Warning: Expect one helluva cat fight, melodrama, sap, you name it
Contains: mini Rx2xR
*italics*
\\ // Duo's thoughts
It would be a thirty-minute walk through the tunnels that led to the forest. So far it was a trying ten minutes with Relena chatting incessantly into Duo's ears.
\\The very person I'm trying forget is constantly being thrown back in my face. Could life be more unfair?//
“Aren't you even worried about Heero,” asked an irate and perplexed Relena.
\\Could she be any more clueless…or, for that matter, anymore irritating?//
“I don't have to. I know he's ok,” he answered after taking a deep breath.
Heero. Heero. Heero. It was always about Heero. Didn't Relena have anything else she wanted to talk about? Duo could feel his restraint slipping. He would do almost anything to shut her up.
\\One more question about Heero and I'll snap. //
“Wait. How do you know that? Have you spoken with him? Have you been hiding this from me all this time--”
“*No*, nothing like that. I just know.”
“What does *that* mean?”
Duo sighed heavily, his tone filled with a strange conviction. “I think that when you share something…something especially intense with someone, even if it is short-lived, you develop this… sensitivity. If anything had happened to him, I would have felt it. I'm sure of it.”
There was a brief silence as they continued to walk through shadowy expanse of the tunnel.
Relena's brow creased in confusion. “You mean because you two are both gundam pilots--”
Duo hid a little smile. Honesty felt so refreshing. “That's a part of it, but not the whole thing...I hate to admit it, but there is something else, something almost spiritual that ties us together.” He knew what he was doing, but he stopped caring three annoying questions ago.
Relena could feel her face flush. There was something snide about Duo's tone, something that pricked her in a very personal way. Her hands began to shake, giving telltale signs of her apprehension, “What are you talking about? *Spiritual*? What does *that* mean?” Recognition, although it was unwanted, came slowly. “You can't be serious?” She stopped in her tracks and looked at him with incredulous eyes. “You *can't* want Heero. No…that's impossible,” she glared at him, “and unholy.”
He peered at her with a rather amused expression. “Why is it so impossible? He's not trying to kill me. We have a common lifestyle, and like you said, I'm around him more than you are…at least, I was. It has all the makings for a romance, don't you think?”
Relena barely heard him. Her attention was turned inward. She said to herself in a shaky, small voice, “Why didn't I see this coming? He's always tagging alongside Heero…and, all this time, I thought…”
Her body began to quiver with rage.
“Relena--”
“Don't you dare say my name… You can't want what *I* hold sacred!”
Duo put his hands up. “Wait a minute. Hold on. There's no need to--” He was stricken silent by what he saw. Relena's face masqueraded as a ripe, red tomato. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides. Duo had never seen her so angry. He blinked. Come to think of it, he had never seen her angry before. That adoring, pitiable gaze she usually possessed when Heero was around was nowhere to be seen. Duo decided to be more tentative with her. He crossed his arms over his chest and peered at her with an almost compassionate look. It only made her angrier.
Duo attempted to choose his words carefully. He failed, miserably. “Believe me, you don't want Heero. Especially not after the way I've seen him treat people, even people he supposedly cares for…”
“That is not your decision to make!” Relena's words were clipped.
“Oh? Well, someone has to since you are obviously incapable of taking care of yourself. Haven't you ever heard of something called the preservation instinct?”
She slapped him. The blow didn't deter him from speaking. He stared back at her. He watched the tears well up in her eyes and spill over.
“He's either running from you or trying to kill you. When will you learn--” Duo was cut off by a sudden barrage of hits from Relena. There were weak blows, but he nonetheless felt the need to defend himself. She called out as she her fists struck out at Maxwell's chest and face.
“Stop it!! Stop it!! I won't listen to lies,” she shouted through her tears.
“Relena—you have to get control of yourself--” Duo tried to get a hold of her wrists, but as soon as he did, she began to kick at him with her legs. She struggled furiously with him, perhaps thinking that by hurting him she could banish all that she had heard. He could feel her dance shoes carving into his legs with each kick of her feet.
With strained patience, he yelled, “Do us both a favor and end this before someone gets hurt!”
She ignored his warning. Although her arms were successfully restrained, she still continued to kick at him. He turned swiftly. Using his hold on her arms, he pinned her against the nearest wall. It would only take on well-placed kick to incapacitate him so he moved in using the entire length of his body to stay her. He was against her in way that she could not even bring her knee up to disarm him.
“What do you think you are doing,” she huffed
He responded dryly, “What do you think *you're* doing?”
“I'm--” She struggled with all her might to free herself, but Duo wouldn't relent.
Her arms were pinned by the sides of her head and her hands dangled harmlessly above her head. Duo's hands were wrapped around her forearms. Out of breath with her struggles, she huffed heavily into the side of Duo's face. Her hot breath bathed his cheek as she fought to contain her anger. Her breasts were squashed, almost painfully, against his chest.
He spoke gently into her ear, the humor in his tone pricking her even more, “We will stay this way until I am absolutely sure your tantrum has ended.”
She struggled furiously with him, but the harder she tried, the more he pressed himself against her.
He spoke again into her ear, “You *will* listen to me, Relena. Out of all the people who surround you. I, alone, seek to help you. Stay away from Heero.”
“You disgust me. You only want him to yourself. How you continue to entertain these sick fantasies is beyond--”
“How can *you* continue? When will you learn that he doesn't want you? Heero can't love anyone, let alone himself! There's no room in that cold heart of his for anyone! When will you allow yourself some self-respect?” Duo stopped. He could feel himself trembling. His words applied as much to Relena as to himself. For a brief moment, his hold on her loosened. But, she was too irate to notice.
She shrieked instead, “Let go! You-can't-do-this-to-me!!”
His tone softened as he said, “I'm doing it right now and the only way out of this is to control yourself.”
She squirmed with irritation. He suddenly realized the humor of his situation.
His voice came out strained, “And, don't wiggle like that, unless you want this situation to get even more uncomfortable.”
She flushed crimson with understanding. Her eyes grew wide as she hissed, her voice barely an audible whisper, “You're sick! You can't be serious!”
“I'm a healthy teenage boy who hasn't gotten total control over his body. Try me.”
“Heero would never stand for this!”
“Actually, I beg to differ. This falls in line with our spandex boy's tactics.”
“There is no 'our.' He doesn't belong to you. And, what do you mean by that?!”
“*And*, he belongs to *you*? I guess stalking someone automatically makes them your possession?”
“Stop it! I bet you enjoy this, you pervert!”
“Listen, *Relena*, if anyone one of us is sick, it's you. He runs from you and you still don't get it. He threatens to kill you and you still don't get it. What will it take to wake you up? Heero doesn't want you! He'll never want you! Listen to me! Save yourself while you still can. Care for someone who can actually want you back--”
“He *does* care for me.”
“What makes you believe that?”
“He kissed me once.”
Duo rolled his eyes. “What a fantasy...”
“It was two months ago, here on earth. I was walking through a city in Ambersford when I caught a glimpse of a guy who looked awfully like Heero ducking into an alley ahead of me. I followed him--”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Shut up!.. I went the same way he did and when I caught up with him I realized that he was, indeed, Heero. But, there was something different about him. The alley was dimly lit, but I could still make out his face. He seemed approachable this time like he wouldn't fight me, like he didn't want to. He spoke to me and said, 'When people are thrown together this way it must mean something.' He stepped closer to me and then he did it. He brushed my hair away and planted a *beautiful* kiss on my neck, and then he said, 'The next time I kiss you, you will know that that hour is your last.'”
“Hel~lo? He was just threatening you again!”
“But, he kissed me!”
“Yuy was being creative. Don't you get it? He was saying that he would rather kill you then have to be physically involved with you. Do I have to spell it out for you?”
“No! He was trying to protect me. He wants to be with me but he knows that it's too dangerous in these times of war.”
Duo chuckled softly, “You know, Relena, I wish I had some of your innocence. Everything is so much easier when you are deluded.”
Duo's hands were slick with sweat on Relena's forearms. Their body heat mingled together creating a fever that rivaled their anger. He sighed against her neck.
“How would you feel if I told you *what* made Heero so 'approachable,' as you put it? Here you are, angry with me because you are worried that *I* want Heero. Lady, you don't know the half of it! He desired *me.*”
“In your dreams!”
“*That* reminds me of something…except Heero and I made our dreams a reality. I remember him pinning me against the floor, and I also remember him making an attempt to ravish me right there, *way* before your *little* encounter. ”
“Liar! I won't listen to this! Heero would never! And, with you?? Never. He has higher standards!”
“Sorry, Relena, you're wrong. I'm afraid mouthy, obsessive *aristocrats* run a little sour for his palate.”
Tears rolled down Relena's cheeks.
\\God, Heero, you've even made me catty.//
Relena began to sob hysterically. Duo's anger vanished.
“Oh, geez. I'm---Oh, man. You can't cry. Not, right now…we were having so much fun…Venting hidden hostilities…admitting the truth--”
Relena's sobs began to shake her body so that her entire being vibrated under Maxwell. It was a struggle for her to say, “I-----*won't*--- believe-----you!”
“Ojousan,… Heero hurt me so I guess I wanted to hurt you... I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.”
He turned to look into her dewy eyes and her tear-stained face. She stared blankly at him, not really seeing him. They were nearly nose-to-nose as Duo's body hugged Relena's quivering one. He still held her hands above her head.
She spoke first, her voice a tired whisper in spite of its recent strident anger, “I made a mistake of believing you would lead me to Heero. I thought: befriend his friend and everything will fall into place.” Her voice changed into a low, satiny whisper, every gust of her breath fanning across Maxwell's divine lips. Her lids were at half-mast, giving an almost dreamy air to her doll like features.
She continued, her tone curiously hesitant, “But, now, I see that I was mistaken.” For a brief moment, her body went limp against his before righting itself. “You're no tool; you're only an obstacle. I can't forgive you for what you have tried to do.”
Something electric ran hotly between them. For a second, everything fit into place: her anger, his nearness, the emptiness of the tunnel. For a brief moment, the closeness of their two bodies felt “tolerable.” And, in that electric atmosphere something cracked like a whip. Something snapped in both of them. Relena leaned forward, pressing her mouth to a flabbergasted Duo's lips. An unnamable force compelled him against his own will. He was suddenly aware of her breasts trapped between them. For the first time, he realized his thigh was caught between the juncture of her legs. He responded to the kiss, prompting Relena's lips open with his own.
\\Relena, no. You don't know what you're doing…//
Before he knew it, Relena gently tasted the contours of his lips with dainty licks of her tongue. He opened his mouth to slant wetly over hers. And, that's when she bit him; bit him hard enough to draw blood.
He released his hold on her, staggering backwards as he brought a hand up to his throbbing lip. His indigo eyes watery, he's stared at her in disbelief. The blood trickled lazily down Duo's lip. Relena was breathing heavily, glaring darkly at Duo. Her eyes took him apart, ripping his apparent humanity to shreds. She now saw him as the living, breathing obstacle to her beloved Heero. Her features grew fierce. Then she saw the blood, running red, running savagely down the side of Duo's mouth. And, suddenly as the madness had struck her, her sanity resurfaced.
Her body became lax. “The blood,” she moaned. Her voice became doubtful and whisper-soft. “I've spilled blood?”
“Yes, *you* did *this*.” He pointed to his wounded lip.
“No.” She took a step away from him. He advanced forward.
“*Yes*, it's true. Relena Peacecraft is a biter! Let the world beware!”
“*No*, I don't ---I was upset—and – you were so close... and… you wouldn't…”
“Never thought you had it in you.”
“Please, stop. I can't take it.”
She covered her ears with her hands and shook her head as if it would dispel the moments before.
Duo took her hands away from her head and held her still as he said, “For all your words about pacifism, and non-aggression, *you* are a hypocrite. And, from now on, you have no right to turn down your nose down at anyone, *especially* me. Because, I know what you really are: a fraud.”
“No, it's not true--”
“Then, what did you call all of this: the shrieking, the hitting, the *biting*? You don't have me fooled one bit, Relena. I know you enjoyed every second of it.”
For once, she was silent. Since it was the only thing she could do given that he wouldn't let her out of his grasp, she turned her head away from him.
“I'm right, aren't I? You liked it, didn't you? You're spoiled, used to getting everything that you want, but you've never experienced anything like *this* before. Is that what you're missing? Excitement? Is that why Heero has you so wound up? I bet now you've realized that excitement comes in other forms than chasing after a dangerous boy who wants nothing to do with you.”
She remained silent.
“Fine. I understand. You're not going to answer me.”
He let her go and began to walk away. Her hands hung uselessly at her sides.
With a haunted voice, she finally spoke, “Heero… told me …something else that day in Ambersford, something that… has been eating away at me, something I didn't want to understand…he said, 'You don't see *me*. I've never existed; it's your discontent with the quality of your life that has you fooled.'”
“…”
“Attacking you,… what I did earlier felt …*good*. It was wrong, it was brash, it was *mean*, but it felt really, *really*… good. It almost felt better than finding Heero, or having him actually look at me, or… wanting--”
Duo cleared his throat; he didn't want *that* many details.
“No one has ever pushed me to that point before.”
“Relena…you don't have to say another word.”
She looked down at her arms and at the marks that Maxwell's hands had left on her sensitive skin. He stepped closer to take a look at what had her so enthralled. He gasped as he became aware of the bruises.
“I'm sorry. I didn't realize…”
For the first time, she looked at him. Her voice was as calm as her expression.
“No, it's okay. You were only trying to restrain me. I deserved every bit of it.”
Duo stared at her, his face betraying all the confusion and apprehension he felt.
\\I don't know what she's up to, but it can't be good.//