Heero and Quatre is yet another pairing favoured by many fan-fiction writer and doujinshi artists alike. In my opinion, this pairing is the second most hinted in the GW series next to Trowa and Quatre.

The Hints

In episode 25, 26, 29 and the episodes after, it appeared to me that Heero (01) and Quatre (04) were close to each other in some level neither had achieved with anyone else. 

If you have watched the GW episodes, then you must remember episode 9, where Heero self-destructed. While laying in a pool of his own blood, the scene switched to Quatre who was clutching at his own heart as he heard other people's thoughts on Heero's action and then doubled over in pain. Then he said, "The pain. My body. My soul." When I watched this part at first, I had felt a little disappointed, since I was a totally devoted 3x4 fan then and felt that Trowa's being cheated. 

After that, I kept on discovering more and more 1x4 hints as I set out to gobble down all the GW DVDs I can find. The 3x4 fan in me was getting frustrated, and the 1x4 fan emerged.^^

The episodes where Heero and Quatre worked together on Earth was quite a shift in the story line. Everything before the Zero incident was action packed and fast, and now all of a sudden things slowed down. More than before, things are dealt almost purely by emotions. There is more tears, more emotional outbursts, and the tragedy of war was truly revealed through the pilots' inner thoughts.

From these scenes, I came to my 1x4 conclusion.

Episode 9

The scene of Quatre clutching his heart at Heero's pain as I have mentioned before.

Isn't it a little strange that they should be connected at such an intimate level? Quatre's telepathetic (empathy) power was later explained in the series as 'uchuu no kokoro', translated as 'soul of outerspace'. He claims that the 'soul of outerspace' tells him things. Then, at the end of the series, Quatre exclaimed in revelation that 'Heero is the heart of outerspace!'. Brilliantly self-explanatory. Well, what more could I say?

Episode 18?

After the self-detonation of Sandrock, Quatre drifted in space in a space shuttle, and used Heero's frequency to contact the Doctors while they are captured by Lady Une. 

How does he know Heero's frequency?

Episode 25 (Heero vs. Quatre)

In the last scene, Quatre can be seen cradling Heero in his arms, trying to revive him, pouring water into his mouth. It's just a nice quiet, yet melancholy moment. Bitter sweet describes it.

While this scene was taking place, there was also a voice over by Lady Une. Roughly tranlated from the Chinese version I have, it goes something like this:

Is it the pain of love that created this madness? Is the pure heart hurting in this world without answers? That person who (I *not specified*) think looks lovely would worry over (my *not specified*) weakness, then be destroyed by it.

Meanwhile, Quatre's facial expressions matched those words accordingly. When Une was saying 'That person who looks lovely', scene switches to Quatre sitting up to looking sadly at Heero. Then Lady Une said 'would worry over (my) weakness', Quatre's eyes trembled a little as if he were about to cry. And when she said the final part 'then be destroyed by it', Quatre closed his eyes completely and hang his head in sorrow.

Heero tackled two guards in order to stop them from shooting Quatre as he ran towards Trowa's mangled MS. While Quatre broke down in front of the wreckage, Heero was so intently staring at Quatre that he didn't notice the guards had gotten up until he was struck to the ground. It really seemed that he was deeply in thought when he stared. Quatre then of course ran back to him and knelt on the floor beside him while glaring defiantly at the guards. (That's the first time I saw him glare!)

After Heero and Quatre had been 'saved' by the Treize Faction, they discussed about Wing Zero. Quatre told Heero that he was confused about who his enemies were, and Heero had gently soothed his confusion. For a perfect soldier like Heero, it is hard to imagine he had a gentle side to him that seems to only reveal itself around Quatre. (His gentleness is best shown when the soundtrack was in its original language - japanese. Anyone who hasn't watched this episode yet, I suggest you to get this in DVD version. It's in Operation 6. It's so much better to understand people's feelings while watching it in Japanes with English subtitles. The English voice actors back then isn't very satisfactory in my opinion.)

Later, Heero went crazy while in Wing Zero as well. Trying to stop Heero, Quatre said to him (He's now in a MS), "If I let Zero control me, then I have lost something important. I don't want to lose anything else that is important to me!" (cough) Anyway, then Heero brought his beam saber down on Quatre's mobile suit - and stumbled out of his crazed trance when Quatre yelled that "We are not needed!" (which is what Trowa had told him before his suit blew up, though not in exact words) Then, Heero gets a vision of Quatre clutching his shoulder in pain, crying out. Heero appeared shocked at his action and clamped his mouth as he retched (or what I thought he was doing). The next thing we know, this stoic soldier plummeted head-first out of Zero and dropped onto the floor with a rather sickening thud. (*shivers*) He was glowing.

Heero sees a vision of Quatre saying, 'We shouldn't fight each other.' and repeats the same words to himself. Then he passed out after seeing the image of Relena in place of Quatre's MS. (Heero hallucinating Quatre to be Relena?) Then Quatre came out and laid his hand gently on Heero, somehow absorbing the glow into his hand, then he put it over his own heart where it glittered magically. Then he said quietly, "Who are you?" faintly smiling. "You are from Earth. Am I right? Heero? Let's go to Earth."

The scene ended with Quatre hoisting Heero's arm around his shoulder, supporting his slumped frame, turning back to give Zero one long last glance.

Heero and Quatre by a beach after been captured by soldiers in alliance with Romefeller Foundation. The scene began on a beach with Heero throwing a pineapple for two dogs to chase after playfully. Then he noticed Quatre still sitting sadly in the sand. 

Heero: "Not big on animals, Quatre?"

Quatre: "Aa. I love them."

Heero: "Then play with the dogs. It seems they'd rather play with you anyway. Animals have the natural ability to sense kindness in people."

Quatre: "Is kindness really necessary in a war?"

Heero: "No. Not while you are fighting. But kindness is probably needed the rest of the time. This isn't the time to fight."

Quatre gives a tiny smile finally, though still looking very melancholy.

The scene then switches to Quatre running on the beach with the dogs, his laughter filled with joyous abandon, and the backdrop of the sunset coloured, sparkling sea.

Heero decided to attack Treize's base in a no-win situation. Quatre demanded to go with him even though they both know that they won't be able to come out alive. However, Heero told Quatre that they can't lose him yet, not until he'd found Trowa. This had convinced Quatre to stay put.

Heero installed part of Zero system into Sandrock, unknown by Quatre at first. Heero will be going off to fight Milliado, therefore, he decided to pass the responsibility of leading the Gundam Pilots to Quatre (Zero system enhances pilot's ability in battle). Before Quatre took off into battle again with the other pilots, Heero appeared at the entrance of Sandrock's cockpit, and revealed that fact to a startled Quatre. At first, Quatre practically begged Heero not to force him to go through this again, getting flash backs of the moment when he blasted Trowa. Meanwhile, Heero listened patiently, and at last, there was a emotional moment when the background of the cockpit changed to a beautiful view of a galaxy, as Heero told Quatre to think this as a redemption to the lives of the people in space he had destroyed.

When Quatre returns from the battle, he immediately disengaged the Zero System from his Gundam, when he came out with the Zero System components, he saw Heero staring at him from the ramp of his Gundam, so he told him that he doesn't need this system to fight, that Heero should trust him to fight on his own.

Quatre contacted Heero near the end of the battle and when Heero replied, Quatre seems quite relieved and commented that he's glad that he's alright.

Also, after Heero's heroic action to destory the piece of Libra falling towards Earth, all other three pilots only praised Heero with just one or two words, while Quatre, the last to speak, said, "Now I understand, Heero is the Heart of Outerspace!"

Quatre almost didn't interact with any of the pilots other than Duo in this movie. Very, very disappointing. However, there was still this strange feeling tugging inside of me when I saw the film clip for the ending of the second movie of the three. Quatre was sending Wing Zero into space while Heero flies from the other side to intercept it. The clip shows Quatre leaning over the railing gazing at Wing Zero as he sent it flying to Heero's coordinates. Then the scene switches to Heero facing the other direction (which means they are practically facing each other, as they face their destiny^^) in his shuttle and eyes filled with determination. This is almost like a replay of Trowa's 'romantic' episode with Quatre, where Quatre was in Sandrock in space and Trowa flying a shuttle towards him to reunite with him.

This seems like a metaphor to me: Wing Zero is the beacon of hope for the soldiers to stop Barton Foundation from taking control. Quatre 'the Soul of Outerspace' send out his hopes from Outerspace where Heero 'the Heart of Outerspace' sets out from a space colony to receive it.

Not to mention Quatre is then most likely to be flying with his back to the sun, facing Earth, while Heero is with his back to the Earth, facing the sun... 

Okay, okay, I'm so influenced by the Zero System that now I see 1x4 from any inconspicuous microseconds of scenes. 

Zero System was the key to Heero and Quatre's romance, don't you think?^-^

Updated: 03/10/04

Write to me at padawan_filorux@yahoo.com.au if you have more 1x4 hints to add! Let's show 'em all just how much they love each other! ^o^