Choosing Fate

Chapter 10

By Lady Saffir

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Gundam Wing characters.

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Yes, Heero did something he immediately regretted.

Heero ripped the head off of Mr. Fuzzy, and threw it across the room.

Let me explain.

When he was young, about two or so, his aunt in Japan sent him a stuffed penguin toy for his birthday. Heero immediately fell in love with it, and named him Mr. Fuzzy.

Now, Mr. Fuzzy has been with Heero for over fourteen years, and still resides on his bed during the day. Heero swears he doesn't sleep with him now, but I bet on a really bad day you could find him curled up with Mr. Fuzzy in his arms. Mr. Fuzzy is the ultimate comfort toy.

At any rate, Heero had been clutching to the penguin as if he were a life preserver. I should have noticed how white Heero's knuckles were as he held onto the toy, but I was growing frustrated. So when he took his anger out on that poor toy, I snapped.

"What is wrong with you?!" I demanded, crossing the room to fetch the decapitated head.

"What's wrong with me?" Heero repeated, color staining his cheeks. "I've just found out that the chance of me ever playing soccer again is almost zero! How would you like it if you couldn't play the flute ever again, or sing, or do anything that's really important to you? Would you take it calmly?" he demanded, angrily swiping at the tears that were coursing down his face.

"I can't...god, Relena, what am I going to do now?" Heero croaked out, burying his face in his hands. "My dream was to play soccer at least on the college level, and now that will never happen. What am I going to do?"

And seeing Heero like this, lying in bed, confessing to me his fears, my anger vanished. How would I feel if I couldn't do something, and had been planning a large part of my life around that one thing?

The thought was too big for me.

Mindful of Heero's leg, I sat by him and pulled him to me, settling his head against my shoulder.

"Oh, Heero," I whispered. "I am so sorry that this happened."

And I sat there, and held Heero while he cried out his anger and frustration. Something wet splashed against my hand, and I found that I too was crying.

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I stumbled down the stairs a little bit later, both physically and emotionally drained. Heero had cried himself to sleep, a fact that I was still having problems believing. This was Heero; Mr. Stoic, Everything is Fine Yuy. And to see him so...human, I suppose, was a shock to me. Heero was supposed to be a stone pillar, a person that could weather anything and still remain strong.

But after I had realized he was asleep against me and had carefully placed his head back on the pillow, all I could do was sit there and watch him sleep. Lines of pain were etched around his mouth and eyes, with a crease splitting his brow. I had run my hand over his face, trying to smooth the pain away, unable to leave him like that. And I found myself growing angry, angry at that thoughtless player that had taken a part of Heero away from himself.

I wanted vengance. I wanted that person to feel how badly he had hurt Heero, to understand just what he had caused. It was wrong of me to feel that way, I know, but I am only human.

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I walked over to Duo's, in desparate need of a friend.

Duo whistled when he opened the door and saw me standing there with poor Mr. Fuzzy in my hands.

"Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well," he dramatatized, sweeping the bird's head from my hand. "Whether tis nobler...."

I couldn't help it; I had to laugh. And with the laughter I felt a large weight lift off of my chest.

"Thanks, I needed that," I said, applauding Duo for his fine acting skills.

"Quite welcome," he returned, bounding through his house to the rec room. "Come on, me an' Dorothy are just starting a movie."

I stopped in my tracks, feeling immediately uncomfortable. Dorothy and I were friends, in the loosest sense of the word. We could speak civilly to each other, and could withstand going for each other's throats, but....

There was a way that she looked at me, especially now, that made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Like she didn't entirely trust me.

"Er...that's okay. I just came over to give you the head's up on Heero," I stammered, earning a look from Duo.

Duo still had his knack for reading me, so I didn't even try to hide the fact that I was uncomfortable. He regarded me for a moment, then nodded slowly.

"Okay, thanks for the warning," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow in class."

"Okay. Well, um...bye," I muttered, then fled down the hallway, the sound of Dorothy's voice floating after me as she called for Duo.

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"Can we please skip ahead? I already know Heero's a crank when he's sick. Besides, our time is running short."

"I believe that I am more aware of that fact than you are, my dear. But yes, I will skip ahead to something else."

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By the end of my sophomore year, all of us were in relationships. Some were better than others, but that was to be expected. Wufei and Sally were going strong, as were Quatre and Catherine and Heero and myself. Duo and Dorothy had a love/hate thing going on; she'd treat him like crap, he'd get ticked, then go back to her. Things would be good for a while, then the whole cycle would start over.

It was emotionally draining to watch.

Marie and Trowa, surprisingly, started dating. I had problems putting hyperactive Marie with a quiet person like Trowa, but she did have him laughing and smiling more often, which I was glad of.

The end of my sophomore year was also the end of Heero, Sally, and Quatre's senior year. I was torn between wishing Heero would suddenly fail every class to being very proud of him. He was going to graduate as Valedictorain of a class of four hundred.

I did mention our high school was rather large, didn't I?

Anyway, Heero had been accepted early on in the year to a school several hundred miles away. Sally was going there as well to be a doctor, and it turned out that they would be living on the same floor.

I will not spazz out. I will not think silly little thoughts of Heero and Sally hooking up. I will not worry that Heero will leave me for some chick he meets in a bar.

*sigh* I think I need a drink now....

We had the entire summer before us though, even though both of us were working. I was doing some volunteer work at the hospital as well as working at the mall, and Heero was being 'errand boy' at his father's engineering firm.

The weeknights were usually too full for us to see each other, except for small amounts of time. But when the weekends came, though, we were inseperable. Not that we excluded our other friends - many times we'd meet somewhere and go run through the mall. Our favorite place was a large shopping complex that also housed a Walmart.

Ah...good ol' Wally World. Can anything compare?

There's just something about running through the toy isles yelling for each other that, well, makes you feel like a kid again. Our forays would often last until 11 or so at night, then we went to 'Mama Jo's All-Night Diner'.

Sound hokey? Well, a bit. But the food was absolutely wonderful.

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So I'm sitting at home one night, talking with Catherine on the phone. We were lamenting over our boyfriends going away to college in two months.

Eek.

The phone beeps and I put Cathy on hold while I switch over, expecting it to be dad, since he was on a business trip.

It was Heero.

"Cathy, I'll call you back later, okay?"

Now, normally I'd just call Heero back, but he and his parents were leaving early in the morning for vacation.

By vacation I'm not talking Disney World or the beach. I'm talking Gifu, Japan, where Hitori's anscestors first started out.

Heero and I chatted over silly little things; me telling him what my niece had said to Milliardo (I guess kids DO say the darndest things!) and all about the idiots that had showed up at work.

An hour later, Heero reluctantly wound down the conversation.

"I have to get up early tomorrow - the flight leaves at 6:30," he said, earning a sympathetic cringe from me.

"Ugh. Well, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite," I teased. "I love you."

I could hear Heero's grin. "Love you too. And I've got something to give you when I get back."

With that he hung up, leaving me with a week worth of suspense. What in the world did the boy have planned?