Hi all! ::waves::
This is a semi rough draft of the next part of SF... written under the influence of a recent viewing of the movie eXistenZ ::sweatdrop::
The real yuri begins in Chapter 3! Yay! Almost there... I've been waiting to post Chapter 4 for a *week*; it was the first thing I wrote.
Chapter 3 will hopefully be out by Monday sometime... but for now, four words: There's gonna be MUD!
Warnings: Yuri (soon!); the author has seen eXistenZ. Disclaimers: The people aren't mine but the fic is.
/... / = thoughts
Shit. I lost it. I thought I was in control! I was fine, and then all of a sudden everything just sort of exploded... and I had to let Hirde defend me, of all people! She's a total enigma to me and she talks enough for ten people and she's annoying and she reminds me of *him* and... I sink lower into the leather seat of our rented car. / ...and she's powerful and in control and I just want her to keep the rest of the world away from me./
I mean, I'm completely cool and in control in public, unless Heero's there. /Stop. thinking. about. Heero./ I'm a very high-up politician and I can handle high-stress situations, but I'm really nervous and shy in private life. And I just *broke down* in front of dozens of people and the companion I hardly even know! And then Hirde--Hirde was everything I wanted to be but couldn't. She just waltzed up to the head of my vacation security like *she* was the Queen of the World, and--
::THUD:: "Whee! I love driving this thing! I want one!"
I do not swear out loud. I never swear out loud. I am a lady. Count to ten. I will count to ten.
"Lord have mercy," whispers the cook.
I completely agree. "Hirde, I realize that you're having fun, but you're scaring the cook. Would you consider slowing down and staying on the main road?" Damn. That wasn't supposed to come out like a question; that was supposed to be an order...
She glances at me from the corner of her eyes. "Am I scaring *you*?" she asks, completely ignoring the rest of what I said.
Somehow, I have a feeling that's going to happen often. But as her attention returns to the road, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Something about the way she asked me that--the look in her eyes--made my heart beat faster.
I don't understand her at all; she always seemed innocent before, and she *should* appear harmless what with the way she talks and the fact that she's about two feet tall... but draped over the wheel casually like that, grinning as she shouts insults at all the other drivers on the road, she looks almost... dangerous.
"Of course not," I lie belatedly, tossing my head.
She laughs.
::THUD:: "Oops, sorry, sorry!"
I am going to learn to drive.
"Finally, we're here!" Hirde stops just inside the front door of our cabin and puts down her bags.
"We would've been here an hour ago, if you'd listened to me about the map."
She ignores me and walks around the living room, inspecting. I am not used to being ignored, and it's taking getting used to. "Hirde, don't you ever get tired?" It feels weird, calling her Hirde and not 'Hirde-san,' but if she is going to drop all formality with me than I certainly won't treat her any differently. In a way, though, it's kind of nice... I've never been this casual with anyone in my life, and we've just met.
"Nope! Let's go explore this place!"
I know that it's useless to argue with her, and the look I'm getting from the cook is one of desperation. "Very well. Dinner will be at eight, Mathilde." She gratefully half-walks, half-runs to the kitchen.
"Relena! It's a lake! Look!" Hirde cries from somewhere out of sight.
"Hirde, that's why they call it a 'lake cabin.'" When I join her on the little beach behind the cabin, she is dancing. Sand is flying everywhere, and in the dimming light of the evening she is rather ghostly, and pretty. /Where did that thought come from?/ I don't have time to think about it; she stops dancing and looks at me wild-eyed.
"I... I've never seen this much water in one place, ever... not in my whole life. I mean, the Earth looks so blue from space, and I've flown over the oceans in planes, so I guess I knew, but... " Her voice trails off, clearly awed. /That's right, she's from L2./ She's probably never seen more than a glassful of water in the same place at the same time. It's not even a big lake.
Somehow, I feel humbled by her joy... this is why I struggled for peace, so that little things like this could be enjoyed without fear. For this one moment she is not the chatterbox of the plane ride here, or the brazen ex-soldier who chastised my guards, or even the stranger in the car. /I recognize this... who... ?/ That's it. A girl. She looks like any of the normal, happy teenage girls I saw in school. For the first time, I think maybe this will work.
Typically, at that moment, it starts to storm.
Also typically, the girl I have just acknowledged I could maybe, *possibly* stand as a companion for two weeks has a completely unexpected reaction. She grins, and says, "Wanna swim?"
"Hirde!" I screech. "It's raining!"
"Yeah, so if we swim, then we'll be wet, and it won't matter."
I think I'm getting tired, because that almost sounds reasonable to me. "We should go inside."
"Aw, come on. It's really warm for September, and it's practically deserted, 'cause all the other lake people have gone back to their regular homes 'till next summer. It'll be fun!" She's whining like a pathetic kid, and I can hear her thinking: 'Water in the lake *and* from the sky!' I wince as I realize that this is a very important moment for her, and that I am going to lose the argument, and most importantly, that I am already thoroughly soaked.
"All right, let's get our suits." If only the other Ministers could see me now...
"Yosh'!" She stands and lifts her face to the sky for a moment before we go in, as if she is a priestess and she is worshiping the clouds. The rain falls down around her.
Hirde's swimsuit is brand-new. She's never been swimming before, so one of my aides took her shopping for this trip the day before we left. As I watch her float and twist in the water, I wonder that the simulations she underwent in training could really prepare her for something she'd never experienced in reality. "How do you do that?"
"What, this? My training facility was one of the best, and we all had to learn to fight under any conditions. I've swum in virtual water more times than I can count... but I always imagined myself doing the real thing... It's so cool and *wet*!" Her voice trails off almost shyly, and I realize she is trying to open up to me, telling me things that are personal.
/I wonder what it would be like to swim with Heero./ Heero and I, under the moon... Heero in a swimsuit... iya! I am not thinking about that! I shake my head, hard. Hirde has paddled a little away from me, and is frolicking happily. Unnoticed, I pull myself back up on the dock, and sit hugging my knees to my chest. Heero...
Most people think that I am naive, and obsessed. I am neither. But I am young, and I guess it's almost the same thing. I knew that it was hopeless to ask him to love me in the middle of a war, but I was lonely. People do a lot of hopeless things when they're lonely and lost. Like fall in love with soldiers. And agree to be Queen of the World. Is that so wrong? I miss my father. And I miss my easy life. I didn't ask for any of this, no matter what the rumors about me say... I just didn't know how to stop anything or turn anything down. My father was dead and then all of a sudden not my father. And then there was Heero. And then my brother. And Dorothy. Dorothy confused me a lot, and made me doubt myself, more than I'll ever admit. So maybe I wasn't stupid, or obsessive; maybe I just tried anything I could to make all the pain confusion go away.
"Oi, come on in, the water's fine!" My thoughts are broken off and suddenly, I am in the water. Hirde lets me up after a short struggle, and as I gasp for breath I slap her without thinking. She grins.
"What did you do that for?" I demand, angry and confused. How dare she dunk me like that! And who smiles after you slap them? Who *is* this girl?
"Well, you seemed like you could use a distraction from your thoughts. They didn't look like happy ones. And it worked, didn't it?"
It did. Not that I'm going to admit it, but now I'm definitely not feeling wistful anymore. "You could've hurt me, taking me by surprise like that."
Hirde looks injured. "Oi! You know I wouldn't hurt you! I'm your bodyguard, baka!"
"Who's an idiot?!" I splash water at her, but I know it's no use to get upset. And right now, for some reason, I'm feeling too good to protest. Maybe because I haven't played in such a long time... I shiver. "It's cold."
Hirde wraps her arms around me, taking me completely by surprise. She rubs her hands up and down my shoulders to warm them up, and we stay that way for a moment, still in the cool water under the stars.
"Come on," she says, finally. "Time for dinner!" And she runs ahead of me into the house. As I make my way across the patio to the door, I feel confused and exhausted, but strangely glad to be here. For two weeks, I'm free.
From the inside the cabin, I hear a voice jabbering excitedly about fried chicken.
End Part 3
(:./cutter/fire3)
