer to Heero’s face and sat down on it. Their eyes met, as Relena tried desperately to think of what to say. “When did you move in?” was the first question that slipped out of her mouth.

Chapter Text

“Okay,” Sally said softly standing in the doorway of the exam room, “I’ve removed the shrapnel and stitched up his wounds, now what the hell is going on?”

Relena looked up at her friend, surprised and relieved that Sally had waited until now to press for the details. Pale blue eyes glanced towards the mysterious man still laying on the exam table. She’d tried to keep him talking while Sally worked, but it hadn’t been easy. Heero was still a enigma, if he’d answered her questions at all, it was mostly with one or two words. And his tone didn’t exactly invite further conversation.

Relena knew he was in pain, and not just from the work Sally had been doing on him. There was such a torrent of dark emotions in those shockingly blue eyes, Relena couldn’t stop staring at them, wondering who this man really was.

“Earth to Relena....” Sally’s voice cut in rather sharply.

Blushing to realize she’d been staring at the half naked man, she tore her eyes away and looked back firmly at Sally. “I honestly don’t know....” she admitted, “I thought he had just moved in to the apartment below mine,” her eyes drifted back to Heero. “I started getting letters addressed to him, and today someone left a package.”

“A bomb,” the doctor said bluntly, “and instead of waiting there for the authorities and medical professionals, like any sane person should have. You drag him here for some free medical attention.”

“Sally I’m sorry,” Relena apologized, her voice wobbling slightly as she again realized how close to death she’d come that day. “I didn’t know what else to do, I wish I knew what was going on, but you heard him...” she trailed off, eyes returning to Heero, specifically to what of his face she could make out over his right shoulder.

“Laconic doesn’t begin to describe him,” Sally agreed with a huff, and Relena found herself being turned to face her friend, who was looking at her with concerned eyes. “Look I’m not going to pretend to be happy about these events, but you know I’m not about to turn away now. However he needs to give us some honest answers about what’s going on, and who exactly is looking for him.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” Relena asked, eyes darting back to Heero, who still appeared out of it on the exam table.

Sally’s hand patted Relena’s left shoulder, “Well he can’t stay here, whoever these people are, if the hospital wouldn’t be safe, chances are they’re going to be smart enough to look at alternatives. And my clinic is close enough to your apartment that it’d likely be the first place they come knocking.”

Relena stared at her friend, in shocked disbelief, “You’re awfully practical about all this,” she said clearing her throat against her body’s want to sob. 

“Attribute it to all the spy thrillers I love to read,” Sally said with a wink. “I may have a place we can bring him, but I need to make a call first.” The doctor stepped away from Relena then, reaching into the storage room for a set of blue scrubs. “Stay with him, while I make the call,” Sally instructed passing the clothes to Relena, “When he comes around, help him get into these. Tell him not to move around too much, I doubt the freezing’s worn off yet and the last thing I need is for him to tear his stitches.”

“Thank you Sally,” Relena said pulling the scrubs to her chest.

Sally smiled, “Don’t thank me yet, you haven’t seen the bill,” she winked again before heading for her office.

Relena stood in the doorway of the examination room for a moment, feeling stunned and unable to move, until she heard a soft groan behind her. Turning Relena saw Heero shifting stiffly on the table, trying to get his arms and legs beneath him. “Heero,” she said his name as she came into his line of sight, “Try not to move so fast,” she cautioned.

“Need to get moving....” he mumbled mostly to himself, and he hissed as he managed to get himself seated on the edge of the table. 

“You need to take it easy,” she said a little more firmly, “or you’ll tear your stitches.” It was fear of Sally’s reaction to that eventuality that put the firmness in Relena’s voice.

Heero looked down at himself for what seemed like the first time, and he started a little, glancing at the table to see his ruined clothes still twisted up with the blanket he’d been laying on. Relena felt her cheeks heat a little as his intense gaze swept back to her face. Those cobalt eyes, still appeared on edge, weighing, questioning if she could be trusted.

“Here,” Relena said, holding out the scrubs, “they’re better than nothing...” she trailed off somewhat lamely.

She wanted to look away as he reached out his left hand to take the fabric from her, but his eyes held her’s fast. “You don’t even know me....” he said gruffly.

“You saved my life,” Relena said, feeling her eyes prickle again with the need to just let out the emotions she’d managed to lock away.

“We’re even,” he said flatly, and the words felt like a slap to the face from where Relena stood. She stared at him as he took hold of the scrub pants and tried to draw his left leg up enough to get his foot inside. The effort caused his face to contort in pain, and hearing him hiss, Relena shook off her stunned silence and was surprised to find herself taking the pants from him.

“Let me help,” she said, her voice sounding hollow to her own ears as she got his feet through both legs and handed him the waist band.

Heero slid off the table with a grunt, putting all his weight on his left leg, as he drew the pants over his hips before pulling the drawstring tight. He drew a breath, taking up the shirt and stiffly working it onto his body.

“Alright,” Sally said coming around the corner back into the room, “We need to head out now.” 

“Where are we going?” Relena asked, just as she saw Heero stiffen beside her, his gaze flashing to Sally, with obvious caution.

“I’ll tell you in the car,” Sally assured, glancing down at her wrist watch before looking to Heero. “Can you manage?” she asked him bluntly, “It’s not like we have wheelchairs here.”

“I’m fine,” he returned bluntly, appearing to try and stand a little more naturally, though Relena could tell he was still in pain.

Sally gave him a look that called his words bull, but she didn’t say more on that. “I’m told traffics backing up out there due to the explosion, so it might take awhile to get where we’re going.”

Relena watched Sally turn to head to the back exit, before looking back to Heero, wondering if he’d be able to manage without help now that the shrapnel was gone. He held himself painfully as he took a hesitant step forward, his right leg holding him but clearly hurting. Without really thinking Relena ducked herself under his left arm again. His eyes flashed to her face in surprise, but he didn’t pull away from her, and together they moved out of the room and to the back exit.

Sally held the door for them, the keys to her car already in hand. Relena helped Heero into the back of the car, before quickly moving around to the other side. She didn’t know why she wanted to be in the back with him, it was something in his eyes when he’d looked at her last. He’d been vulnerable, unsure, and needing to trust, when she suspected such things didn’t come naturally to him.

As Sally pulled away from the clinic, the back alley empty of traffic, Relena felt herself shudder as she saw the lineup of cars and people walking the streets. The people seemed to move in the opposite direction of the cars, and she realized they were all heading towards her apartment, where a bomb had almost cost her her life. She’d kicked it with her foot, carried it like it was nothing.

“Hey,” Heero’s voice pierced Relena’s thoughts, and she realized suddenly that she was sobbing uncontrollably. “Don’t break down now...” he said those impossible eyes watching her with an intensity that stole her breath away.

Chapter Text

Seeing the traffic as they’d left the clinic, what she’d been able to make out through her tears. Relena was amazed Sally had managed to get them out of the city in less than two hours. They’d stopped briefly to get gas, and it was then, Sally had insisted that Relena come sit up from with her. The doctor had wanted to let Heero lay down as best he could on the back seat and take the pressure off his stitches.

Relena eyed the thickening forest as the setting sun’s beams slanted through the branches and leaves casting longer and longer shadows as they drove. It could have been idyllic, the perfect early summer outing, were it not for the man stretched out on the back seat of Sally’s car. 

Glancing back over her shoulder at Heero. She saw that the young man appeared to be sleeping, but Relena somehow doubted he actually was. After what he’d revealed to them on the way out of the city, Relena didn’t know how he could ever relax and let himself rest.

“How much further?” she quietly asked Sally.

“About twenty minutes,” the older woman replied, eyes watching the winding country road. 

Relena glanced at Sally surreptitiously, “You said his name is Wufei?” she asked trying to sound casual, but she couldn’t help but be curious about this man Sally knew, who appeared to live out in the boonies.

“Yes,” Sally replied glancing over briefly with a knowing look, “Just ask what’s on your mind,” she told Relena bluntly.

Feeling her cheeks heat slightly, Relena looked at her friend, “Are you and he....” she trailed off, knowing it was none of her business.

Sally tossed hair over her shoulder as she gave Relena a quick wry look. “He makes an excellent roommate when I need some time out of the city,” Sally replied, her words might have been vague, a little ambiguous, her smile however was anything but.

Relena cleared her throat slightly, “I’m sorry, that was none of my business,” she apologized.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sally said with a fond smile, and Relena saw the doctor’s eyes glance into the review mirror briefly. Sally’s expression sobered as she looked at her patient in the back of the car. “We’ve got more pressing issues then my love life.”

Twisting in her seat Relena looked more fully at Heero, he was laying on his left side, which had escaped the explosion virtually unscathed. He’d pillowed his head on his bent arm, his face cast in shadows by unruly hair. As she stared at him, Relena felt an itch in her fingers to try and tame those wild bangs that hid his eyes from clear view.

Those eyes, Relena shivered slightly at the thought of Heero’s eyes. She’d finally learned something about him, and she still felt chilled at the thought of it.

“I’m an experiment...”  

Relena hadn’t known how to take that one bitter statement. She had stared at him, unsure if he was being facetious, but the look in his eyes when he glanced briefly at her, had said it was the truth. Sally had immediately demanded more information from Heero, and to Relena’s surprise, he’d answered to the command in Sally’s voice.

“I was created, for one purpose.”

Relena shivered again, his answers had been short, blunt, and devoid of emotion. But while his voice had lacked humanity for what he was saying. His eyes. Those eyes had shown Relena a glimpse of the cost Heero had paid. She saw pain in them, and not just from his wounds, which she could tell hurt him with each bump the car made. The pain she saw in those eyes was raw, almost unchecked, and seeking an outlet.

She could hardly reconcile the man she’d seen coming and going from the apartment just below hers, to the man she saw now. Then she had only seen him from the outside, a mysterious new man, who was very easy on the eyes. She’d never suspected this was the life he’d led, that this was the cause of the haunted look she’d glimpsed in his eyes.

Relena blinked, forcing herself to stop staring at Heero and turn back forward in her seat. The car slowed as Sally signalled for a left turn, taking them down a rutted driveway, towards a cozy looking cottage surrounded by trees. Relena saw the front door open as Sally pulled into a spot next to a nondescript black car and turned off the engine.

A handsome Chinese man, stood in the doorway of the cottage, arms folded, expression grim. “He doesn’t look happy...” Relena found herself saying before she could think better of it.

“Oh don’t worry about him,” Sally said easily, as she waved up at Wufei, “his face always looks like that.”

“Heero?” Relena said as she turned back to look at him, only to find him already sitting up, those cobalt eyes looking past her to the man waiting for them. 

“C’mon, lets get you inside,” Sally said, eyes looking at Heero through the review mirror again.

Getting out of the car, Relena moved around to the drivers side, to try and help Heero if he required it. Sally held the door for him, while the young man stiffly got to his feet. He groaned softly, and Relena found herself taking his left arm across her shoulders again.

Heero looked down at her, those eyes regarding her carefully. She could see how guarded his was now, his eyes showing none of the pain he’d revealed in the car, now they only showed the physical pain, there it had been the emotional. Relena stopped herself from shivering at the weight of those eyes, the weight of the knowledge she now carried.

As she shifted her hold on Heero’s left wrist, and tried to find a safe spot near his hip, without the help of belt loops, she suddenly realized that he hadn’t stiffen at her touch. He was by no means relaxed, but he was willingly accepting her help. Together they followed after Sally towards the front of the cottage, and Wufei who silently waited.

Chapter Text

“Take him down the hall,” Wufei said in a smooth voice as Relena helped Heero through the doorway into the cottage. “First door on your left,” he added, his onyx eyes searching out Sally’s face as Relena and Heero moved slowly past.

Relena’s eyes swept to Heero face, seeing perspiration standing out on his temples as he limped along supporting more of his weight across Relena’s shoulders. His eyes were tight with pain, his breaths coming with slight grunts especially when he had to move his right leg. “Just a little bit further,” she encouraged softly.

The cottage was an interesting mix of rustic charm created with hand hewn boards, and the delicate lines of the oriental art decorating the walls and shelves. Relena breathed a soft sigh of relief as they made it to the first door. The room beyond was simple, a double bed rested beneath a large window, with a couple of chairs near the foot of the bed, and a dresser next to door on her left. 

Heero lowered himself stiffly onto the edge of the bed and closed his eyes for a minute. “Don’t have time for this...” he muttered, as he pulled his left hand down his face.

“You need to rest,” she said, finding herself crouching in front of him to untie his shoes.

“You’re in danger,” he mumbled, and Relena looked up into his eyes, though unfocused, had lost none of their intensity.

Relena slipped his first shoe off before moving on to the second, “You’ll be safe here,” she tried to reassure him, seeing the tense way that he held himself.

“Might as well offer to steal the stars for him, while you’re at it,” Wufei’s cold voice said as he and Sally stepped into the room. Relena’s head whipped around in surprise at the other man’s words and she could see a grim expression on Sally’s face where she stood, her arm pressing lightly against Wufei’s. 

Heero shifted on the edge of the bed, drawing Relena’s attention back to him. He’d pulled himself a little straighter as he stared at the Chinese man, clearly unsure whether he could trust him or not. 

“Don’t mind him,” Sally said with a sigh as she stepped deeper into the room. “He’s just grumpy I’m not here alone,” she added winking at the other man, and Relena saw Wufei almost splutter at her words.

Relena felt Heero tense next to her as Sally entered his personal space. The doctor pulled a penlight from her pocket and reached for Heero’s face. “How are you feeling?” she asked not seeming to notice or care about the glare he directed her way.

“Need to keep moving,” Heero said with a slight hiss as Sally swept her light across his eyes.

Sally made a sound in the back of her throat, “You’re not going anywhere right now,” she told him bluntly. “Do you have a headache?” she asked then, the fingers of her right hand still resting on the side of his neck, “Do you feel sick at all?”

Heero’s expression was guarded as he stared at Sally, but he finally tipped his chin just a fraction in answer to her questions. Relena looked more closely at his pale face, and could see a slight greenish cast to his complexion that she’d missed before. Sally’s fingers swept through Heero’s hair, quickly but thoroughly, and Relena saw Heero flinch away from her probing touch as she reached a spot near the back of his head.

“Yeah, that’s a good sized lump,” Sally said, her voice cooly professional, when she finally took her hands off his head. “Good thing is, I don’t think its a serious concussion,” she said, “you were lucid enough in the car.” The doctor shuddered slightly, and Relena very much felt like doing the same, just thinking about their conversation, not even the specifics of what had been said.

“But we’ll keep an eye on it,” she said firmly. “Now lie down,” that she made an order, and Relena was again surprised when Heero moved to obey.

Relena moved to pull back to the covers as Heero slowly stretched himself out on the mattress. He settled somewhat reluctantly by the looks of it, on his stomach with his head turned to face the rest of the room, and perhaps more importantly Relena thought, the door. She pulled the blankets up his body, but was reluctantly to leave the room.

She felt strangely protective of this mysterious man. Who, only a day or so before, she’d imagined herself falling in love with, knowing nothing about him. Relena knew more now, and her stomach twisted at the thought. Sally’s hand on her shoulder actually made Relena jump and she turned to look at her friend.

“C’mon,” Sally said softly, “you’ve been through a lot today too, you need to rest.”

Relena started to shake her head, gaze returning to Heero’s where he lay, eyes open and watching her. “I’m going to sit with him for a bit,” she heard herself saying, before she looked back to Sally. 

Her friend looked like she was going to argue for a moment, but as Sally’s eyes flickered to the bed as well, she finally nodded her head. “There’s another spare room across the hall,” she said, before she turned to Wufei who’d remained glowering in the doorway. The doctor reached out a hand to the grim man, and he unfolded his arms to accept it before they left the room, leaving the door opened a crack.

Turning back to the bed, Relena lowered herself to the floor near Heero’s head, and found herself locked into his intense gaze. “You shouldn’t be here...” he said softly, fiercely.

“You shouldn’t be alone...” Relena whispered just as fiercely, and she found herself reaching out her right hand to gently grip his left.

Heero’s eyes left her face, to look at their hands there together on the mattress, his expression difficult to read. “Alone is safer,” he said, those dark eyes returning to Relena’ face.

“Is it?” she asked her fingers gently squeezing his, “Or do you just think that, because it’s all you’ve known?”

Chapter Text

“He needs to be perfect.”

Heero struggled to complete the required task in the time allotted. Young fingers feeling hesitant despite foreknowledge of what failure would bring, but a mistake could end in worse...

They’d filled his mind with knowledge, drilled him on every possible scenario...

“He must be perfect!”

There was no room for error or mistake, no room for humanity...

Heero’s eyes snapped open the minute he felt someone nearing the bed. Even in sleep his body remained on high alert. He couldn’t allow himself to be caught unaware, they’d drilled that out of him long ago. Being forced to rest on his stomach kept him from truly giving in to restful sleep, he was more vulnerable in this position.

“I’m sorry,” a soft voice apologized.

It took Heero’s eyes a moment to focus on the face, and to see pale aqua eyes watching him from a face framed with long blond hair. He stared at her, unsure what to make of her. Until yesterday, she’d merely been another potential target. That’s how they’d trained him to see the world, they weren’t people, men, women, children, they were targets.

Sunlight filtered through the window beside the bed, and Relena knelt down into the warm glow, which caused her hair to shine like gold. Heero’s left hand, still resting near his face, twitched slightly, and he tore his eyes from her face to stare at it. He wondered why he felt compelled to run his fingers through those long strands.

“What time is it?” he asked, voice gravelly from sleep.

Relena shifted a little closer to his face, her lips—something he’d never bothered to notice on anyone, beyond being able to read—turned up in a soft smile. “It’s still early,” she told him tucking some of that silky hair behind her right ear. “Sally asked me to check on you, see if you want some breakfast...” she said, eyes watching his, and he still couldn’t understand what about them was so different from others.

Heero shifted on the mattress, or tried to. He wanted to be up, on his feet, and moving away from here. No one was safe if he remained, the apartment had proven that. He’d been sure he’d escaped, he’d covered his tracks just as they’d taught him. Heero’s eyes shut briefly, remembering the words of punishment, he’d heard time and again. ‘All things are difficult, before they’re easy.’ He had learned the truth of those words, he’d had to, failure was not an option.

A soft hand, touching his wrist, brought Heero out of his thoughts, and he realized he was trying to push himself up on the bed, with a body that had stiffened up overnight. “Just relax,” Relena said, her voice sounding odd to his ears, and he looked at her face. He supposed this must be what concern looked and sounded like. Heero had seen such expressions on her face several times now, but he was still unsure if he assumption was right.

They hadn’t trained him to know such things, they hadn’t shown him such things. Heero stared at Relena’s face, those shining, open eyes, that hid nothing of what she was feeling. He might not understand the emotions he saw there, but he knew there was no threat in them. And his body relaxed back down onto the mattress, and those lips tipped up again.

Heero found his left hand reaching towards her face, his eyes captivated by the expression he saw there. She had smiled at him once, she hadn’t even known him then—still didn’t if he was honest—on the sidewalk outside the brownstone. It had been raining, he’d looked up from coming up the stairs and found himself locked in her gaze. 

He couldn’t understand why he’d let himself trust her. At first he’d been sure it was merely desperation, the sound of the sirens, of approaching danger. But each time she’d asked his trust, whether it was leaving the apartment, or stepping inside the vet clinic, Heero hadn’t hesitated to give it. 

Blinking Heero stared at his hand, that was now lightly cupping Relena’s right cheek, his thumb brushed across the bottom curve of her lips. Their eyes met and Heero didn’t know how to process what he saw in those large eyes gazing back at him. But those lips, remained turned up in a gentle smile, an expression he realized with bewilderment, was meant for him. 

Relena’s right hand came up to press against the back of his left, keeping his hand against her cheek, and those stunningly expressive eyes briefly closed. “I need to leave,” the words left his mouth, the truth of the situation, but not, strangely, what he wanted.

Those eyes opened, wide with concern, and her hand tightened on his. “You’re in no shape to be going anywhere,” she said with a note of firmness to her words, that put Heero to mind of her friend Sally’s orders.

Heero tried to push himself up using his right arm, still laying stretched out beside him under the covers. “You’re in danger the longer I’m here,” he ground out, struggling to push himself up.

“I don’t want you to be alone,” Relena’s voice was filled with conviction and was that worry? Worry for him?

He shook his head slowly, carefully not to get the pounding going in his temples again. “It’s all I know,” he told her firmly.

Relena’s free hand came to rest on the side of his face, halting his painful attempts to rise. And he found himself once again locked in those stunning eyes. “Anything new, is difficult,” she told him carefully, “but when it’s right, it gets easier.”

Heero stared at her, feeling for a moment that the only warmth in the world came from her hand on his cheek, and the only light, shone in her eyes. He shivered at what this near stranger made him feel. What was it this beautiful young woman, stirred in him.

“Trust me,” she said softly, her face so close to his, he could feel her breath lightly brush against his face.

He stared at her, feeling the softness of her skin against his cheek, the tips of her fingers lightly brushing through his hair. “Why?” he had to asked.

Chapter Text

“If even half of what he told you is true,” Wufei said leaning back against the rustic island in his kitchen, “who was it sending these letters? And why send a bomb? If they would look for him at a hospital, why would they try to kill him?”

Sally seated at the kitchen table gave him a look over her coffee mug as she took a fortifying sip of the black brew. “You ask these questions like you expect I’d actually have some answers,” she told him dryly. 

Wufei’s eyebrows lowered, “Why haven’t you demanded them?” he asked, a bit of a demand himself Sally thought.

“Been a fairly hectic seventeen hours,” she reminded him with a look, which he had the decency to grudgingly nod to.

“We’ll need to get them sooner or later,” he grumbled taking a sip of his own coffee, “I don’t like not knowing what I’m in to.”

Sally rolled her eyes a little, getting up from the table and walking over to Wufei, “And I clearly love it so much,” she told him sarcastically, as she entered his personal space, draping her free arm across his shoulder.

He eyed her with a steady gaze, “Then why do you read those books?”

She chuckled softly, enjoying the scent of coffee on his breath, “They’re an escape, they weren’t supposed to be preparation for this.” Sally smiled at his raised brow, and leaned in to lightly kiss his lips.

“Sally!” their quiet moment was shattered by the sound of Relena’s voice calling from down the hall. Sally didn’t like the sound of panic in her friends voice, and immediately put aside her coffee mug to go and see what had happened. 

“What is it?” she asked coming down the hall to the first guest room. What she found when she turned the corner had her expression darken with exasperation. Her patient was sitting up in bed, and trying to get to his feet, Relena was doing what she could to keep him at least sitting on the edge of the bed.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded of the young man.

Relena looked back over her right shoulder with an expression of relief, “He says he needs to leave,” she said her hands still holding onto Heero’s left shoulder and right arm. “That we’re all in danger if he stays.”

Sally felt Wufei’s steady presence behind her as she stepped into the room and closed the distance to her unusual patient. “You aren’t going anywhere as you are right now,” she said filling her words with the note of authority the young man appeared to innately respond to.

Heero’s head came up, and those cobalt eyes were somewhat wild as they stared at her. “They can find me,” he growled.

“How?” she asked simply.

“Tracking device,” he said, and she would have rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of such a statement, had it not been for the conversation they’d had in the car on the way here.

“Did you know there was one?” Wufei asked a clear note of anger in his voice.

Heero gave his head a slight shake, eyes narrowed with his own anger and pain. “Only thing that makes sense...”

“Do you know where it is?” Sally asked, shooting Wufei a quick look.

The young man gestured towards his left hip, “They put me out once....” he muttered, staring down at his waist. “Didn’t say why, but there was stitches there,” his head came up, expression fierce, Sally could easily tell Heero wanted to run from here.

Turning towards Wufei, Sally lay a hand on his arm, drawing his dark gaze to her. “Wufei, be a dear and get my kit out of the back of my car,” he nodded once and turned to leave the room. She hoped it would have everything she’d need, but she wasn’t accustom to making house calls, and especially not for people.

“Show me,” she ordered, as she came over to Heero’s side and motioned for Relena to move out of the way. Heero tried to shift on the mattress, possibly to get his feet planted to stand, but Sally stopped him. “Front? Side? Or back of your hip?” she asked him.

“Side,” he replied.

Sally nodded, “Alright stretch out,” she ordered, her left hand quickly pulling the drawstring loose on his pants before she helped him lay back down on the bed. Once he was settled, Relena moved to sit on the floor near his head. Sally glanced at her friend, seeing concern in Relena’s eyes as she watched Heero’s face.

The doctor heard Wufei come back into the cottage, as she took hold of the waist bands of Heero’s pants and shorts and quickly drew them aside. The early morning sunlight spilling across the bed, illuminated the two inch long scar, on the side of Heero’s hip. Kneeling down beside her patient, Sally’s fingers probed at the scar, trying to see what if anything she could feel through his skin.

“There’s definitely something in there,” she announced to the room, glancing back over her shoulder as Wufei strode in. He passed her the bag he was carrying and she quickly placed it on the floor to open it. Moving items around Sally quickly assessed what she did and didn’t have, and sighed. “I don’t have anything to freeze you this time,” she said eyes glancing to Heero’s face.

“Doesn’t matter,” the young man said, his eyes hard and ready.

Sally sighed again, but nodded her head, this definitely wasn’t how she wanted to spend her morning. “Relena, I need you to keep his upper half still,” she said firmly and her friend hesitantly moved to sit on the mattress beside Heero’s head.

“Wufei,” she said her lovers name with a grim smile, “Hold his legs. I’m going to try and do this as quickly as possible,” she assured her patient before slipping on a pair of surgical gloves. Sally reached for the rubbing alcohol, to cleanse the skin before she made the incision.

Chapter Text

“I got it!” Sally’s voice declared, over the sound of Heero’s pained gasps.

Relena shuddered with relief. She had tried to keep her eyes fixed on the side of Heero’s face, as she leaned her weight onto his left shoulder helping to hold him still. But despite not looking at Sally while she’d worked, Relena felt sure she knew the minute the doctor had withdrawn from the wound. If Heero’s own shudder of relief was any indication.

“What do we do now?” Relena asked, finally forcing herself to look away from Heero’s tightly closed eyes to her friend. 

Sally knelt by the bed, gloved and bloodied hand holding a small device between her thumb and index finger. “I don’t think we want to just break it,” Sally said.

“No...” Heero said, his voice tight.

“There’s the river out back,” Wufei suggested, easing his weight off the backs of Heero’s legs. 

“That’ll do,” Sally agreed, as she stripped off her gloves keeping the tracker inside the material. “Put it in something, make sure it’ll float,” she said as she passed the inside out bundle to Wufei.

Relena saw the Chinese man give Sally as look that seemed to say, ‘What do you take me for? An idiot?’ but his lips also turned up in a slight indulgent smile and his free hand brushed subtly across her shoulder before he walked from the room.  

“Alright,” Sally said briskly as she looked back at her patient, and withdrew another pair of gloves from her bag. “The worst is over,” she assured Heero, “but I will need to stitch this...”

“It’s okay,” he said, and his eyes met Relena’s and she knew that was meant as much for her as for Sally. 

With a start, Relena eased herself off of Heero’s shoulder and knelt in front of his face again. On impulse she reached our her right hand to take his left, and smiled when his fingers immediately closed around hers. He gently squeezed, and as she looked into his still mostly closed eyes, Relena couldn’t help but feel like he was trying to comfort her.

Relena’s glanced down Heero’s body to were Sally was working to stitch up the wound. Heero didn’t flinch away from the needle piercing his skin, he just breathed sharply through his nose and held onto Relena’s hand.

Without realizing what she was doing, Relena brought her left hand up, and swept his unruly hair away from his eyes. Those eyes locked onto hers, opening a little wider as her fingers continued to trail through his bangs. It didn’t make sense that after so short an acquaintance—no matter how unusual it had been—that she should feel such an attachment to this man.

Heero released a sudden breath, and his body relaxed. Relena glanced back at Sally to see she’d finished a neat row of stitches and was carefully cleaning off the blood from Heero’s skin. “Okay,” the doctor said, breaking the silence that hung over the room. “I can’t decide what creeps me out more, the fact that I just performed minor surgery without freezing, or how well you handled it...” 

Relena could feel perspiration on Heero’s forehead as her thumb smoothed the lines she saw there. His eyes closed at her touch, and she thought he breathed a little easier. Relena looked to Sally as the doctor secured a dressing over the wound, before carefully easing Heero’s shorts and the scrub pants back up to his waist. The doctor drew the sheets up from the foot of the bed to cover Heero.

“Just rest here for a minute,” she ordered, gathering the mess she’d made. “I’ll be back in a minute with some water and a little food,” Sally said, before taking her bag and leaving the room.

Heero squeezed Relena’s hand, which drew her eyes back to his face. He was watching her, only his left eye open, and it appeared somewhat glassy, but alert. “You should leave,” he said softly, “take your friends and go, the river might not fool them...”

Relena’s thumb stroked from the bridge of Heero’s nose to his hair line, and this close to him she could see his one pupil dilate as he looked at her. Relena felt a strange feeling stir in her chest, something telling her, that reaction wasn’t simply due to pain. She squeezed his hand, and leaned her head a little closer to his, “I’m not abandoning you,” she told him fiercely.

Heero looked at Relena with confusion, his heart beating in his chest so he was certain she must have heard it. He pulled his right arm up beside his head and forced himself up onto his forearm despite the stiffness in his shoulder, taking his head off the pillow. Clearly she didn’t understand the danger she was in. 

“They knew the bomb wouldn’t kill me,” he told her, and saw confusion in her own eyes.

“What?” she asked, her left hand coming away from his face, and he was shocked to find he immediately missed that contact.

“They don’t want me dead,” he said, they’d invested too much to just end him. “They just want me back...”

Relena’s eyes flickered across his face, her right hand still held in his left, “Do you want to go back?” she all but whispered, her tone indicating she couldn’t believe that could be true.

Heero broke eye contact with her, looking down at himself stretched out on the bed. They’d sent the bomb to soften him up, no doubt hoping that they could sweep in either at the apartment or hospital, and bring him back. They’d done a good job, and despite his training, he’d underestimated them, and that burned deeply in him. 

“Heero,” Relena spoke his name, her hand coming back to the side of his face, drawing his attention back to her expressive eyes.

He swallowed looking into those eyes, and it felt like his heart constricted in his chest, when he considered that bomb, meant for him, could easily have ended Relena’s life. He stared at her, almost losing himself in her gaze, “I don’t want to risk you,” the words left his mouth feeling foreign to his tongue, but he knew it was true.

Relena’s mouth tipped up in a smile, though it didn’t look like a happy expression to Heero’s eyes. “Well, I’d say right now, that isn’t your choice to make,” she told him firmly, bringing her face mere inches from his so she could pin him with her gaze.

“They’re not going to stop,” he insisted, finding his eyes flickering down to her mouth that smiled still rather sadly at him. He couldn’t understand why her being so close to him stirred his heart to beat just that much faster, why he wanted to see what her lips tasted like. Heero tore his eyes back to hers, unsure where that thought had arisen from, and he felt a strange warmth rise in his cheeks.

Relena’s thumb brushed against his heated skin, and her smile changed to one of surprise. “You saved my life,” she said coming just a little bit closer, “let me help save yours...”

Heero wasn’t sure who finished closing the distance between them, but he felt her lips press to his. The sensation sent a shock through Heero’s system, briefly overshadowing the pain from his injuries, and he felt her hand clench onto his. He didn’t understand it, hadn’t seen the point of such contact when he’d witnessed it, but only knew his body wanted more.

Chapter Text

Relena’s eyes opened slightly as she pulled back from the short yet fierce kiss they’d shared. She felt a tingle of electricity course through her, a wild sensation warming her core, from the response she’d felt from Heero. They looked into each other’s eyes, their faces only an inch from the other. Relena saw surprise in Heero’s eyes, as if he’d never known what it was like to kiss or be kissed.

For a moment, Relena wasn’t sure what to say or do, she felt frozen looking into his deep cobalt eyes. Their hands, still clasped together on the bed felt right to Relena even though it didn’t make sense. She hardly knew this man, and yet she knew more about him than he did about her, and it struck her that she’d never even properly introduced herself to him.

The sound of Sally coming back down the hall caused Heero’s eyes to break away from her own. And she watched those open, surprised eyes grow guarded and reserved as he looked towards the door. Relena turned as Sally came around the corner but didn’t release her hold of Heero’s hand. 

The doctor came through the doorway with a tray in hand, and placed it on the dresser before turning to look at them. The expression on Sally’s face made Relena feel a blush creep into her cheeks. Her friend gave her a knowing look, and a slight shake of her head before taking hold of a mug on the tray to pass to Relena.

Accepting the coffee from her friend, Relena brought the steaming cup to her lips and took a sip. Sally also had a tall glass of water on the tray with a straw sticking out of it which she brought to the bed. Relena reluctantly let go of Heero’s left hand so he could take hold of the glass, which he immediately began drinking from.

“Not so fast,” Sally cautioned her patient, and Heero looked at her with a slight scowl before stopping with about an inch of water left in the glass. The doctor took the water from Heero’s hand, with a slight shake of her head. “There’s some breakfast there for both of you,” Sally said as she turned towards the door. “See if you can get him to eat some of it,” she tossed over her shoulder before disappearing back down the hall. 

Relena put her mug onto the nightstand and pushed herself up to see what food Sally had brought. She’d barely managed to eat anything the night before, too stressed from the day’s events to really want to put anything in her stomach. Relena didn’t feel all that much more interested in food right now, her stomach feeling like it was fluttering in her middle from the kiss.

Looking down at the tray, Relena saw two bowls of yogurt with smaller containers of granola and berries. Adding a little of both to the first bowl for herself, Relena wondered what Heero would prefer. “Do you like anything in your yogurt?” she asked turning to face him, and blinked in surprise to see him holding her coffee mug, having just taken a sip from it. 

“No,” he said simply, before taking another sip of her drink.

“I don’t believe that was on the menu,” she said with slight smile, bringing the two bowls back over to the bed. 

He looked up at her through his bangs, and she could still make out the pain he was trying to conceal, as he took another pointed sip from her mug. Settling herself once more on the floor in front of his face, Relena placed aside her bowl of yogurt and kept Heero’s in hand. She wished for just a moment that they had met under different circumstances, something more normal than this.

Relena stirred the spoon through the plain yogurt as she looked at Heero, wondering what would have happened if they’d met for the first time, at a bus stop or coffee shop. Certainly she would have noticed him, those striking features, and well toned body. But would he have seen her? Relena felt his eyes watching her intently, and she looked up from the yogurt to see, that cobalt gaze staring back at her.

“I’d still like some of that, you know,” she told him softly, as he tipped her mug to his lips again. 

“She should have brought two mugs,” Heero said, his voice sounding like he was shrugging. 

“You, are supposed to be drinking water,” Sally voice said rather pointedly from behind Relena. The doctor came up beside and placed the tall glass of water on the nightstand before taking the mug from Heero’s hand.

He glowered at the doctor, as Relena reached out her hand to reclaim what was rightfully hers. Glancing in the mug she saw that Heero had already downed about two thirds of her first cup of the day. She placed it aside, on the floor out of Heero’s reach and brought the bowl of yogurt up closer to his face. 

“Sally?” Wufei’s voice called from the front of the house, and within seconds Relena was alone with Heero again. 

Scooping some of the yogurt, Relena scrapped the back of the spoon along the edge of the bowl before raising it towards Heero’s face. He stared at the approaching food, with a raised brow before his attention focused in on Relena’s face. “I can feed myself,” he told her, his words not defensive, just a statement of fact.

Relena felt her stomach twist with the want to feel his lips on hers again. “But not easily,” she told him softly, feeling strangely determined to sit here and feed him. She touched his upper lip with the tip of the yogurt filled spoon, and watched as his head jerked ever so slightly and his tongue darted out to clean away the mess. He looked at her with a touch of surprise, but did at last open his mouth to receive the food.

Heero relaxed back down onto the bed, giving his right shoulder a break, as Relena got a little more yogurt onto the spoon. He accepted the second spoonful without hesitancy and Relena offered him a smile. She fed him about half the bowl before she felt she could take a break for a sip of her coffee. 

Relena savoured the bitter flavour on her tongue along with the slight burn, though it was quickly becoming too cool for her to really enjoy. When she glanced over the rim to Heero she saw his eyes watching her intently, and she smiled. Carefully she brought the mug to Heero’s lips letting him have another sip. His eyes never left hers as he carefully swallowed, and as she pulled the mug away she saw his lips tip up in a ghost of a smile as he watched her.

Chapter Text

It was late in the afternoon when Heero forced himself to his feet, despite stiffness and the pain of injuries. He simply couldn’t stand to be laying on his stomach in that bed one second more. His life up to this point had been one of action and near constant activity, remaining still with nothing to occupy his mind made him feel restless and uneasy.

Relena had been with him for most of the morning, sitting on the floor before his eyes, her presence a welcomed mystery to Heero. He couldn’t seem to stop thinking about how her lips had felt against his own. The electricity they seemed to spark through his entire body. He had wanted to try again, curious to see if that was a one time reaction, or was that something to experience time and time again?

Heero pulled the drawstrings of his pants tightly around his narrow waist and quickly tied them together. The wound on his back near his waist ached at the new pressure of the band, but it was something he could easily ignore. Carefully Heero eased a little more of his weight onto his right leg, pleased to find that it would hold him. With careful steps Heero moved on bare feet towards the door. 

He could hear the sound of a shower running somewhere deeper in the cottage, and knew that was Relena. She’d been reluctant to leave him, when Sally had insisted she should get herself cleaned up. Heero had been shocked to find he was reluctant to see her leave. It didn’t make sense, that he should feel any sort of attachment for her.

But there was no denying that strange beautiful girl stirred something within Heero he hadn’t even known existed. Those feelings rose up even now, without her in front of him, and he found himself wanting to see her face again. His heart rate picking up, so he felt his pulse in the fresh wounds on his body. 

Passing a piece of art on the hallway wall caught Heero’s attention and he regarded his own hollow reflection in the glass. What was this he was experiencing? He didn’t have names for these feelings, and he wondered if he should distrust them, build walls around them, protect himself from the distraction. Strangely his heart clenched at the thought of building any sort of wall that would keep her out.

Heero’s eyes focused suddenly on the image in the frame, no longer seeing his own face staring back at him, but Wufei’s and Sally’s. They stood arms around each other, near an evergreen tree decked out in lights and varying sized decorations. For a moment Heero studied the body language he could read from the picture. They both looked relaxed and happy, even though Wufei’s expression was slightly pained, Heero could only assume due to the strange hat Sally was placing on his head.

“What are you doing?” Sally’s voice asked him with some evident alarm.

“Looking at the picture,” Heero said, though he was certain that should have been obvious. Then he wondered if he wasn’t supposed to look at them, but he couldn’t imagine another point to having hung it at all, if it wasn’t meant to be shared.

Sally huffed a slight breath as she came up beside him. “I can see that,” she said voice a little sarcastic, “what are you doing out of bed?”

“Can’t stay there forever,” he told her bluntly.

“You need to give yourself time to heal,” she said folding her arms beneath her breasts, and Heero noticed she planted her feet as if preparing for a fight. 

Heero shook his head slightly, before looking the doctor in the eyes, “I don’t have time for that, I need to keep moving.” Heero had been taught long ago to push aside pain, to outright ignore it, for the sake of his missions.

Sally spread her arms across the hallway as though he’d tried to move past her. “You aren’t going anywhere as you are right now,” she told him flatly.

“The risk it too great to stay,” he said levelly. Surely after what he’d told her on the ride over, this woman could understand why he couldn’t, or more importantly shouldn’t remain with them. Heero’s heart ached strangely at the thought of leaving without seeing Relena again. Perhaps he needed to rethink the idea of those barriers, or merely consider this another form of pain and thrust it aside like the rest.

Glancing down at the screen of his phone, the man saw the pulsing dot overlaid on the map, as he came ever closer to its location. He’d been tracking the signal for awhile now, cautious not to get too close. He knew he was no match to bring the boy back home. 

Dark eyes looked up from the phone, to the field he was cutting across, a river butted up against the far edge, and that appeared to be where the signal was coming from. Climbing over the wooden fence that surrounded the field, the man jumped down easily onto the bank of the river. 

He truly hadn’t expected to find a body washed up on the shore, to have found one, would have been supremely disappointing. He was not eager to start this process again from the beginning. So it came as no surprise when he found a plastic bottle bobbing within the crook of a tree branch at the edge of the still swift flowing river. That was definitely the source of the signal he’d been tracking.

Reaching down, the man picked up the bottle, and glanced at the contents inside. A pair of bloodied blue surgical gloves had been crammed inside, and no doubt their tracking device was held within. So he’d figured it out, and removed it. The boy was by far their most clever creation.

The man smirked to himself as he selected a small side menu on the tracking software. The map zoomed out showing the trail the devices had taken over the last twenty-four hours. He pinched and zoomed in the map, easily able to tell where their boy had stopped. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen the man pulled up his contacts and dialled back to base. It was time to bring this little holiday to an end.

Chapter Text

They drove down the winding country road, in an unmarked black car. Dorothy regretted not insisting she be the one to drive, as her partner seemed determined to follow the speed limits. She was positive it was all—even this far out from their target—a subconscious act to appear normal, nothing to draw attention to their mission. She made a sound at the back of her throat, casting a quick glare Alex’s way. 

It was ridiculous. They were merely the vanguard of this mission, but if he didn’t pick up the pace, they’d be the last to arrive. “Do you honestly think he’s somehow watching the road?” she finally couldn’t stop herself from demanding.

Alex, jerked in his seat at her harsh tone, casting a quick glance her way before sheepishly accelerating the car. “You know better than I do what he’s capable of,” Alex said a little defensively.

Tossing blond hair over her shoulder with a frustrated breath, Dorothy refocused her attention on the road ahead. It wasn’t supposed to have come to this, 01 wasn’t supposed to break ranks. Perhaps they’d allowed him to much independent thought in his training. Dorothy’s lips pressed into a tight line at the thought of what had been done to create this tool. She believed in what OZ was doing, even if she found some of their methods distasteful.

Touching her left ear Dorothy spoke in low tones, “Distance to drop point?” she asked.

“We’re about two minutes out,” a male voice spoke through her com-link 

“I want a tight perimeter, established around the cottage,” she said firmly, even though she knew it didn’t need to be stated. They’d all been briefed before the mission started.

Heero lowered himself slowly onto the mattress, not wanting to be back in bed, but unable to deny his exhaustion. Relena knelt before him untying the laces of his shoes, and the light from the growing sunset caused her blond hair to look like auburn. Heero’s right hand moved of its own accord towards those loose strands of gold, and he slowly trailed calluses fingers through. 

Relena’s head came up as she untied his second shoe, and she smiled, though it wasn’t a carefree expression. Heero recognized a tightness around her eyes, she was worried, about him? Or about their current situation, that he’d tried to impress on them.

The sunset stretched shadows long across the road as Alex finally pulled the car along the shoulder and shut off the engine. Across the quiet county road, Dorothy could see the entrance to the rutted driveway that led to their destination.

“All teams, check in,” she ordered softly, blue eyes scanning the surrounding forest, before she slowly got out of the vehicle.

“Alpha, in position.”

“Bravo, in position.”

“Charlie, in position.”

Dorothy nodded in satisfaction, they had the cottage completely surrounded, “Alright,” she said looked to Alex, across the roof of the car. “We’ll go in as a couple whose car broke down,” she told her partner bluntly. Though in actually fact, even pretending that for the sake of the mission was almost more than Dorothy could stomach.

Alex regarded her with a flat look, “No one would ever believe that statement, if you don’t stop glaring at me,” he told her pointedly.

Her features smoothed immediately as Dorothy came around the car and took Alex’s hand in hers. She offered him a smile, that might only have been the tinniest bit threatening. “Come dear, lets go see if these nice people can help us,” she said sweetly, and it was Alex’s turn to glare.

They made their way down the driveway towards the cottage, and Dorothy could see lights on in the windows. Her eyes subtly scanned the deepening shadows of the forest around her. Dorothy knew she wouldn’t catch sight of the men slowly moving in, they were good and careful.

“Lay down,” Relena encouraged as she moved aside his shoes and took hold of the covers she’d tossed back down the bed.

“We should be moving,” he said, though he already knew his insistence wouldn’t get them out the door tonight. Sally had been adamant, and it didn’t seem like anyone argued with the doctor when she put her mind to something, not even Wufei.

Relena reached out a hand to rest on his left shoulder, trying to gently guide him towards the pillow. “Tomorrow will be soon enough,” she tried to assure him.

“You don’t know these people,” he tried to protest, but Relena just put a little more weight behind her hand. Heero relented when their eyes met, he could see the worry in her eyes, worry he knew now was for him.

She smiled what he thought might have been an attempt at a reassuring expression. “You’re right, I don’t,” she agreed not breaking eye contact with him, “but I do know you’re exhausted, if we have to run, you need to rest first.”

Her face so close to his, as she spoke, Heero could feel the touch of her breath on his skin. And his eyes darted to her lips, he wanted to feel them again, found himself thinking of their kiss, whenever she was in front of him. Tearing his eyes away from her mouth Heero looked back into those clear eyes and saw a flush of colour enter Relena’s cheeks. His own felt strangely warm as he stared at her.

Pulling his legs onto the bed with a hiss he couldn’t quite repress, Heero stretched out slipping his legs under the covers Relena held up for him. Reluctantly he moved to settle on his stomach, as that was still the only position he could maintain for any length of time without pain. He was just about to settle his head on the pillow when he heard a distant pounding on a door.

Alex’s hand pounded on the front door. “Hello?” he called, his voice carrying an obvious note of worry. “Can you help us? Our car broke down...” 

They waited in silence, Dorothy straining her ears to hear any coming movement inside the cottage. “All teams, move in,” she ordered firmly, reaching for the gun she kept holstered at the small of her back.

She and Alex stood as the last line of defence for the front door, as the men moved in on all side. There was the sound of glass shattering a second before the explosion of flash bangs tossed into the rooms. Alex threw himself against the front door, breaking it open, as Dorothy raised her weapon keeping her stance ready.

“Clear,” a voice spoke into her ear, quickly followed by another, and another, her eyes narrowed angrily.

“Damn,” Alex hissed, tossing a look back her way, “we’re too late.”

Relena smiled at him as she turned back from glancing at their locked and bolted motel room door. The sounds of voices drifting off as whoever had been locked out was finally let back in. Her fingers moving to trail lightly though the hair at his temple. “Relax,” she told him softly, “they can’t find us here.”

Heero stared at her, wondering how she could speak with such certainty, when she freely admitted she didn’t know who they were up against. One thing was certain, Heero knew they couldn’t risk lingering too long in any one place right now. It wouldn’t take long for those searching for him to spread out from the cottage.

Relena switched off the over head light, before moving back over to the bed. Heero felt her pull back the blankets before sitting on the edge of the mattress to take off her own shoes. Raising himself, Heero twisted slightly despite the pain, so he was facing Relena as she slowly stretched out beside him.

For a moment they lay there staring into each other’s eyes. Relena offered him a smile that seemed slightly unsure Heero thought. Before her hand reached for his temple again, as she brushed the bangs from his eyes. “Sleep,” she whispered.

Chapter Text

Heero’s eyes opened and he felt himself shiver slightly, his arms were decidedly cold. Rolling over onto his back, Heero glanced about the unfamiliar room. He easily remembered what had brought him here, and that memory sent a jolt of adrenaline through Heero’s system. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, Heero glanced over at the blanket ensconced bundle beside him.

Relena lay on her side facing him, the sheets and blankets of the double bed, nestled tightly around her so only her face peeked out from the mass of them. Heero had only really been left with enough to cover his bare feet, and that he suspected was only because of how they’d been tucked in. 

Rolling shoulders stiff from sleep, Heero felt an itch spark to life on his right side, and reached across his body to scratch at the bandaging near his right shoulder blade. Taking hold of the back neck of the scrub shirt he was wearing Heero hauled it over his head before dropping the material onto his legs. 

He shivered as gooseflesh sprung up along his torso, and he wondered why the room felt so bloody cold. Certainly it couldn’t just be him, if Relena’s bundle of blankets was any indication. With the itch continuing to prick at Heero, not just at his shoulder, but at his waist and the back of his right thigh, Heero twisted and reached for the beside lamp switch.

“Mhmmm...” Relena’s voice mumbled sleepily as she pulled in tighter to her cocoon, though her lashes fluttered as her eyes slowly began to open.

“Cold?” he asked her curiously.

Relena stretched as much as her blankets would allow, and a sheepish chuckle escaped from the bundle she made. “I’m actually a little warm,” she admitted, struggling for a moment to free herself. 

“Imagine that...” Heero muttered dryly, as he reached across his body with his left hand trying to peel back the tape holding the bandage to his shoulder. But it was difficult to get a firm grip.

“What are you doing?” Relena asked, her voice decidedly less sleepy sounding as she pushed the blankets back and sat up.

Heero looked into her eyes for a brief moment, “I need to get the stitches out,” he said simply, the itching was a clear sign of that. 

Relena’s hands immediately moved to try and stop him, and where they touched his skin they felt cold, causing him to shiver involuntarily. “Heero, you can’t afford to open the wounds now, they’ve just started healing,” she told him. Her eyes studied his for a moment and her left moved from his wrist to touch the side of his face. “You’re awfully warm,” she said.

“Room feels cold to me,” he told her bluntly.

Relena was off the bed in an instant after that, and making her way towards the door. “Just wait here,” she told him worriedly, “I’m going to get Sally.” She was out the door a second later before he’d even had the chance to protest.

Heero sighed, still unable to get a firm enough grip on the tape at his shoulder to remove the bandages. So he gave up on that and reached for the one near his waist, he’d just pulled the covering off his skin when the room door opened quickly admitting Relena and a rumpled, sleepy looking Sally.  

“What do you think you’re doing?” the doctor demanded, as she switched on the overhead lights and came over to the side of the bed. “I didn’t do all that work, just to have you take it out,” she contested hotly as she knelt beside the bed pulling his hands away from the wound at his waist. 

Heero sighed audibly, “It itches.”

“Means it’s healing,” Sally was quick to supply, but her voice had lost some of its indignation as her eyes actually saw the wound Heero had uncovered. Then her hands, as cold or colder than Relena’s were touching his waist, probing at the stitches there. “That’s not possible...” she muttered, and her eyes darted for Heero’s face.

He jerked slightly as she cupped his face with both hands, before pressing the back of her left hand to his forehead. “Is it infected?” Relena asked from where she’d come to sit on the bed beside Heero.

Sally shook her head slightly, eyes intently studying Heero’s before she released his face and looked back at his waist. “Lay down, on your stomach,” the doctor ordered, “I’ll be right back,” and with that she quickly left the room.

Heero didn’t immediately move to comply with the order, but looked into Relena’s concerned eyes. He saw her lips, were pressed into a thin line as she studied him, her eyes flickering towards the door, obviously wanting Sally to return quickly. “Do you feel okay?” she asked him, and those lips tipped up into a worried smile.

“I’m fine,” he told her, just as Sally came back into the room, with her medical bag in hand.

“What happened to you following orders?” Sally quipped as she placed the bag down beside Heero on the edge of the mattress.

With one last look at Relena’s face, Heero twisted himself on the bed so he was stretched out on his stomach. This time he chose to lay his head on the right side so he could keep Relena in view, and better see what Sally was about behind him. The doctor once again placed her hands near Heero’s waist lightly probing the stitches there.

“Sally, what is going on?” Relena asked as she shifted a little closer to the head of the bed.

The doctor reached into her medical bag and removed a pair of scissors, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear these stitches had been in for more than ten days, maybe closing in on two weeks.” Sally shook her head looking bewildered as she began snipping the sutures and tried to pull one free.

Heero stretched his side slightly as the first stitch came away, it felt strange, but was a relief at the same time. Relena’s right hand inched towards Heero’s as Sally continued working, and Heero reached out and took her cool fingers in his own, appreciating the distraction of her presence. 

“He healed fast?” Relena asked then, bright wide eyes looking down at him as if seeing him for the first time.

“Extremely fast,” Sally seemed to correct. Finished at his waist the doctor moved up to his shoulder and peeled back the bandage there. “When they implanted the tracking device, how long did they leave the stitches in?” she asked Heero looking down at his face curiously.

Heero tore his eyes away from Relena’s face to regard the doctor through the corner of his right eye. “About twenty-four hours,” he said, unsure why this seemed such a shock to the both of them.

Sally began working away at the first stitch in his shoulder, “Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded as Heero’s shoulder involuntarily pulled away from the sensation of the stitch coming free.

“It’s noteworthy?” he asked, attention flickering from Sally’s incredulous face to Relena’s.

“Human’s don’t heal this fast,” the doctor told him bluntly.

Relena’s hand came to rest on Heero’s forehead, drawing his attention back to her. She smiled down at him, and it seemed another sad expression, before her eyes flickered up to Sally. “Could that be why he feels so warm?” she asked.

“Most likely,” Sally agreed, as she pulled the last stitch in his shoulder free. “Alright, now your leg, lift your hips,” she ordered.

Heero did as he was told, reaching for the drawstring of the pants with his left hand to untie it, and Sally quickly drew the blue scrubs down to his knees. He settled back on the bed, full attention returning to Relena’s face, though he winced slightly as Sally tore the bandage free. Her eyes were studying him as though seeing him anew, and Heero wasn’t entirely sure that was a good thing.

She still held his hand between them, and slowly her free hand moved to lightly trace along the almost completely healed wound on his shoulder. Those fingers still felt cold to Heero and he fought against the urge to shiver again. Clearing his throat, Heero saw her eyes snap back to his face. “I told you I was an experiment...”

Chapter Text

Heero pushed himself up on the bed, once Sally had removed the last stitch, and quickly drew the scrub pants back up to his waist again. He didn’t bother tying them as he shifted to sit on the edge of the mattress. Sally was gathering the used bandages and bits of suture, her attention on what she was doing, while Relena remained kneeling on the bed behind him.

He could feel her eyes on his back, the weight of her gaze he was positive on either his right shoulder or closer to his waist. He’d noticed her eyes flicker from his face to his back a few times while Sally worked, and Heero didn’t know quite what to make of her expressions when she had. He recalled the looks he’d seen in the eyes of the scientist and overseers, those whom he actually met face to face.

Some of his earliest recollections were of those faces, and the cold calculating way they’d looked at him. They had seen him as an object, their property to be used. He’d even seen disgust and at times fear, never from the scientists, but the men who had been forced to train him. Heero shivered involuntarily, at the memory his right hand clenching into a fist on his thigh.  

“Alright,” Sally said briskly, and Heero glanced at her, only to see her eyes move from him to Relena. “I want both of you to stay in this room,” she ordered firmly, “Wufei and I will see if we can’t find something less noticeable for you Heero, to wear and get breakfast.”

Heero wanted to protest, that they didn’t have time for such things, but after only a short acquaintance with Sally, he chose to hold his tongue. It would be easier to leave once she’d left. It would be easier to tell Relena. With one last glance at each of them, the doctor turned and left the room. 

Relena immediately moved to the door, locking it behind her friend before bolting it too. She turned slowly and placed her back against the door, before her head came up and she was studying his face intently. “Are you still cold?” she asked him suddenly, a slight blush creeping into her cheeks.

He blinked glancing down at himself only to see evidence of gooseflesh on his arms. Heero twisted where he sat, and would have been glad for the absence of pain, were it not for the knowledge, that it too made him different, strange. He pulled the scrub shirt over his head, and glanced down at the floor for his socks and shoes. 

“I need to get moving,” he said, not looking at Relena as he spoke.

“We will,” Relena tried to assure him, “but Sally’s right, you need something that won’t stand out so much.” Her voice came closer, and Heero looked up from pulling on his socks to see Relena standing in front of him.

He looked at her, but didn’t want to meet her eyes, didn’t want to see what might be there. “It’s better if I go alone,” he said gruffly.

“Why?” Relena demanded quickly, and she entered his personal space, reaching beyond him. Before Heero knew it, she was wrapping the sheets of the bed around his shoulders, and pulled them tightly in front of him as she crouched down before his knees.

He stared at her, forcing himself to look into her eyes, and he didn’t see horror there, or disgust, but determination, a stubborn light. “I’m a danger to you,” he told her, wanting to shrug out from under the blankets she was holding around him.

“Why?” she asked again, “Because they’re not going to stop following after you?” she pressed.

“Because of what I am,” he said pulling his eyes away from her.

Relena’s hand reached out to the far side of his face, gently trying to coax him to look at her again. “What you are,” she said slowly, those lips tipping up in another sad looking smile, “is what you’ve always been. I’m not afraid of you,” she told him and the sadness appeared to leave her eyes as she said it.

“Perhaps you should be...” he said flatly, his eyes dropping from hers again. Heero opened his left hand, facing his palm towards the nightstand, and reached out with his mind. He felt the lamp, took a firm grasp of it and lifted. The lamp rose off the nightstand, shimmering brighter light across the pair of them as Heero lifted it as far as the cord would allow.

Heero felt more than saw Relena shift beside him, and he quickly lowered the lamp back to the surface of the nightstand. He didn’t want to look at her, didn’t want to see the horror in her eyes, or worse. Heero had seen the horror before, but the greedy need for more, was worse. They had always wanted more, always demanded it, and the one time he’d managed to give it....

Blinking in surprise Heero found himself looking into Relena’s bright, amazed eyes. “Incredible,” she all but whispered, the fingers of her right hand lightly trailing through his hair as she looked deeply into his eyes. “The bomb,” she said softly, searching his face intently, “did you protect us from it with this?”

Heero looked at her in surprise, and slowly nodded his head. It was the truth, he had tried to shield the worst of the explosion, but what made her think of that? Relena’s lips turned up in a smile that seemed to make her eyes glitter, they were captivating. He couldn’t understand how she could look at him without fear.

“That is precisely what the hero would do,” she breathed softly, her thumb stroked the skin beneath his left eye, and Heero was shocked to feel her spread a slight wetness across the skin.

He cleared his throat, surprised at the tightness there, “I’m meant to be a weapon.” If that wasn’t clear enough, Heero didn’t want to consider what it might take to show her otherwise.

“But you chose not to be,” she said with such surety.

“I can’t change what I am,” he countered a little heatedly, unfamiliar with what Relena seemed constantly to stir within him.

Relena continued to stare into his eyes, no fear. Her right hand held him fast with the lightest touch while her left remained on the blankets that slowly warmed him. “You can change what you do with it,” she told him.

Heero shook his head, “I was only taught to destroy...”

“You protected me,” she told him firmly, her own eyes appearing glassy for some reason.

‘That was a fluke?’ A part of him wanted to say, a combination of circumstances that led to only one possible outcome. But his throat betrayed him with those words on his tongue, and he looked at the young woman before him, who saw him as more than a means to an end, more than property. 

“I promise to protect you, Relena,” he found himself saying with determination, unable to look away from her face and the smile that lit up her eyes. 

She looked at him through her lashes, and her smile became slightly mischievous, “Can you lift more?” she asked curiously.

Heero felt his own lips tip up, and he opened his left hand—it wasn’t necessary to do that, but it was how he had learned and become a habit—and reached for Relena with his mind. He felt her, the softness of her skin, the beat of her heart, and he lifted her. He felt and heard her gasp in surprise, but he didn’t think it was from alarm, if anything Relena looked delighted.

As he raised her higher off the floor, Heero shifted the blankets off his shoulders and reached his right hand out towards her. Relena giggled as her fingers intwined with his, and still holding her aloft, Heero drew her to be hovering above him as he stretched back out on the mattress. Her eyes were a light and her fingers tightened on his as he slowly lowered her to be laying on top of him. 

Relena’s right hand came to rest on his chest near his heart, as he finally released her. “I could feel you,” she said with amazement and she drew their joined hands to her chest. “As I’m sure you could feel me,” she breathed a blush rising to her cheeks.

Heero had never handled something so delicately, as he had moved Relena. He knew how fragile the human body was, how easy it was to break. His free hand moved to touch the side of her face, and he felt amazed that she tipped her head towards his touch and didn’t pull away. 

Chapter Text

Dorothy slammed both hands down on the conference table, as she stood sharply from her chair. “I refuse to wear this,” she fumed angrily, “It isn’t my fault he found the bloody tracking device! Why didn’t you think to implant a second in case of this?!”

“What good would a second have done?” Alex shot back, also angry that they were blamed for Yuy’s escape, but clearly more willing to accept it than Dorothy was. “If he’d found one, he’d have found another.”

Pulling herself up straight, and tossing long blond hair back behind her, Dorothy folded arms tightly beneath her breasts. “We taught him how to be a virtual ghost, how exactly do you propose we find him now?” she demanded, shooting the man at the head of the table a heated look.

Dermail Catalonia, might have been her grandfather, but Dorothy felt none of the familial affection for the man that one might expect. He was the head of Oz and therefore first and foremost her boss, something he didn’t appreciate any of his subordinates forgetting. His blue eyes narrowed dangerously beneath thick grey eyebrows, but he didn’t immediately respond to her outburst. 

“Nichol, how close are we to receiving access to the satellite array?” he asked the man seated to his right. 

“I’m still struggling to cut through the bureaucracy,” Nichol admitted with a frown, as he lifted a tablet off the table, and swiped across the screen. “I’ve put a rush on the request, but I’m still waiting to hear back.”

Dermail’s hand clenched into a fist, his only outwards sign of frustration at those words. “Press them harder,” Dermail said pulling a hand down his beard, “I didn’t supply funding for this array for nothing.”

Dorothy flipped a hand, “Care to share with the rest of us?” she demanded, not breaking eye contact with Dermail despite his look of displeasure.

“Yuy’s extraordinary abilities,” Nichol began after a glance from Dermail, “as you know, are generated by stronger electrical impulses of his brain. That electrical activity has a very distinctive signature, which can be traced, more easily if he’s currently using that part of his brain. But even when he isn’t actively using those powers his brainwave activity is still distinctly different from humans.”

“You’ve had a way to track him the entire time?” Dorothy asked with shock and more than a little frustration. “Then why bother with the tracking device at all?”

Dermail cleared his throat sharply, “If it wasn’t obvious,” he said angrily, “tracking our property through his abilities, isn’t online yet.”

“I will get that sorted,” Nichol promised, attention returning to his tablet.

“Return to your duties,” Dermail  said dismissing them without a second thought as he pushed his chair back from the table. “Nichol with me,” he said before striding away.

Dorothy watched her grandfather leave the conference room, with a scowl, and glanced to Alex who was just getting to his feet. “You’re okay with this?” she demanded of her partner with a sceptically raised brow.

Alex gave her a flat look, “I’m not about to criticize, the boss.”

“Hmph...” Dorothy huffed with a shake of her head, “I don’t like being kept in the dark.”

“At least Yuy doesn’t know,” Alex said, digging hands into the pockets of his coat.

“Have you had any dealings with Yuy?” she demanded incredulously.

Alex shook his head, “I’ve read all the reports on him,” he contended quickly.

“I guess none of them expressed how reluctant Yuy is, to use those abilities,” she told him bluntly.

Relena smiled down at Heero’s astonished face. He had looked so unsure, so convinced that he was something to be feared. She didn’t understand how any of this was possible, what had been done to Heero to give him these powers. There was one thing she did know for certain, they’d hurt Heero to achieve these ends. She didn’t think anyone could look into those cobalt eyes and not see the pain he held deep inside.

She wanted to cry the moment he’d reached for her face, and she saw how shocked he looked that she’d tipped her cheek into his hand. Relena wanted to show him in whatever way she could, that he wasn’t a monster. Her left hand was still tightly holding his right to her chest, and she felt her heart pick up as she looked into Heero’s eyes.

On impulse, Relena dipped her lips down to Heero’s, lightly kissing him, and she immediately felt him respond to her touch. She pulled back slightly looking into those striking eyes, “You don’t have to hide from me,” she told him gently.

“You really aren’t afraid?” he asked, eyes darting across her face as if he was still looking for that expected light of fear.

Relena shook her head determinedly, “No Heero,” she told him firmly, brushing her lips against his, hoping that would prove the truth of her words. She pulled away after a moment, and thought she saw a look of disappointment in Heero’s eyes. “The only thing I fear, is you going back to Oz,” she said, feeling herself shiver at the thought of this secret organization.

Heero’s eyes dropped from hers for a moment, “They won’t give up,” he said bitterly.

“We’ll find a way to stop them,” Relena wanted to encourage.

“You have experience with this?” Heero asked sceptically, though his lips were quirked up in a slight smile.

Relena blushed a little, but smiled down at Heero’s face, “I know what they’re doing can’t be sanctioned or legal,” she told him seriously. “People who do secret illegal things, don’t often want attention drawn to them,” she wanted it to be that simple. To believe a threat to expose Oz would force them to leave Heero alone, but Relena also couldn’t be so naive, not when she had so few facts.

Chapter Text

Sally moved through the thrift store, she’d been relieved to see it open when she and Wufei left the motel. It had been a struggle to convince Heero they’d needed to stop for the night, and Sally couldn’t deny, his objections left her feeling the pressure of someone following a few steps behind them. 

Glancing towards the entrance of the small shop Sally could tell Wufei was feeling the same way. He’d remained close to the door, sharp onyx eyes ever alert, as he kept half his attention on her, and continued to watch the street outside. Her lips tipped up slightly as she returned to her search for clothing that would fit Heero.

Wufei was such a steady presence in her life, they shared so much from their past, they understood each other completely. Sally didn’t like to considered what either of their lives would have looked like, had they not found each other when and how they did. “Wufei?” she called to him softly in the quiet store, as she lifted a pair of jeans off the rack.

“I honestly didn’t expect you’d still be a picky shopper...” he muttered under his breath but clearly meant to carry to her ears.

Sally gave him a look, before hooking her fingers into the front pocket of his jeans. She drew him that much closer before holding the jeans up to his waist to gauge the fit. “I haven’t even been in here ten minutes,” she countered, giving him a smile she knew he couldn’t completely resist. “These should do just fine,” she nodded, tossing the jeans over her arm along with the shirts she’d already draped there. 

Walking over to the cashier, Sally quickly paid for her purchase. She let the woman bag the clothing items before she reached for Wufei’s hand and twining her fingers with his left the small store behind. “I don’t know about you,” she said leaning her shoulder into Wufei’s, “but I’m ready for breakfast.”

“There was a dinner a couple streets over,” he told her pointing in the direction, before the started off together.

Wufei held the door for Sally as they stepped inside the dinner, and he breathed a little easier to see that there wasn’t a crowd inside. He always felt an itch begin to grow between his shoulder blades when he was forced to come into society. Wufei hardly remembered what it was like to be comfortable around strangers.

Sometimes he wondered if it wasn’t a weakness he should be fighting against, his need to live out in the seclusion of nature. Onyx eyes flickered to Sally as she studied the menu board above the counter. She didn’t think less of him for his want to be alone, she had in fact encouraged him. He felt his lips tip up in a faint smile, still easily able to remember the first time he’d met her, in a field hospital.

Wufei came back to himself suddenly, body jerking violently, and he gasped at the pain igniting across his body. 

“Whoa!” a female voice said a little sharply, “Easy there.”

He felt hands touching him, trying to hold him steady, restraining him. Wufei forced himself to draw a calming breath before forcing his eyes to open. It took a moment for his eyes to focus, but when they did, Wufei found himself glaring at a woman. She was standing on his left side, right hand pressing his shoulder to the gurney.

“Who are you?” he growled, or tried to, his voice wasn’t nearly as strong as he wanted it to be.

“I’m the doctor who just saved your life,” she told him bluntly. “Are you going to relax?” she asked, not letting up the pressure on his shoulder, “Or am I going to have to sedate you?”

Wufei forced himself to relax back on the gurney and draw a couple of even breaths. The initial panic of waking without remembering what had happened, faded and Wufei took in his surroundings. The irritating beep of a heart monitor filtered through and Wufei recognized that he was in a field hospital. 

“That’s better,” the doctor said, taking her weight off his shoulder, but she didn’t step away. She reached into her pocket and produced a penlight and soon she was reaching for Wufei’s head. “Can you tell me your name?” she asked while flashing the light across his eyes.

He winced at the intrusion of both the light and her hand on his face, “Wufei,” he forced out.

“Good,” she said with a pleased nod, returning the offending penlight to her pocket. As she stepped back Wufei forced himself up onto his left elbow, he didn’t like the vulnerable feeling of laying prone. His vision swam at the sudden change and he was aware of the doctor’s presence returning. “Relax Wufei,” she told him firmly.

Wufei tried to knock her hands away from him with his right, but she easily caught his wrist. He glared at her, his eyes flickering to where her name was stitched onto her uniform. “Major Po,” he said coughing to clear his throat, “I don’t have time to be here.”

She blinked at him, “I prefer Dr. Po,” she told him flatly, “and I wouldn’t advise trying to move around to much.”

Wufei ground his teeth as he forced himself into a sitting position, the blanket covering him falling off his bare chest to pool on his lap. He noted the bandages on his right side, but the pain that radiated from there, he forced aside. “Woman, I’m fine,” he said somewhat angrily, “I still have a job to do.”

That raised an eyebrow on the doctor’s face, and she folded her arms tightly beneath her breasts “Maybe for you I should prefer Major,” she said evenly, “as for your job, you’re more than welcome to go back to it, against medical advice. But I’m not providing you with a uniform,” her lips quirked up into a smile.

He glared, not needing to lift the blanket to know there was nothing but it covering him. The doctor just continued to smile, her eyes sparkling with a light that Wufei found oddly infuriating and intriguing at the same time.

Wufei blinked aside the memory, he hadn’t thought much of her then, and couldn’t have imagined how she would change his life later. Sally too had changed in the years that followed, but that spirit, that determination, had never left her. 

Glancing down at his watch, Wufei looked at the date, seeing the number for the first time and feeling it click in his head. He looked at Sally, seeing that she was busy making an order for takeout. Onyx eyes scanned the rest of the dinner, looking for something anything that might serve his purpose.

“Thanks,” Sally said, passing the money across the counter as she accepted their order, and quickly glanced around for Wufei. She didn’t want to be carrying all the bags, and was a little surprised he wasn’t there, already to take them from her.

“Happy Birthday,” his smooth voice said, coming up from behind her.

Sally blinked, spinning to see Wufei standing there holding out a maple danish. His expression was almost a scowl, if you didn’t know him, but Sally could see the emotion there. She smiled at him, “I didn’t even realize,” she said with a slight laugh.

“Not how we planned to spend out weekend,” he said with a slight shrug.

Chapter Text

Dorothy strode confidently into the ‘War Room’ as it had been dubbed many years ago, the central hub for all of Oz’s current operations, were monitored from this room. It was where at one time nearly every aspect of Yuy’s life had been dissected and analyzed by the scientists and doctors who had created him. Those screens off to Dorothy’s left were dormant now, the main focus of the room on the great expanse of screens dominating the wall opposite the door.

At a brief glance Dorothy thought, the screens were showing a combined image of what the satellite array directly over the city could see. But as she stepped closer to the tech stations, Dorothy noted similarities in several of the individual screens, and realized they were displaying images of the same locations at different times. Though for the moment that appeared to be the only thing the screens were doing.

“Status?” Dermail’s voice boomed as he entered the room from a door that led directly to his private office.

“Just coming online now,” Tubarov Bilmon, the chief engineer for Project 01 said, from where he was seated at the central station. His fingers worked over the terminal with confidence, even if he lacked the smooth familiarity some of the younger engineers possessed.

Nichol who had followed Dermail into the room moved aside to stand closer to where Dorothy waited out of the way. “You worked fast,” she commented, eyeing the dark haired man briefly before returning her attention to the front of the room.

“They were very responsive once we threatened to pull our funding, for their next big project,” he replied dryly, his focus remaining on the screens.

“There,” Tubarov said with a clear not of satisfaction, and the array of screens changed subtlety.

“Zoom in immediately,” Dermail ordered, “I want to see the location the bomb went off.”

Dorothy made a sound at the back of her throat, “I get chewed out for missing him at that stupid cottage,” she hissed softly, “and you get what? For blowing up a bomb in the middle of the city?”

She felt dark eyes flicker to her but she refused to look over at him. “You’d want to try and bring him in, when he’s at full strength?” Nichol asked sarcastically.

“Whatever happened to remaining off the radar?” she countered coldly.

Nichol turned more fully to face her, “Nothing of that bomb can possibly be traced back to us,” he declared angrily. 

“And if your little creation had truly done its job?” she asked, casting him a glance through the corner of one eye. “We should have been on the ground and in position to take him immediately, so why weren’t we?”

“Our men were in position,” Nichol defended, his voice raising slightly louder, “We didn’t count on the authorities arriving with such speed.”

Dorothy tossed her head, allowing some of her own frustration to show more actively. “If you had bothered to consult with me, I could have used my contacts in the city, to delay their arrival. But no, I’m routinely left in the dark, and forced to try and clean up your mess!”

“Enough!” Dermail’s voice reverberated sharply through the room. He didn’t need to shout to be heard, and he quickly cast a dark look at the two of them facing off as though ready for a fight. “If you two want to continue your petty squabble, take it outside,” and with that Dermail appeared to dismiss the pair of them from his mind, returning his full attention to the screens.

Dorothy seethed inside to be dismissed so, but kept her outer expression neutral as she continued to study what the men were doing at the terminal. “There,” Tubarov said with a note of excitement in his voice. All eyes went to the screens and Dorothy saw a disturbance on the central image.

It was a top down look at the street where the bomb had detonated. Dorothy could see the beginnings of the explosion happening, but there was a ripple of lines around it, like something was trying to surround the device. Another distortion though fainter came from within the basement apartment itself.

“This is the signal we need to track,” Tubarov declared, “Incredible, if I can isolated the specific frequency I should be able to create a search parameter for the satellite to track. We should be able to pinpoint his exact location if he uses his powers.” Tubarov, spoke excitedly as he worked the keys. 

“Excellent,” Dermail praised, as he stood a little straighter and folded his arms across his chest. “I want to know the minute the search has begun,” his head turned so he cast a cold look Dorothy’s way over his left shoulder. “I want you and your team ready to mobilize, 01 won’t slip through our fingers again.”

Heero sat stiffly in the back of Sally’s car, Relena closely beside him, her hand subtly brushing against his, a reassuring presence. They’d been driving for the better part of two days. None of them willing to accept Heero’s beliefs that, they would be better off if they separated from him. The warmth of Relena’s fingers against his, caused Heero’s heart to beat a little faster, and he clenched his jaw against the want to look over at her.

He’d shared a part of himself with her, that he’d been reluctant to show anyone without the threat of pain, or worse driving him. And she hadn’t run away, she’d smiled at him, she’d laughed with delight as he’d held her. Relena had accepted what he was, without a demand for anything. She had seen him, kissed him, made him feel human for the first time in his life.

Heero stared darkly out the passenger’s window, not looking at the scenery that flew past, but rather looked inwards. Oz wanted him, wanted what he could be. They had means and motivation to stop at nothing to bring him back into the fold. But they also feared him, the bomb had been proof enough of that. 

But could he trust these people, Wufei and Sally, to help him escape completely? Would he ever truly be free? He hadn’t shown himself to either of them, not like he had Relena. All Sally knew so far was that he healed faster than human’s did, would she ask for more? Heero had seen her looking at him with considering eyes, but he hadn’t felt a threat from her either.

That morning at the motel room, when Sally had brought him clothing to wear, Wufei had been with her. His usual quiet presence making Heero wonder what the man was actually thinking. It had been the moment Heero had suggested leaving that Wufei had spoke up, declaring that he knew someone who might be of assistance. The Chinese man hadn’t said more, had just suggested they get moving if they wanted to get there quickly.

Heero felt fingers squeezed about his, and he returned the slight gesture with a brief flex of his own. She wanted him to look over, Heero felt sure of that, but he wasn’t sure he should. Wasn’t sure he should give into these strange feelings she created in him, was it safe to get attached? Things Oz discovered Heero wanted, were things Oz could and would use against him.

Chapter Text

Heero stared out the car window, with a sense of distrust, Wufei had driven them to a location with a sprawling series of tents and trailers. Flags whipped and rippled in the late evening breeze, and with his window partially rolled down, Heero could hear the sounds of animal in the distance.

“What is this place?” he asked, unable to keep his full uncertainty from his voice.

Wufei’s onyx eyes caught Heero’s cobalt through the review mirror, and they regarded Heero critically. “Never been to a circus I take it?” Sally ask, turning in the passenger’s seat to glance at him as well.

Heero could only shake his head, and he felt Relena’s hand tighten on his as though offering him reassurance. Heero looked at Relena briefly, seeing her lips tip up in a smile, before he glanced back to Sally and Wufei. Had he not made it clear enough to them, the danger they were in? “How can a circus help?” he asked finally.

“It can’t,” Wufei said simply, unbuckling his seat belt and reaching for the handle of his door. “But a man who spends time here, just might,” with that the Chinese man’s stepped out of the car.

Heero’s eyes narrowed, “I don’t want to endanger more people,” he said, and felt Relena’s fingers tighten around his more firmly.

Sally’s eyes left Wufei, where he was stretching just outside the car, and turned back to Heero. “I’ve told that one a time or two,” she began gesturing towards Wufei, “Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man.”

He stared at her, “That I don’t want it, means it’s the right thing?” he questioned dryly.

The doctor smiled at him, “That you want things to change,” she corrected, “You can’t always effect change on your own. Which is another thing I’ve had to teach that one,” she said smiling fondly in Wufei’s direction.

For his part Wufei was leaning back inside the car with a scowl, “Are you coming?” he asked the three of them.

Unclipping his own buckle Heero opened the door, and moved to step out into the warm evening air. He looked back to Relena who hadn’t released his hand, and instead slid across the seat to exit through his door. She adjusted her grip on his hand, twining her fingers through his before briefly leaning her shoulder against him.

Relena offered him a smile, “I know trust doesn’t come easy,” she told him softly, “but I feel certain you can trust Wufei’s judgement.”

“What makes you so sure?” he asked back just as softly. Heero’s eyes studied the man in question subtly where he was speaking softly to Sally at the hood of the car. While he didn’t sense a threat from Wufei’s actions thus far, that was still a long jump to completely trusting this man who was a stranger to him.

“I’ve known Sally a long time,” Relena told him, pressing her shoulder to his again, “She’s one of the best judges of character I’ve ever met. I might not have known about her relationship with Wufei until recently, but I just trust in her.”

Heero glanced down at Relena for a moment, feeling puzzled by her, “You trust easily?” it wasn’t exactly a question. Heero’s heart constricted in his chest, to think of the trust he’d placed in her, by revealing himself.

Relena’s cheeks blushed slightly at his question, and she looked directly at his face, with those open shimmering aqua eyes. “I’d like to think I’m a good judge of character,” she said, those lips smiling at him encouragingly.

The wind picked up Relena’s hair tossing it lightly towards Heero, and he found his free hand moving without thought to gently capture it between his fingers. “I’ll placed my trust in you,” he said softly.