AC 199, August
It has been two months since Yuy-kun first came to our school.
After our visit to the clearing in the middle of that forest, he became more and more... open. From what had been a granite face (that's what Ann says, personally I don't think it was that bad. ...Well, maybe) he managed to gain more and more expressions. And I could proudly say that most of them were directed at me. Well, it wasn't my fault that he opened more to me than anyone else. Aside from the fact that we had a lot of similarities in our physical appearance (if not a complete identify), we also spent a lot of time together. Since Yuy-kun was a very reserved person, I felt it was my duty to open him up (and thankfully most of those efforts really worked).
Yuy-kun is currently active in the school's basketball team. I brought him to the guys as one of my... therapies (yeah, right). Since he likes basketball, I thought it'd easier for him to actually start talking without having to worry too much about any topic of conversation, I know he's not too good at it (that is... if you don't count military offence and defense strategies as a topic of conversation. How did he learn all those creative unbeatable strategies anyway?). Sometimes I worried over him (Yuy-kun did say than I'm acting like a mother hen) but hey, he's doing better than I thought. The guys love him. Only a month after he registered, he was asked to be in the starter five. Everybody marveled at his ability. Nobody had ever shot three pointers with dead accuracy before him (I mean, wow, he never misses!). The fact that he's no taller than 170 cm has no effect on him. He's so fast he can steal a ball and you won't realize until he's several meters away.
PLOPP!!
Yep, just like that.
It's 25 to 0 for our school and it's barely the tenth minute of the first half. Ow, that number 7 crashes into Parker and steals the ball (poor Parker, it must be painful to get crashed into somebody twice as big as you are). But Yuy-kun suddenly steals the ball, he runs back in the opposite direction and YES!! Another three points!
"Nice going, Yuy!"
"You show them!"
"Wa~~~i~~~~!!"
"Yuy-kun, ganbatte!!"
Heero Yuy gave his audience a slight smile.
"OOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!" The girls fainted.
He sweatdropped.
The whistle was blown. End of the first half, the score was 47 to 2. The spectators cheered.
"Okay, it's only a few more minutes and we're off to the final," Sebastian Freud, Heero's homeroom teacher who was also the mentor of the basket ball club, said. "Too bad we failed to maintain the 'flawless victory' record this season." He whispered to Heero, "But you don't have to self-destruct because of it."
Heero made a mock glare at him. Freud snickered.
"Look at those babes!" The captain, Michael Goodlife pointed out. "Just before the game they were mocking us and now they're drooling over us. Ain't that satisfying?"
"I think it's not us they're drooling at, Captain," Eric Westcraft, the number 6, waved his hand and draped it around Heero's shoulder affectionately. "It's our beloved Yuy they're drooling at."
"Westcraft, you'd better take your hand off me," Heero threatened in a mocking tone.
The tall American pretended to look offended. "Why, Yuy? We are friends, aren't we? And I like you ya know." He was going to give a peck to Heero's cheek when some of the spectators (read: Yuy Fans Club Member) shrieked and threw anything they could throw, namely, shoes, balls, score board, and even some benches at the poor boy's head.
Freud grinned. "That'll give a lesson to anyone who tries to flirt with Yuy."
"You enjoy it, don't you?" Heero accused him.
The German teacher shrugged. "Why not? It's fun."
The others laughed.
"Anyway, Yuy," he changed the subject. "Are you going to play the second half?"
The Japanese boy shook his head. "I can't. I have an appointment."
Freud nodded in understanding. "Okay, then shoo! You'd better go before your fans club blocks all the ways out."
"Aww, do you have to?" Westcraft cajoled. "Come on, just one more game, koi."
Heero glared. "I'm not your koi." He walked to pick up his towel. "See you guys in the next game." And he went away to the locker room, escorted by the sounds of his disappointed fans.
"He's cool, huh?" Parker commented.
The others nodded in agreement. "Definitely."
"Oi, Freud," Westcraft turned to the teacher. "Just wondering. Why does the guy never finish a game?"
The teacher only shrugged.
In the locker room....
"Kuso...." Heero slumped against the shower wall. His head was pounding so hard it hurt like Hell. His veins felt like they were going to blow up from the speed of the blood rushing through them. He banged his head on the wall several times but it was no use. It was just getting worse and worse.
He just stayed under the cold shower in a foetal position for a few minutes.
"...I really have to see the damned doctor, don't I...."
"Yuy-kun!"
Heero looked back. Amanogawa Masayuki was running towards him.
"Yuy-kun, wait for me!" The boy caught up with him. He stopped to take a deep breath before he asked, "Yuy-kun, where are you going? The game isn't finished yet."
"I have an appointment."
The boy pouted. "Is that so? That's too bad.... I'd like to see you finish them off."
Heero laughed. "Amanogawa, have you no mercy? They already have no chance against the boys in this game, due to their loss of self-confidence because of the first half. How much more grief do you want me to put them through?"
Masayuki, perplexed by his friend's rare laughter and long sentence, managed to answered, "Uuh... 'till they don't have the guts to face us again?"
"You are one little devil." Heero ruffled the slightly smaller boy's hair.
The other boy just giggled.
"Go back inside," he ordered. "You'd better watch the game and report it to me later."
"Oh, yeah?" Masayuki cajoled playfully. "What if I don't?"
Heero acted like he'd been thinking. "Let me see. I will... tickle you to death!!"
"WOAAHHH!!!" Masayuki tried to run away from the attacking fingers but who was he to compete Heero Yuy? "Yuy-ku~~~~n!! That tickles!! Kya haha hahahah! Hidoi! Damatte yo!!"
The ex-pilot stooped his torture and said warmly. "Now go."
The boy giggled. "Okay. See you later!"
Heero watched the cheerful boy disappear behind the doors of the gymnasium. He sighed heavily. Amanogawa Masayuki. They were so alike yet so different. How he wished to be like him. So carefree. So innocent. So... different.
He shook his head. Better scratch that out and go back to real world. The doctor was waiting.
Later in the hospital....
"It wasn't leukemia."
Heero's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?"
"It wasn't leukemia." The doctor repeated himself.
The boy glared. "Are you saying that I'm not sick and the whole diagnosis was just a sick joke you played on me?"
"Now don't jump into any conclusion yet. I didn't say you were healthy." The doctor looked very uncomfortable.
"For crying out loud, how the Hell did you get a wrong diagnosis anyway?"
The doctor fidgeted. "...The nurse slipped a paper in the wrong folder?"
Heero's eyes were as big as saucers. Had he just heard what he thought the doctor had said? A nurse slipping the wrong paper in his file? Now how COULD something like this happen?! He couldn't believe it, he really couldn't believe it!
"I want another doctor," he said flatly.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I want another doctor. Give me the damned phone!" Heero snatched the telephone and dialed Relena Peacecraft's private number.
A feminine voice answered. "Relena Peacecraft."
"It's Heero."
"Heero?" The girl sounded excited to hear him. "What is it? Did you go to the doctor? What did he say? Have you gotten any better?"
"The damned doctor said it has been a WRONG diagnosis."
"...What?"
"I don't have leukemia!"
"WHAT?!"
"I want another doctor, Relena. A REAL doctor this time." Heero insisted as he ignored the doctor's glare.
Heero shoved a pile of clothes and another into his duffel as if the devil had been chasing after his butt.
So it was all a big mistake. Everything. He shouldn't have trusted the report. He shouldn't have gone away from Peacemillion. He shouldn't have left Duo. He shouldn't have worried his friends. He shouldn't have given Relena all this trouble....
He paused in his packing.
But it hadn't been a total mistake after all. If it hadn't been for it, he wouldn't have known Amanogawa, Freud, Marvin, his classmates, and those basket ball junkies. He would never have known what it was like to be... normal....
He smiled at that thought.
Maybe it's worth staying after all....
Suddenly the pounding in his head was back. Heero fell to his knees, his hands clutching his head. The pain was hitting him again, this time worse than ever. It was agonizing, he couldn't stand it.
He passed out.
Everything was hazy and blank. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't feel anything. He tried to remember what had happened but his brain refused to function. He felt so lost. He had never felt so helpless before.
Gradually he was able to feel again. It was only a slight moment before he felt better. Soon, he could address his surroundings.
Heero found himself inside a hospital with Relena at his side. "Relena...," he mumbled.
"Heero!" The girl looked relieved. "You're awake."
He remembered what had happened. He had been packing his belongings into his duffel, still upset by the mistake made by the doctor when a wave of vertigo had struck him, sending him into unconsciousness. "...How long have I slept?"
"For two days," the Peacecraft girl told him. "I've... arranged for another doctor for you and he did some checking."
Was it just him or she was trying to hide something?
"...What did the doctor tell you?"
"Oh, you're just fine." She seemed nervous.
Heero narrowed his eyes. "...Relena? Are you hiding something from me?"
Relena looked away uncomfortably.
She was, he thought. "Tell me what the doctor said, Relena. You know I don't like you to lie to me."
Silence.
Finally she looked back at him. This time, her eyes were damp.
Heero pushed some numbers in a familiar order on the communication link. He waited.
A heart shaped face showed up on the monitor. It looked tired first, but quickly took on the expression of someone who is seeing a miracle. Totally stunned, with a gaping mouth and saucers big eyes. He almost smiled at that.
"Heero!" The boy at other side exclaimed.
Heero studied his features. The American boy was thinner than the last time he had seen him. Those violet eyes were losing the sparkle they had been famous for. The face was somehow paler, but it was flushed with anxiety.
"Relena said you've been looking for me over the past two months," Heero stated coolly.
Duo Maxwell dumbly nodded.
It was hard to say it, but it had to be said. "Well, drop it."
The American burst out, "Hell, no! I'm not giving up! Where the Hell are you anyway?"
Heero didn't answer. He couldn't. How could he tell Duo? How could he tell him what it was all about?
How could he tell the boy he cared so much about, that he would never see him again? That he would never be by his side again? That they would never be able to go on a mission together again?
"Duo," He finally said.
"What?" The boy's face was expectant.
"Please leave me alone for a while. I'll explain it to you one day." If he ever had the chance to....
It was amazing how his few words could affect the braided boy so much. "You promise?" Duo's voice was trembling as if he had been afraid to even hope.
Duo didn't deserve him. He did NOT deserve him. "I'll explain it. I promise you that, with my life."
"Arigatou, Heero." That sparkle was back. Heero almost felt guilty. No, he _would_ explain it to Duo one way or another. Nevertheless, it didn't have to be the truth....
~tbc~
Hime D.