Author: Liewe (liewe@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: standard apply, please don't sue
Relena and Pagan had found him lying in a barren and desolate field on the edge of the kingdom unconscious and burning with fever, shivering from the cold air on his exposed form. Being the kind hearted person she was they had taken him in, the other pilots too far away to care and his circus troupe in the colonies. He now seemed so fragile, just lying there helpless, the fever rendering him incoherent during his short spells of consciousness; unlike the man, she remembered who always stood with a quiet and un-denied strength emanating from his form. Relena Peacecraft was watching over the downed pilot of the Gundam Heavyarms, struggling to stay awake, fighting the sandman and his world of dreams as if her life depended on it. She had been watching over him for 36 hours straight, not daring to take a moment for herself if the tide should turn for the worst or the best not wanting to deny him of anything he should need. Her eyes tired, her skin almost as pale as the young man who lay on the white sheets did. In her hands, she held a cool cloth, which she used repeatedly in an attempt to fight the raging fever. The phone lines were down and a fierce storm raged outside the palace, buffeting the walls with strong winds and pelting rain, there was no way that anyone was going anywhere at the moment.
The fever had been raging in his weakened body for almost two days without showing any signs of breaking, she didn't know what to do anymore, she had done everything she could possibly think of to do. She had changed his clothes, covered him in blankets and kept a cooling cloth on his forehead, constantly changing the sheets to prevent his fever from rising any higher, not wanting to risk that he might catch chill due to soaked bedding. His face was pale, and she had brushed his uni-bang out of his eye, watching with fear as his face would periodically move into a pained expression then to grim and then to pained once more. All she could do was cool his brow with the cool cloth and murmur soothing words into the dark hoping that somewhere he would hear her voice and that maybe it would soothe him. As she sat there watching over him her mind began to grow sleepy she had been fighting this battle with herself for hours now. Her usual sleeping habits catching up to her and compounding with the sleep she had lost looking over Trowa, before she knew it sleep had claimed her.
~ The young Peacecraft was standing on the ledge of a roof looking down from the great height, vertigo looming in the background. Her tear stained face then turned to the darkened night sky, as if asking a question, her long honey mane whipped around her from the force of the wind at the top of the building. She knew what she had planned to do that night, but would she have the will to continue with her plans. Her heart had been broken one to many times by the emotionless Heero Yuy, the last straw to her sanity having happened the night before. She had been standing on the beach reminiscing the day when she had found the Perfect Soldier, quietly relaxing. Heero had come up to her and had roughly grabbed her arm pulling her face inches from his, "You need to go back to the car," his harsh voice had spat in her face.
"Why," she had screamed, Heero having lost his patience with the stubborn girl, had backhanded her hard across the face. The girl had smelt liquor on his breath, the first time he had spoken to her that night, she should have known not to anger him further when he was so obviously drunk.
"For your safety Princess," he had spat at her as he had proceeded to throw her over his shoulder and then proceed up the stairs to the waiting car. The other Gundam pilots had been there to see her humiliation, her hair obscuring their faces from her view, and her bruised one from theirs. If she had seen their faces maybe she wouldn't be attempting to accomplish this task. She would have seen the disapproval they threw at Heero Yuy; and the compassion that had been thrown her way by Quatre and Duo, and the worry in Trowa's eyes; but no her hair and her own stubbornness had prevented her from seeing any of that.
Now she stood on the roof’s ledge, her feet inches from the edge and oblivion, her hair and dress whipping wildly around her, as the wind tore all sound away from her quivering form, she was ignorant to the world around her. She didn't hear the roof door opening behind her, the sounds was snatched from her unresponsive conscious, she only became aware of another presence when the person secured their arms around her waist as they pulled her close to their body. The arms tightening their grip around her waist as he stepped closer to the center of the roof dragging her behind him. He didn't scold her for attempting to end her life, or for letting herself be so affected by the emotionless pilots uncaring attitude towards her. When she was allowed to turn around, she saw who her savior was; it wasn't Heero as she had expected but the quiet Trowa who had saved her from herself. She was unable to say anything instead she just buried her head in his chest, crying her heart out as he tried to offer her comfort.
They stood there, in the roaring wind, Trowa cradling her in his arms, whispering words of comfort into to her. His eyes clouded over in relief she couldn’t see, he had almost lost her to the world before, he cursed Heero Yuy, the man who threw everything away, he threw Relena’s love, something that he yearned for with every fiber of his being. He was glad for the chance to hold her to feel her warmth against his body, he was glad for her preoccupation with her own sorrow to see the tears gathering in his own eyes at the thought of losing her. ~
The sound of birds chirping filled the room, the distant sound of a babbling brook flowing into the room with the sunlight from the opened windows. Relena was sitting curled up I in a large and rather overstuffed armchair which had been pulled to Trowa’s bedside. Her legs were cramped from the position in which she had been sleeping, her eyes traveled around the room, lighting upon Trowa’s sleeping figure.
"Ugh, how long have I been asleep," Relena’s tired mind asked the warmly lit room as she struggled to rise from her cramped seat as her legs protested the action. Struggling to push the dream out of her mind because it wasn’t really a dream it was more of a memory. Finally, with much difficulty she managed to maneuver herself over to Trowa’s sleeping figure to gently brush her fingers over his forehead, relief crossing her features as she felt no evidence of the fever, which had raged the night before and the night before that, he was now sleeping peacefully. She sat there admiring his peaceful form; this was the first chance she had been given to see Trowa completely peaceful without the masks of life present. ‘He looks so peaceful and innocent,’ she thought to herself, before she turned away from him to call for breakfast to be brought for her as well as some soup for Trowa in case he should wake up.
"Relena…"
"Trowa, you’re awake," she uttered in surprise as she rushed over to his prone form, gently pushing him back to the covers when he struggled to rise from the bed.
"No you don’t just stay there, you’ve been out of it for awhile."
"How long," he croaked.
"We found you almost three days ago."
"Where?"
"In a field on the edge of the kingdom, a storm was brewing so we brought you here, we would have taken you to a hospital but the storm raged for three days it was over when I woke up."
"Oh, the others?"
"I don’t know where they are Trowa, just like back and rest, they’re bringing up some soup for you. Is there anything else I can get you?"
"No thank you."
"Miss Relena," came an uncertain voice from outside the door, causing Relena to remove herself from Trowa’s side to go and talk to the poor servant waiting outside the room’s entrance, after several seconds of hushed talking Relena came back into the room carrying a tray laden with two bowls of soup and two cups of coffee.
"Are you hungry?”
“Yes,” came the simple reply. As Relena made her way over to the bedside ‘he looks so helpless,’ she thought as she neared, keeping her thoughts from her appearing on her face. As she saw that Trowa was trying to sit up not to much success, she placed the laden tray on a nearby table before rushing over to help him.
“Here let me help you.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Uh huh, yeah sure,” Relena replied completely ignoring his continued protests, as she propped him up on several large and fluffy pillows, trying to ignore the butterfly’s, which made their presence known in her stomach at her close proximity to Trowa. Without a word, she retrieved the soup and coffee from the table on which she had placed them in her rush to get back to Trowa’s side.
“Here you go.”
‘Thank you, Relena why are you being so nice to me.”
“You’re my friend why shouldn’t I be nice to you."
"I didn't think you were my friend."
"What?" Relena huffed as she began to rise from her seat disbelief clearly shown on her face, the dream running through her mind at lightning speed. She remembered the feel of his arms around her waist as he held her offering silent comfort while she cried, 'I don't need this now,' she thought angrily at herself.
"Relena, I didn't mean to offend you, but I mean what else do you expect us to think when all you do is fawn over Heero," he replied a silent plea in his voice almost asking her to deny the fact.
"I don't fawn all over that jerk," came her icy reply startling the usually silent pilot.
"When did all this happen?"
"I haven't seem he since that night he was drunk."
"Oh," he replied quietly his mind dredging up the memory of her standing on the roof ledge ready to jump and holding her in his arms as she cried.
"Things have changed haven't they," she quietly asked as she busied herself with the soup, silently handing him a bowl. They sat there and ate their soup in silence, they drank their coffee in silence as well.
"Well I'll leave you to rest then," Relena almost whispered as she gathered everything they had used for their short and simple meal.
"Thank you," Trowa replied his voice heavy with sleep.
"Your welcome."
'He looks so weak, what happened, why does my heart jump when I hear his voice, I've heard it more today than ever before,' Relena quietly thought to herself as she shut the door before retreating to the kitchen.
Days passed and Trowa regained his strength, Relena spent an abnormal amount of time caring for him and he could see it was wearing her thin. Her strength was waning and only the resolve to repay Trowa for his kindness, and the newly kindled love, which beat in her chest, kept her going. Trowa noticed her failing health, he tried to tell her to stop pushing herself but she always managed to avoid the subject. His heart would beat faster every time she was in the room, he would cover his feelings by reverting to his mask of silence, watching her flit about the room taking care of all the frivolities. One night he woke up to sounds in his room, the gentle breezes shifting the curtains, when he turned his gaze in the direction of the window he saw an angel in the moonlight. Relena was standing there her hair gently wafting around her like a golden halo, her nightgown softly billowing around her ankles. With the stealth of a large cat stalking it's prey he slowly ghosted towards her still form, his reasoning abandoning him to his emotions, deep down he was cursing his actions warning that this stupid and he would ruin anything he had with the young Peacecraft. Another part of is mind was telling him how right it was to go to her, to offer her the comfort of his arms once more. When he finally reached her still form at the window he wasted no time in placing his arms around her slender waist, feeling surprise when instead of showing evidence of surprise Relena leaned back against him her fingers moving to play with his which were clasped at her front.
"Relena," he whispered into her hear.
"Trowa, thank you," her clear voice echoed through the room.
"What for?"
"For saving me that night on the roof, for letting me cry on your shoulder."
"No problem it was my pleasure, thank you for caring for me."
"It was the least I could do," she replied, further leaning back into his lean form as he began to move away, she tightened her grip on his hands to prevent his departure.
"You don't want this."
"Yes, I do, don't presume to tell me I what I do and don't want."
"I didn't think you would want to be involved with me."
"Why not?"
"I'm nobody, I'm Nanashi."
"Not to me, you're not, you're Trowa Barton, Gundam pilot, circus performer, but most importantly of all a kind hearted and loyal friend, as well as the man who has captured my heart."
"What do you mean?"
"I love, Trowa, I've loved you since that night."
"You love me," he questioned disbelief evident in his confused voice. She loved him, she didn't love Heero, he didn't have to worry about rejection from her, and she would cherish his love.
"Yes Trowa, I do," Relena replied as she slowly twisted around in his arms as she wound her arms around his neck pulling him closer.
"Relena I love you as well, but I always thought you loved Heero, that you could never love me," he whispered as he gazed lovingly into her eyes, the ends of his bang tickling her nose.
"Stop that, Trowa, who couldn't love you," she whispered back he mouth closing the remaining gap to claim his in a sweet and tender first keep for confided loves. She pulled back slowly her gaze retaining it's hold on Trowa's her eyes glistening with unshed tears, a joyful smile spreading across her features. Trowa moved one hand to gently wipe away her tears with his thumb as tears answering hers traveled down his cheeks, earning a similar reaction from Relena, before she crumpled in his arms, the exhaustion from the past few weeks catching up to her. She didn't fall, Trowa scooped her up into his arms holding her body close to his, his usually expressionless face showing signs of total happiness and contentment, with the grace of a cat he glided over the bed to place his slumbering love in the bed. Before he could move over to the chair which still resided by the bedside a hand stopped him, when he turned around he came face to face with the beaming face of Relena, "Stay with me," she whispered while patting the space beside her. Trowa not having the resolve to refuse her moved to the indicated space to stay with his angel, holding her in his arms as she slept fitfully for the first time in a long while, his strong arms holding her close to his body.
"I will always be there to catch you when you fall," he whispered into her hair before sleep claimed him as well.
-The End
AN: My second Trowa Relena fic, please tell me what you think?