22-May-2001
Title: Chasing the Crown, an Extended Family Fic
ExFam Authors:
RavynFyre - ravynfyre@hotmail.com
Diane Davis - fenwyck@radiks.net
von - sablexo1@yahoo.com
bonnejeanne - bonnejeanne@yahoo.com
*Special Guest Writer! Nixie the Pixie!*
Nixers - Nixerchan@aol.com
Category: yaoi, AU
Rating: NC-17 for now, that will change
Pairings: 1x2, 3+4, R+D
Spoilers: Series, Endless Waltz, Mission: Arcadia
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing characters and universe are the property of the copyright owners.
Kenny, Duan, Wufan, Tryan, Carter, Jack and the Ripper, and everything relating to Rip & Jack's universe are ours. No money being made here.
Feedback: Any and all comments, feedback, critiques welcome, be they short or long.
Please feel free to direct feedback to any or all of the authors!
WARNINGS: AU (Alternate Universe), Original Characters, LEMON in some sections. Kiddie-Angst.
WARNING: Lime... yuri... heh, don't ask just read...
Settling into a comfortable position in the nest of comforters and pillows pulled from Dorothy's bed, Relena nibbled her popcorn and looked up at the stars. "This is nice," she said aloud. "I'm so comfortable, I'm afraid I may fall asleep before... well, I mean if they... if they do come out..."
Dorothy looked down at the Vice Minister, a small, oddly contented smile playing across her lips as she slowly stroked her fingers through Relena's hair. She shifted very slightly, settling in more comfortable without jostling Relena's head where it was pillowed on her lap. "Hm. Even if you do, the camera will save it for you," Dorothy assured her gently. Her lips twitched, the smile growing a little mischievous. "Although, what Pargan would say about you sleeping on the floor like a common hooligan, I have no idea."
Relena sighed, offering Dorothy some popcorn. "He might harrumph a bit, but it wouldn't be the first time I've slept on a floor. And what's so great about sleeping in a huge, antique bed any way? This is much cozier." She sighed softly again. "But you'd get a stitch in your back, so wake me up if it comes to that!"
Dorothy's blue eyes were distant as she sighed softly, "Much cozier..." She blinked, seeming to come to herself suddenly. She covered it by smiling down at Relena wryly, shaking her head in disbelief. "Not the first time you've slept on the floor? Why, Miss Relena, I'm not sure my heart can handle so many shocks in a single evening."
Relena smiled. She shifted and looked up, comfortable with her living pillow. "Your heart is as healthy as... as a Gundam pilot's, Dorothy! It can't be that much of a shock. To tell you the truth, I don't remember it very well, just vaguely, but I know I slept on the floor more than once when I was very small. I didn't think about those times much but after I was told about who I really was, I realized it might have been during the time when Pargan was taking us to find Father and Mother... my adopted parents."
Dorothy's hand stilled for a moment, her fingers lost within the long strands of wheat colored silk spread over her thigh. After several long, silent breaths, she reached forward, gently brushing Relena's bangs out of her face. "Are you happy, Relena? Here and now?" she asked quietly, her eyes darting over Relena's face carefully, to soak up every nuance of expression.
Relena's eyes wandered, seeking out the stars above them for a moment. "For the most part, yes, I think so," she said, trying to determine if the relaxed contentment she was experiencing might be giving her musings a more rosy glow. "I get tired, I get frustrated, but I can't think of too many things I would have different. Sometimes it gets lonely, not so much since you've been here, but I feel happy tonight."
She looked up into the thoughtful face above her. "I'm very glad you came to work with me. I was a little surprised, but very glad."
Dorothy's gentle smile lasted for a moment before giving way to a more playful grin. "I bet Mr. Schmitzengast isn't very glad," she replied wryly.
Relena grinned, "In that case, I'm not just glad, I'm ecstatic!" she said teasingly.
Dorothy indulged in a chuckle before turning her gaze up towards the stars. Her fingers never stilled as they carefully stroked through Relena's hair, even as she glanced over to the balcony that the camera was trained on. A small frown creased her brow. "What about Heero?" she asked quietly, as if unwilling to hear the answer.
Relena smiled unconsciously. "He's going to be all right, Dorothy. I just believe that. He's troubled by something, and I was worried about him, but between the children, and Duo, and, perhaps even Wufei Chang, I feel that he is going to be all right."
"I wasn't asking if he was going to be all right, silly girl," Dorothy chided her, although her voice was amused, making it a joke between them.
"Hmm? Then what?" Relena blinked. She reached out absently and plucked some more popcorn from the bowl beside them.
Dorothy gave her an unladylike snort as she glanced down. "You. I was asking about you. I know you gave up chasing him about in that silly pink car of yours so long ago," she said, once again, softening it with a small smile so that it became another joke between them, "But I'd always wondered about..." she paused, tentatively reaching out to rest her fingertips over Relena's heart, "If you'd given up chasing him here."
Relena blushed and turned her face to hide half of it against Dorothy's silk covered lap. "It's not fair of you to bring that up," she said, muffling her words a little. "You used to chase battles, and your car was much sillier than mine! At least twice as big, so it must have been twice as silly..." She sighed and then said. "And maybe... maybe for the same reason... you found battles exciting and even beautiful. That's what Heero was to me. I suppose I had some foolish ideas, but I don't want to change him. And in a way... in a way I almost like it better this way... he's still so beautiful..."
"I agree. And if our luck holds, we'll get to see them *both*. Somehow I doubt it would have worked out that way had he ended up with you," Dorothy teased.
Relena reached out and captured a lock of Dorothy's hair and tugged on it gently. "That end was never even possible, you know that as well as I," she said. Then her eyes darted away and then back. She brushed the still-captured lock of gold against her check. "I... I want to see them kiss... Ever since I learned that they were together... at first I was shocked, but... somehow never angry... and then one day I wondered what it would look like to see..." her cheeks flushed. "I don't know why but in my mind's eye it's so... incredible..."
Dorothy smiled widely down at Relena. "My innocent little pervert," she teased gently, hardly able to contain a small giggle. She glanced over at the still deserted balcony, still smiling. "I know why. They're both so beautiful, it boggles the mind sometimes. Although..." she paused, considering Relena for a long moment, her gaze shifting from amused to wistful, "It's a shame that you weren't meant for each other." Her voice hitched a little as she spoke, before she glanced away, tearing her eyes from Relena and retreating to the safety of the night sky. "I can't think of a man and a woman who would have been more beautiful together."
Relena blinked and then shook her head. "I think I need to get you an eye examination," she said wryly. "In fact it's a good thing we didn't, think how embarrassing it would be if the groom were so much prettier than the bride. Come one, Dorothy, you know my brother got all the looks in the Peacecraft family," she said and sighed. "I could almost be jealous of him for that. It's a good thing I have my talents to fall back on."
"Scoff if you want," Dorothy replied not quite tightly, "I speak only the truth. It's said that people often don't believe in their own beauty, outer as well as inner, even when confronted by the proof of the very light they shed on the world. I shouldn't be surprised at you, then," she mused, still refusing to look down.
Relena tilted her head, listening to Dorothy's words and tone. Then she reached out and took Dorothy's hand and brought it up against her cheek, holding it there. "You are simply too good to me," she said softly. "Hush, don't say a word. You are." She turned her face briefly and planted a soft kiss on the blond girl's palm before nestling it back against her cheek.
"I would be better to you, if you let me," Dorothy whispered. "You don't ask enough of me. You work too hard and rest too little. I would spare you that, if I could."
Relena sat up, a bit reluctantly, and slid her arms around the other girl. "I never have to ask anything, you always supply whatever I need before I can form the request," she said. "You work the same hours I do, and you do everything that is the most tedious. I put enough on you as it is. But don't you realize how much I treasure being able to bother you, like tonight, when I should be letting you rest? You'll be walked off your feet tomorrow. You'll fuss around making sure everything is perfect for me, on top of the additional things I've asked, such as taking care of the VIP guests coming in."
"You are not now, nor have you ever been, a bother to me," Dorothy replied vehemently, "Nor do you even have the capability of ever becoming thus." She stopped speaking suddenly, as if just becoming aware of the intensity of her speech. Almost sheepishly, she shook her head and smiled. "But I always have the easy part. I don't have to stand up in front of all the Earth and Colonies acting the voice of reason for all. I get to content myself with skulking about in the background in relative obscurity. And as for Mister Bates and Mister Ripley, I hardly consider that to be an additional... duty, as you imply."
Relena smiled. "It's going to be very exciting to meet them finally, after all this time. I wish they had allowed me to make them a part of the public recognition but once again, they insist on anonymity. I'm just pleased they were willing to come."
"I'm just glad you asked me to go get them from the spaceport. I would have pestered you to let me even if you hadn't," Dorothy teased, reaching for a handful of popcorn now that Relena's hair was out of reach.
Smiling, Relena kissed Dorothy on the cheek and relaxed, leaning her head against Dorothy's shoulder. "You deserve some fun. I've heard they are both unmarried..."
"Hmm. What happened to my sweet little Princess? First she's helping me spy on beautiful boys, and now she's all but flinging me into a licentious affair with corporation CEOs. What has the world come to?" Dorothy mock-lamented with a dramatic sigh.
Relena lifted an eyebrow tartly. "I suspect I was never that sweet... and I don't see how it's that wrong to hope you have a little more fun than I'm ever likely to have!"
"If you would quit chasing away every suitor who comes calling..." Dorothy replied, her voice trailing off. She shook her head and looked away, muffling a sight. "What are you waiting for, anyway?"
"Oh Dorothy," Relena said, settling down and making herself comfortable in Dorothy's lap again. "I'm not waiting for anyone! I think that's the whole point. I just... there just aren't that many people I feel comfortable enough around to... well... you know! There aren't that many people I trust! Most of the pilots are gay, and you're my best friend! I just figure it's the irony of fate!"
Dorothy looked up at the stars, hiding the bitter smile from the woman snuggled so peacefully in her lap. "Irony of fate," she echoed, shaking her head, "Sometimes you see so clearly, even in the midst of obscurity, Miss Relena."
Relena made a soft sound. "For all the good it does me when I'm trying to sleep in that huge antique bed alone." She snagged a lock of golden hair again. "And you wonder why I'd want you to be able to enjoy life a bit yourself?"
"I do enjoy life," Dorothy replied defensively.
Smiling slightly, Relena brushed her cheek with the soft silk. "I don't doubt it," she said. "I do admire your ability to throw yourself into whatever you choose to take on."
"Hm. I believe it's the philosophy known as 'Damn the Torpedoes and Full Speed Ahead.' Besides, what's to stop you from having a little fun yourself? You said it yourself, they're both unmarried. Who knows? They sound like adventuresome 'chaps'..." Dorothy let her voice trail off as she graced Relena with a slight feminine leer, "You never know until you ask." She grinned impishly then, her eyes narrowing as she considered Relena snuggled in her lap. "They might even take us both on!" She started to chuckle, then bit her lower lip hard and looked away as if she just realized what she'd said.
Relena blinked and then smothered a giggle in Dorothy's lap. "Oh please!" she said, smothering a laugh. "That might work for you, but I'd be too embarrassed to even think of such a thing! I'd just make a fool out of myself; I'm about the most ignorant person around when it comes to some things. I mean, reading it isn't like... I mean... oh, never mind what I mean!" she finished, burying her face.
Dorothy glanced down, her fingers tracing gently through Relena's bangs, one fingertip stroking along the smooth skin of her forehead. "You're only a fool by damning yourself to be one," Dorothy whispered, "Do you think me so worldly then?"
Relena's eyes widened and then she sat up quickly. "Oh... oh Dorothy I didn't mean... I don't mean it that way! I... yes, I guess I did think that but only because I admire you and I imagined you'd made a greater success in some things than I... forgive me, please?"
Dorothy smiled, one brow quirked up with amusement. "If you can call that disaster that Grandfather assured me was an upstanding young man a 'success'..." she let her voice trail off into a small chuckle. "Oh Relena. You're so easy to fluster sometimes. And so cute. Why would I need to forgive you?"
Blinking, Relena sighed. "I thought I'd offended you," she said meekly. "I really don't want to do that. I don't know what I would do if you were ever upset with me."
Dorothy smiled, covering the grin on her lips with one hand for a moment before she sighed happily and reached out to gently touch Relena's cheek with her fingertips. "I don't doubt you have the talent and the mettle to do so, however, I do doubt that you'd have the patience to work your way through all the things it would take to actually accomplish offending me."
Relaxing with a sigh, Relena smiled in return. "You're probably right," she said. She reached out and smoothed a bit of Dorothy's hair back. "Are you tired of waiting? I don't think our..." she began and then trailed off as she saw movement across the way at the other balcony.
"Shh..." Dorothy urged, pulling her back into the nest and hunkering down a little.
Relena settled against Dorothy's side and her eyes widened to saucers. Her mouth dropped open and she tugged at Dorothy's sleeve, pointing. Unable to articulate, she watched as the two young gods seemed to perform a magical dance in the moonlight.
"Oh my..." Dorothy breathed, one hand tightening against Relena's arm while the other crept up to cover her mouth. She swallowed hard, shifting slightly to lean unconsciously against Relena as she felt her blood heat up a notch at the sight of the pilots.
Relena seemed to lean into Dorothy as well, clinging to her as if needing a tangible support. She barely moved or breathed, unable to take her eyes away. The sight of the two boys together caused emotions and sensations she had only felt hinted at previously.
The time seemed to pass in some kind of suspension. The moon was magically lower when the movement stilled. After a long time, Relena began breathing deeply, and then she pressed her face, much too warm, against the cool soft curtain of her companion's hair.
Dorothy blinked, then sighed. Her arm came up reflexively, supporting Relena as much as holding the other girl to her side. "I think we missed some of the good part. They were already naked when they came outside," Dorothy whispered in mild complaint. "Although... was that a... blindfold? On Heero?"
Relena's shoulders shook, though she didn't raise her head. Slightly muffled she said, "I noticed..." and, "Uh huh."
Dorothy sighed again, glancing down at Relena who was hiding in the golden fall of her hair. "Come on," she whispered again, pulling at Relena's arm as she scooted backwards, nest and all, towards the balcony door, "Before they catch us."
Relena helped Dorothy wiggle back inside and then when they were "safe", flopped back on the thick carpet, staring at the ceiling. "My.... god..."
"Was it what you imagined? The kiss?" Dorothy asked in near hypnotized curiosity.
"Y-yes... no... I... it was.. it was more..." Relena managed. "It was... it was right..."
Dorothy cocked her head, regarding Relena for a moment. She reached out, regretting the necessary move back indoors, since the moon was beyond the open doorway. Slender fingertips reverently stroked Relena's flushed cheek. "Yes, it was," she sighed, breathless, "So are you..." Dorothy's voice trailed off, her gaze slightly unfocussed, and mind still so captivated by the last few minutes that she was unaware of much else.
Relena sat up, awareness heightened somehow by the scene they had viewed together. She looked into Dorothy's blue eyes for a long moment and then moved towards her, pressing soft lips briefly against the other girl's mouth.
Dorothy blinked suddenly, surprise flashing onto her face as she awoke from the seeming trance she'd been in. Her fingers reached up and ghosted across her lips, as if confirming their existence while being afraid to touch them all at once. "Relena?" she asked, voice very small with a mixture of disbelief and yearning.
Eyes searching the other girl's, Relena took a deep breath, then leaned forward slowly to repeat the gesture. She made sure Dorothy was not taken by surprise, and watched for any sign of pulling away, before brushing her lips a second time across the blonde’s. "Yes, Dorothy?" she breathed softly.
For the second time in less than twelve hours, Dorothy was utterly at a loss. Her lower jaw quivered slightly, struggling to form words, any words, even while her rebellious throat failed her. Fear warred with joy in her eyes even as her free hand crept out to cautiously touch Relena's arm, as if affirming her of the Vice Minister's reality.
"We... we fell asleep... didn't we?" she finally managed, "We got... bored with waiting... and fell asleep... and I'm dreaming now."
Blinking suddenly shining eyes, Relena answered softly, "Oh Dorothy... I don't think I'm asleep. Not any more... But maybe... do you... do you want me to leave? Is it time for me to leave?"
Dorothy's hand tightened on Relena's arm as tears sprang to her eyes. She leaned forward suddenly, burying her face on Relena's shoulder, her arms wrapping around the other girl's waist tightly. "Please don't... don't take this away from me. Not now," she said haltingly, fighting off quiet sobs.
Relena's arms wrapped around Dorothy. She stroked the fall of golden silk. "I don't want to," she whispered. "And I won't if you don't want me to. I want to stay here."
Dorothy drew away enough to laugh, struggling between tears and fierce happiness. "Here?" she asked, looking around, "On the floor? You really *are* a ruffian off the stage!" she gasped almost hysterically.
Relena contemplated the other girl with a slight smile. "I'd be happy on the floor if you are on it," she said quietly. "No matter what you call me. I'd be happy somewhere else. I just want to stay with you. Is that OK?"
Dorothy's arms tightened around Relena again as she leaned up, pressing her lips to Relena's in answer. She shifted, laying her head on Relena's shoulder and nuzzling the hollow of her throat for a moment. "Please?"
Shivering for a moment, Relena smiled a slightly dreamy smile. "Fine, I'm staying," she breathed. "Floor? Or would you rather be more... civilized?" She gently stroked the hair back from Dorothy's face.
Dorothy took a deep, calming breath, though she didn't draw away. "I should probably hide the camera again... Before they wake up and see it and then kill us both. Which means I have to get up anyway..."
Relena contemplated Dorothy for a moment, then stood up, pulling the blond to her feet. Clasping her hand, the Vice Minister moved quickly and decisively over to the window, pulled some of the cables loose and dragged the tripod and camera in, leaning them against the wall by the curtains. Then she pulled Dorothy over to the bed.
Watching with bemusement as Relena took charge, Dorothy allowed herself to be led for a moment. The she pulled away long enough to retrieve the pillows and blanket from the floor, tossing them in a heap onto the bed before returning to watch Relena shyly. "Are you sure?"
Relena simply pulled Dorothy onto the large bed and pulled some of the covers over them both. "Try and throw me out, now," she said. Then she snuggled in, grabbing a couple of pillows and pushing them into place. She leaned her forehead against Dorothy's. "We're going to sleep," she said firmly. Then she tilted her head down slightly. "After... one kiss? One... nice... kiss..."
Dorothy shifted, hardly daring to breathe as she leaned in, lips touching Relena's with what felt like a jolt of pure electricity down her spine. Her eyes drifted shut and lips parted enough for her tongue to dart out and carefully stroke along Relena's mouth.
Relena gasped slightly and her lips parted immediately, her tongue coming forward to meet, touch, then slide away hesitantly. Then she pressed her lips more firmly to Dorothy's and her arms twined around the other girl. Sucking gently on Dorothy's lower lip, she sighed, not sure exactly what to do but willing to see where it might go.
Dorothy reached up, carefully cradling Relena's head between her hands like a piece of finest china. She tilted her head slightly, mouthing at Relena's lower lip for a moment before letting her tongue dart out again to slip between Relena's lips. She couldn't stifle the strangely contented whimper as she tasted and drank from the sweetness of the other girl. The entire night seemed to coalesce into that single moment as she lost herself, surrendering even as she conquered.
Relena responded to the invasion by opening her mouth a bit more, feeling the amazing sensations caused by the warm touch against her sensitive inner flesh. Some instinct surged up and she found herself sucking gently at the invading tongue, as if seeking to keep it. She shifted, leaning into Dorothy, her hands stroking along the blonde’s back and waist. As she became warmer, her tongue slid around the other girl's in a counterpoint to it. Her eyes slid shut as she melted into it, only surfacing when some mutual sense brought them apart to breathe.
Eyes opening slowly, she gazed at the face so close and so familiar, yet suddenly so new. "That... was nice..." she breathed softly.
Dorothy smiled, hand creeping up to caress Relena's cheek as she nodded mutely. She opened her mouth to speak, but had to take a deep, stuttering breath before she could convince her voice to work. Even still, it was little more than a bare sigh of sound. "Beautiful..."
Smiling, still with a slight hint of puzzlement, Relena kissed Dorothy's cheek gently. "Sleep," she said quietly, and gently kissed each eyelid closed. "Let's sleep. I've always wanted to sleep with someone I love."
The wry retort to Relena's order died on Dorothy's lips at the other girl’s last words. She swallowed hard, gathering Relena into her arms to ward off the strange surge of almost chest crushing emotion welling up inside her. Sighing, she buried her face against Relena's shoulder and murmured, "Me too," before allowing her physical and emotional exhaustion to overtake her.
Relaxing with a contented sigh, Relena snuggled against Dorothy and closed her eyes, giving up everything for the moment to feel the warmth of her companion and the sense of peace that seemed to seep into her body and bring her into a welcoming darkness.
Zechs Merquis wandered back into the room of his designated suite. Fumbling slightly in the dark, unfamiliar surroundings, it was a moment before he managed to flick on the desk lamp, sending warm pools of shaded golden light across the room.
The room itself was rather unimpressive compared to the rest of the house, one of the reasons he'd requested the suite. It sported only a four poster bed, an adjoining bath and a simple, but expensive workdesk of some dusky red wood.
It was on a coaster of that small desk that he left the rose he'd picked up from his earlier wanderings, wrapped in a damp cloth to keep its fullness for at least a day. With a lingering look at it, he turned away from both it and the desk, fingers working at the buttons of his silk shirt.
The day, in his estimation, had been more than long enough, filled with one puzzlement and shock after another. The only truly bright point in the day he could see was Une's break in letting him go back to work again.
It wasn't so much of a passion for the job as it had been when he'd first joined up, but the appeal of the sort of exhaustion three missions and a mountain of paper work in one day could produce. /But then, that's probably what had Une worried enough to force me to take the damned time off in the first place./
Closing the door and curtains to the room, and then shucking the rest of his clothes with disinterest, he pulled the length of his hair into a quick ponytail. A little undignified, but it kept the worst of the tangles out, and it wasn't like there was anyone going to see it these days.
Still, it struck him as kind of strange, the woman had been his rival in more ways than one at more than one point, and now despite the sniping, was possibly one of his closest friends. With a slight smirk, he turned down the covers of the bed, thinking of a particular Chinese man, /Too bad all the rivals didn't turn out that way./
Folding his hands behind his head, Zechs stared up at the half illuminated ceiling for several hour-like minutes in the all too quiet room. With something of wry expression, he began to suspect that even over today of all days he hadn't gotten himself to the needed point of exhaustion. With a heavy sigh, he rolled over onto one side, propping himself onto an elbow and slid open the top draw to the unobtrusive nightstand beside the bed. A moment's fumbling produced a near empty bottle of what the doctor most politely termed 'sleeping aides'.
With a sour look, he shook two into his hand before replacing the bottle and downing both dry. Leaning back again, he returned to watching the ceiling, mind drifting as he waiting for the effects to kick in.
Thoughts returned to the same linear course, though somewhat muzzily as the small medicine took rapid effect on the already tired man. /Une's gone and calmed down though..... as much as she ever would.... must be motherhood, and she didn't even have to sacrifice her hips.../
With something of a half silly smile at the thought of Lady Une in pink maternity dresses, the ex-soldier hardly even noticed when the world slipped away.
The dreams, in all the two years that he'd had them, never really changed; several particular and unpleasant constants always remained throughout. Foremost was that he always knew he was dreaming, every time. For anyone else this would have probably been an encouragement or a calming factor, but it was always tempered by the fact that he couldn't remember exactly how much was really his memories and which was fabrication. He couldn't remember enough in waking, either of the dream or the event itself, to confirm or disprove any of it. It was the uncertainty of it all...
This time though, there was a subtle fluctuation in the pattern, as he, leader of the White Fang, sat, regarding the Earth below him and the Libra. It wasn't anything tangible, but a feeling of awareness of someone else, that gave the whole affair a clarity that hadn't ever been there before, strengthening, whether consciously or not, the dream... like a shout between two walls, getting louder each time the echo bounded across the surface.
In this scape there was no Dorothy, no Treize, no distracting factors to the game. On the screen, the dance of gundams and mobile dolls lit up the vacuum of space, and from there things shattered, melting down like a bad movie set from the field of his vision.
As another man's voice called to him, that the Libra's cannon was operational again, he felt it again, power, strength, vindication, revenge, justification... and wrongness. The last grew steadily, but the dream-self paid no mind to either the feeling or his memories. It saw the Earth spinning lazily in front of it and wanted it to break, shatter into a million pieces.
/They couldn't make war then./ Something like his own mental voice, but... not... hissed, persuasive even in the fact that it was making no rational sense.
The trigger in his hand felt and seemed to him suddenly like the controls of Eypon, just as constrictive. There was nowhere else to put his hand if he'd wanted to. A glee that never lit upon his face was somehow answered... He pulled the trigger. The white flash of pure energy lanced out from the main cannon of the Libra, and left nothing in its wake...
No stars were left in the sky, no battleship around him, even the vacuum of space had fled, leaving just himself and the specter of a red mecha.
Before he could say a word, or even begin to try and find a way out of what he knew was coming, the machine began to crumble, falling to bits against a floor that was and wasn't there.
As they struck the surface of nothing, each transformed quickly. The pieces of metal twisted into glistening red snakes.
There was a moments pause, just enough for panic and anticipation to set in fully, before as a group they lunged. A thousand pricks of half felt pain heralded another flood of nothing, this time the calmer, soothing blackness of dreamless slumber.
Before the last faded away, the same, almost-his voice laughed at him. /Once bitten.../
Something seemed to penetrate the last bit of swallowing darkness. An unexpected crackle of rainbow electricity... then a sort of distant tugging. No, not tugging, a slight shaking, as if someone was pulling his arm, waking him up.
Fighting against the lethargy of the chemical induced sleep, one cornflower blue eye opened a crack, followed slowly by the other, struggling to focus in the half dark of the room.
Wide eyes and the top of a tousled blond head peering over the edge of the bed earnestly met his sight when he was able to focus.
One of Zechs' hands unsteadily pushed dampened bangs out of his face. He swallowed once before saying quietly, "I'm sorry if I woke you up..." forgetting, for the moment, that the probability of being heard a floor away was almost none, even if he'd shouted in his sleep.
"No," the small blond child said seriously. "I woke *you* up! You shouldn't take drugs... it makes it easier for the voice."
Rubbing the side of his face with one hand, Zechs stared at the small boy for a moment before letting all the air out of his lungs in one breath. "I'm not even going to ask how you know... but I'll have to thank you for the wake up call." At that, he glanced at the nightstand again and then lay back slightly again. "Try not sleeping for a week, it'll make the... voice... look preferable in comparison."
Carter smiled slightly, but his wide teal eyes showed a pain that seemed too old for the child. "I have," he said softly. "But there's worse things. You can't give up... have to fight it, you know."
This received a slightly clearer blink and a dry smile. "I thought I was." Zechs regarded the Carter as his senses began to clear again. The idea of a child that young suffering that sort of insomnia caused more than one old nerve to twinge, the kind he thought he'd given up on after his brief dalliance as an ambassador for Sanq failed in the first war.
Carter nodded. "You are," he agreed. "Except you don't believe it's real. So you think it has to end the same way every time."
Zechs found himself staring at the golden haired boy again with that same surreal feeling. "It's just a dream," he replied, feeling slightly proud of himself for making that sound as casual as it came out.
Carter shook his head. "It's a memory. But the voice isn't. The voice is now."
Any flippant response the man might have had was slowly washed away by the lingering exhaustion from the sleeping pills, the still too-fresh memory of the dream, and the prospect of the last two years becoming a lifelong situation.
Regarding the uncanny blue green eyes of the boy who'd woken him up, he finally managed to ask, "Know any way to make it yesterday?"
Carter looked back steadily. "Kill it. Find it and kill it. Mine got killed. We're going to find yours and make it die."
After a long moment, Zechs nodded slightly, losing the battle against sleep again, and not all together sure that he wasn't having a new dream based off of the strange things he'd seen Carter do during the day. "I'll try to catch Dorothy after the ceremony," he replied, a little indistinctly.
Carter nodded, and then reached up and smoothed back Zechs' bangs with a small hand. "Lemme show you something," he said. With his hand still resting against Zechs' temple, he closed his eyes, and the exhausted man found his eyes closing also. But behind them he suddenly smelled rain, and felt a wild wind against his skin. He found himself looking out over a landscape covered by swirling clouds, tall grasses whipped by sudden gusts. He felt his skin prickle with a sudden nearby ionization and then looked up to see flashes of lightning tearing through the clouds, but each one wasn't blue-white. Instead they were bolts of rainbow colors, and the energy he could feel coming from them was somehow incredibly... alive. Far across the grassy plan he heard a strange, and nearly muffled hissing... then a bolt of colored lightning struck the ground, sending waves of shock through the earth under him... and the hissing was silenced in the rolling thunder, not to return when the rain came to cleanse the world... and him.
Zechs let himself fall to a sitting position atop the rapidly dampening grasses and soil, not mindful of either in the feel of the rain itself against his face. The first honestly content smile in a long time faded under a wave of realization. He'd seen the crackle of electricity of that hue before, very recently at that.
"You did this? That?" he asked, not sure if he'd be heard, one hand gesturing to the spot of the lightning strike.
"I brought it with me," the soft voice answered. "Now I'm giving it to you. It's okay to sleep... the rain won't hurt you." The lightest whisper of a touch on his cheek came with the voice.
"Dream or not," Zechs began in a subdued tone. "Thank you for this," he finished, letting the night drift by under a dream of a foreign sky.
"Not a dream... a memory..."
TBC
End of Part 24
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