14-Feb-2002
Title: Touched
Author: Ebonydove
Pairing: 2+1
Warnings: sap
Authors notes: Heero's POV. Just a little ficlet in honor of the day.
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing, so you'd be wasting your time looking for
anything more than an overactive imagination and liberal misuse of the G-boys.
Sorry!
He came in a full hour after I did, probably to keep our cover intact for a bit longer and made his way to our bathroom in silence. I had already cleaned myself up and gone to bed and wasn't facing the door when he arrived. I knew it was him though, because there was absolutely no sound as he moved. He could do it if he was concentrating. I always knew he had skills. I was glad he chose to come back quietly. It was after all, close to dawn when most students would be rising for breakfast and their early morning classes. Not just coming in from blowing an Oz ammunitions supply base to dust.
The last time he had come back from a mission he had been acting like he had been blitzed out of his mind. Hollering down the hall and being confronted by a monitor. When asked about the bruises and cuts on his face by her, he had just said it was good, clean fun. Good thing he did look like he was in a barroom brawl, or we could have been compromised. I had yelled at him for being reckless, he just smiled and told me he had Saints watching out for him. To keep him out of trouble.
I wasn't planning on going to my classes today. I was unable to get the information I wanted from the ammunitions base on the scheduled shipments of Gundanium they were supposed to be receiving, so we had to go to our backup plan and blow the place. We'd have to leave after that. I was tired and frustrated. I walked away from the supply base with some bruising and a few lacerations, only two of which needed stitching. I hadn't gotten a look at him yet.
Duo had really done most of the work this time. My orders were to provide backup while he did the infiltration and set the charges. I had made sure the few guards stationed were taken care of while he snuck in and placed the explosives. I had to be the one to set them off from the outside, all he needed to do was get out before they blew. It was an easy job and I had laughed when we both found we shared orders. He scowled at me at the time not thinking it was funny at all. I had bruised his ego I supposed. It was rather incredulous that J seemed to think I would need anything from him, but orders were orders. I had after all failed the first phase of the mission to retrieve the files from the relative safety of our boarding school, but neither J nor Duo knew that. I did though, and it was eating me up.
When he came back though all thoughts of repudiation of my directives escaped my mind. I could smell the burned hair as he moved through the room to grab a towel and some clothes to change into. I turned from the wall to look at him and frowned at what I saw. He looked bad. Not just fatigued bad, but slightly crispy. I found that reasonable due to the amount of explosives he was dealing with. It was the fact he was covered in a thick layer of ash and his arms and face seemed to be singed that made me frown. His eyes stood out like two giant, dark blue orbs as they caught and reflected some of the dim light in our room. They were the only visible part of him that wasn't filthy or burnt.
He disappeared into the bathroom an instant after I had seen him and never once looked in my direction. I flipped back the covers and went to the door, listening to the soft hiss of the shower. He was oddly quiet still. I decided to be proactive instead of waiting by the door and pulled the medic kit out from his hidden spot in the floorboards. Then I sat on his bed waiting for him to come back out of the tiny room.
He did, ten minutes later with his hair rebraided and was dressed for bed in white boxers and a black t-shirt. He paused at the bed and stared at me waiting for me to speak. But I certainly had nothing to say. It wasn't my fault he got himself hurt. I tried to ignore that tight feeling in my gut though. He wouldn't have had to be there at all if I had downloaded the files from the school. The intensity of his stare made my stomach summersault and I was about to leave him to take care of the burns himself, when I noticed the distinct sound of liquid dripping to the floor. Just one or two droplets at a time. I was going to yell at him about getting water all over the place, when I looked to the floor I saw that they were red, not clear. I immediately did a full sweep with my eyes to see where the blood was coming from. When my eyes met his again, he gave me a puzzled look. "You're bleeding." I thought it was obvious enough.
His eyes told me that it was information he already knew despite the confusion in them from the moment before and gave me a small lopsided grin. "Yeah. Can't reach it though."
"So you plan on ignoring it then." I got up with a huff and spun him around. I hadn't turned him that fast and was concerned with how he had to steady himself as I checked out the tiny gash on his back. It wasn't terrible, but would probably need a stitch or two to keep it from getting worse from rubbing against clothing or sheets.
I went to the bathroom and brought the towel he had used and wiped away the last of the blood then moved him to his bed to sit down. He let me clean and stitch it without a word. In fact the smile had disappeared and he looked almost, shy. I taped a clean pad over the wound to keep it from getting infected, then went to put some cream on some of the more serious burns on his shoulders and neck.
"Thanks Heero." He said quietly when I moved the heavy, wet braid out of the way so I could work.
I understood competition. We were soldiers after all and thrived on trying to best each other, but I was irrationally angry that he thought that I was helping him now because he didn't somehow meet my approval. I was the one feeling guilty, and my offer to help was not because I thought he failed to meet my expectations or that I found him weak. I paused in my application of the cream to look at him. Really look at him.
He was so strong. Not just physically. He had an inner strength that I couldn't wrap my brain around. He tapped into it everyday. He was generous and fun loving, but could be just as ruthless as he was cunning. I hadn't realized when I first began to respect him, but I did. But for some strange reason, he still didn't seem to think we were on a level field, he and I. "How'd it happen?"
He met my piercing look with a smile again. "Guess my Saint was looking the other way."
Figures he would play it off. A part of my mind was nagging that I set the charges off to early, that I had missed some minute detail in our plan somewhere. That I was the cause of his injuries.
"I brought you something."
My hands stilled. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. He wasn't sent to retrieve anything. We just had to destroy the place. The mission was clear. My stomach flipped again.
"Here."
I turned a bit so we could face each other on the bed and he placed a mini-disk in my hands. He gave me another lopsided grin, but kept his eyes hidden under the long sweep of his chestnut colored bangs. I turned it over and over in my hand. He went for the files. He went for the files and almost got himself blown up. By explosives he set, but I detonated.
I was angry. He must have read my mission notes.
I was worried. I could have killed him.
I was confused. I didn't realize I felt this way about him. "Why?"
"I didn't think you were the type for flowers or candy." He smiled wider and leaned forward to place a light kiss on my cheek. "Happy Valentine's Day, Heero."
I was... touched. He did this for me.
The End
(:./ebony/touched)
