Disclaimer: The usual stuff.
Author's Notes: This chapter is a rather short, but I hope it
rings true, nonetheless. The next chapter will be longer. And
yall know me; if things seem like they've been patched up too
easily...the good times might not be here to stay;) I hope you
keep tuning in to find out, and thank you for everything.
****
To Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
By the time Relena finished telling her story, Heero's entire
body was ridged. He sat in her dressing table chair, clutching
the wooden arms so hard that his knuckles turned pinkish-white.
"Where is he? I'll kill him." He released the chair
and shot to his feet. "I'll fucking kill him."
Relena ran after him as he stormed out into the apartment. "Heero...please..."
She lowered her head as Heero started throwing doors open. "Please,
Heero..."
He stopped when he realized they were alone. Jean-Paul had fled.
It was then that the pieces came together and the enormity of
what he had done hit him. "Jesus..." Unable to stand
anymore, he dropped down into a crouch. "How can you even
look at me anymore after all the...all the things I said to you
that day?" He plunged all ten fingers into his hair. "Relena?"
Forcing back the rage that welled up in his chest, directed at
himself as well as Jean-Paul, he stood and walked back to her.
"Baby...are you all right?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm not." Her forehead pressed
against his shoulder as he drew her into the comfortable circle
of his arms. "I thought my whole life was coming together.
I was dancing the part of my dreams. I fell in love with you.
Paris was a lifetime away." Relena pulled back. "But
you started some horrible chain reaction...and I have no idea
now how it all slipped away!" Her fist balled up and she
slammed it repeatedly into his hard, muscled arm. "You hurt
me so much, you jerk! I'm not a slut! I've never slept with anyone
but you....no one's ever wanted me, except Jean-Paul who's absolutely
crazy! I don't know how you could think...how you could think
I'd lie...and cheat and...." She stopped, unable to go on.
Heero eyes closed briefly as he let her finish pummeling him.
"Relena...your mother...she told me that you and that bastard..."
He let the sentence trail off, not needing to elaborate. "I
believed her. I have no excuse. But imagining you with someone
else...I couldn't stand it. I lashed back to make it go away."
"Why didn't just you ask me?" She studied his handsome
face. "Heero? Why?"
"I have no excuse," he repeated. "I fucked up.
I hurt you and I'm sorry. But I never, ever stopped loving you,
Relena. Never. I couldn't even stop thinking about you. And I
tried. God, I tried. I hope you'll forgive me for that, too."
"Then all of this...it's her fault." Relena lowered
her head back to his shoulder. "My mother...she hates me,
Heero. She brought him back into my life, she told you lies...why??
I can't figure it out!" She hugged his torso for support.
"Why is all of this happening to me?"
He held her for a long time as she cried, stroking the soft flesh
of her back. "Relena," he finally began. "You have
to press charges."
"It's my word against his," she whispered. "And
he has my own mother on his side. There would be no point."
"Baby...I'm so sorry." Heero cupped her face in his
hands. "When I see him, I'll make him wish he had never laid
eyes on you."
Relena sniffed. "I don't want you doing anything that might
jeopardize your future. He's not worth it."
"He's not going to go without paying for this, Relena."
His thumbs wiped her cheeks clean. "I swear."
"Heero...let's just forget about him for now. Please."
She pressed her lips to his, erasing the lingering horror of Jean-Paul's
attack. "I thought you hated me. I thought I'd never get
to touch you again."
He shook his head. "I intend to make it all up to you, somehow."
Relena's arms curved around his back. "Just hold me like
this and you'll be off to a good start."
After a long minute of doing just that, Heero looked around. "Let's
get out of the hall." He bent down, lifted her off the ground,
and carried her back into her bedroom. "I guess you probably
could have walked on your own."
She smiled through her leftover tears. "I don't mind."
Her eyes darted to the slightly mangled pregnancy test box. "Oh
god..."
Heero frowned. "What's wrong?"
Relena's gaze snapped back up to him. "Heero...about the
thing I wanted to talk to you about..."
****
"I wish she had agreed to come and stay with us."
Trowa looked down at his lover's crown of tousled blond hair.
"If she had, we could not have spent the night as we have."
Quatre chuckled and dropped a kiss onto the taller boy's flat,
tanned and deliciously bare stomach. "It would not kill you
to go without for one night. You may not take me so much for granted."
"I take nothing for granted," Trowa said, running a
gentle hand up and down Quatre's back. He nestled his head further
into the down pillow. "He would not be foolish enough to
touch her under her brother's roof."
"You forget, ma cher..." Quatre threw his head back
to look up at his boyfriend. "Crazy men are fools enough."
Trowa thought about that for a moment. "Do you wish to call
her? To see if she is all right?"
"It is very late," Quatre replied. "Perhaps I am
being the Mother Hen, as they say."
"Our Relena is strong." Trowa inched his body down the
bed until they were face to face. "We are here if she needs
us. But until then..." He pulled the expensive sheet over
their heads. "Do not forget yourself, that we are on vacation,
Little One."
He didn't think about Relena again for a long time. But when Trowa
finally fell asleep, spooned up behind his body, Quatre couldn't
shake the knawing sensations of worry and guilt. Sleep only came
to him by means of his lover's steady breath on the back of his
neck. Trowa, the ever-solid foundation upon which his happiness
was built.
****
The alarm on Heero's watch beeped. He sat up on the bed, still
cradling Relena in his arms. "Time's up."
Relena closed her eyes and turned her face into his collar. "Do
we have to look?"
"We've both been in some sort of purgatory for the past ten
minutes. Let's look at it and find out and know for sure so we
can make plans if..."
"If the worst happens," Relena finished for him. Heero's
fingers threaded through hers. "All right. Let's do it."
They held hands as they re-entered Relena's bathroom. To keep
from biting her nails, she stuffed her other hand in the pocket
of the terrycloth robe she had changed into. The tester was lying
next to the marble sink. Relena turned her head. "You look.
I can't."
Taking a breath, Heero picked up the stick and the box to compare
his findings. After a long minute, Relena could actually feel
his body relax. "It's negative."
Her eyes popped open. "Really?"
"See for yourself." Heero showed her.
Relena's knees sank as a wave of relief washed over her. "Oh
my god...thank you so much."
Heero wrapped the box and the tester in toilet paper. "I
don't think you want your housekeeper to see this." He threw
it into the garbage can without reverence. "Are you all right?"
"I'm better," she replied, embracing him again. "I
wouldn't have been if you hadn't been here with me."
His lips found the top of her head. "It's my fault you even
had to go through this."
"I don't remember you forcing me to..." She stopped
suddenly. "Someone's here."
Heero's eyes narrowed into thin, stormy blue slits. "If it's
him..."
"Relena!" Lucrezia's voice called out for her. "Are
you here?"
She pushed Heero out of the bathroom. "Oh, this doesn't look
good. Me in my bathrobe alone in the house with you!"
He had to smile. "I suppose this is my cue to make a hasty
exit."
"Hello? Relena?" It was Millardo this time, calling
to her.
Relena ushered him to the window. "I'm sorry. I just..."
"I know. God, I hate leaving you here like this." He
gently took her hands, kissing each palm. "I love you, Relena."
"I love you, too," she replied without hesitation. A
frown suddenly skirted across her face. "Question. Are we
failing Biology?"
He shook his head before capturing her lips in a deep kiss. "I
took care of it."
There was a knock on her door. "Relena?"
She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Have dinner with me
tomorrow night. I want you to meet my friends."
Heero nodded. "But only if you promise to come to school.
And lock your door tonight. Push the dresser in front of it. Keep
the phone next to you on your..."
Relena smiled. "Deal." After another, slower kiss, she
urged him out the window. "Be careful, Heero!"
"Relena, is anything wrong?" Lucrezia's voice was concerned.
"Hello?"
He was already down the fire escape when Relena thought of one
more thing. She stuck her head out the window. "What about
the blond..." He didn't hear her and kept descending. "...girl?"
With a sigh, Relena closed the window. She could berate him about
that later.
After smoothing down her hair, she went to answer her door. Lucrezia
and Millardo were waiting in the hall. "I'm sorry,"
she immediately apologized. "I was...in the bathroom."
Millardo lifted an eyebrow, but after he managed a quick peek
around his little sister and saw no one in her room, he relaxed.
"How was your evening?"
Relena looked down at the carpet. "There wasn't a dull moment."
****
Heero waited in the alley between Relena's building and the next
until he saw the light in her bedroom go out. He waited another
five minutes before he climbed back up the endless fire escape.
She hadn't locked the window, and he made a mental note to scold
her later.
He crawled through the curtains and over her bay window, landing
on the floor without any noise. Relena was curled up in her four
poster bed, her eyes closed in what appeared to be dreamless sleep.
Her hair was a golden halo spread out across her pillows.
It brought a smile to his lips to see that she had dragged a heavy
armchair in front of her door and placed the cordless phone next
to her hand on top of the covers. After shedding his jacket, Heero
walked over to the bed and replaced the phone in its cradle.
"You are so beautiful," he whispered, sitting next to
her on the bed.
Relena's eyes opened. "And you're so predictable." She
smiled upon seeing his long-sleeved grey shirt that clung to his
sculpted torso. "Okay, gorgeous, too."
Heero leaned over her, his lips brushing over her forehead, eyelids,
cheeks and finally, her mouth. "I couldn't just leave. I
never would have slept tonight, anyway."
"For worrying about me?" Her cool hands slipped under
his collar as they kissed. "I didn't realize."
"That I think about you constantly?" Heero gave her
his rare smile. "I thought it was too obvious. Even when
I tried to hate you, I was still thinking about you."
Relena hesitated for only a second as she pulled back the covers
on the empty side of the bed. "Stay the night?" she
asked in a soft voice.
"But your brother..."
She silenced him with a kiss. "We'll only be sleeping. And
in the morning, you can sneak out the same way you came in. Like
Romeo after visiting Juliet."
"Why don't you compare us to a couple who end up a little
more happy?" Heero started pulling off his shoes.
Relena watched him stand and unfasten his pants, her heart beating
fast within her breast. "I can't think of one right now."
Stepping out of his Dockers, he tugged his shirt over his head.
"I'll get back to you."
In only his boxer briefs, Heero slipped under the covers next
to her. "Are you sure this is all right?"
"I didn't feel safe until I felt you come back through my
window." Relena pressed closer to him. "You are my Lancelot."
Heero shook his head. "He betrayed Arthur with the Queen.
Keep thinking about it." His arms circled her shoulders as
he settled back into the pillows.
His body was so strong and warm, Relena could already feel herself
slipping into her dreams. "Sleeping Beauty and her Prince?"
she murmured.
"Nothing Disney has made into a movie."
She exhaled softly. "I'll keep thinking about it."
Heero kissed her forehead. "Later. For now, just sleep. I'll
still be here when you wake up."
"You had better be." Her fingers tangled in his short
hair, her last motion before sleep claimed her. "I love you."
For the first time in days, Heero let himself sleep as well. "I
love you, too."
****
To Be Continued