19-May-2003
Title: Tears on My Heart 2/?
Rating: R
Warnings: Het, cursing, lime
Pairings: 1xH
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Hilde painted another stretch of dresser drawer, and rocked back on her heels, considering. She was out of paint.
"You're out of paint," a voice intoned behind her, soft and precise.
She raised her paintbrush as a weapon and fell into a crouching position even as she spun; an instinctive reaction. Some training never let you be. She used to sleep with a gun next to her, before Seth was born, and had lost track of the nights she awoke to some sound, the cold metal in her hand and her eyes fastened sharply on the darkness.
"Heero! Shit! You scared the hell out of me!" She scolded, flopping onto her backside and bringing one hand up to her chest to still her pounding heart.
Rather than apologize, he nodded, acknowledging, "Hilde."
Thinking that was just like him, she grinned, pushing sweaty hair out of her eyes. The action made her aware of how grubby and second-hand she must look.
"I wasn't expecting company," she said, picking at her frayed shorts. They had once been jeans until she wore holes in them from working under the old truck that sometimes ran.
Heero didn't answer. She hadn't expected him to. He was much as she remembered him, with impassive, yet arresting features, and eyes that seemed to burn into places they weren't invited. He had gotten taller and put on weight, but he hadn't lost the leanness that made her think of a panther living constantly on the move.
"Well..." Hilde began to struggle to her feet, and swallowed surprise when he unwound himself, bending to extend a hand. She hesitated, knowing her hands were dirty, callused, and likely spotted with wet paint. It was rude to ignore the gesture, however, so she accepted, feeling marginally better when his hands proved to be as work-worn as her own.
He followed her into the kitchen, resting his hip against the counter when she would have offered him a chair. Seth hadn't noticed the visitor yet. He hadn't finished being enamored with the Sprinkler. When the novelty wore away, however, he would be in the house, dripping water onto the tile.
"Can I get you something to drink?" She offered, taking a pitcher of lemonade from the fridge.
"Please."
"Lemonade okay?"
He nodded, folding his arms.
Hilde opened the cupboard, huffing when she remembered the glasses she wanted were out of her reach. She would have to climb onto the counter. She rarely paid attention to her lack of stature, but certain elements of it annoyed her.
Heero was behind her and taking out two glasses before she could even brace herself on the edge. He moved so quickly, and so silently, it leaned toward unnerving her. She had often teased Duo of being a cat, the way he went around the house without making a sound, but Heero was like a ghost.
"Thanks," she offered, as he settled away from her again. "You know, I can remember a time when we were the same height..."
"I grew. You didn't," he pointed out, matter-of-fact.
She snorted. "Out, maybe."
At her statement, his eyes slid lower. She had rounded some, but it wasn't noticeable until she drew attention to it.
"It suits you," he dismissed.
She laughed, and handed him his lemonade. "I think that's the nicest compliment anyone has ever paid me."
He could stand if he wanted, but she intended to sit. And she did, curling herself up in a kitchen chair.
"What brings you here, Heero?"
"I came to see Duo," he answered bluntly.
Her eyes slid to Seth before she schooled her features, sipped her lemonade, and finally met his gaze.
"He's not here. He hasn't been for about the last six years." There was no bitterness or anger in the admission, just fact.
"I don't know where he is," she added lowly, gently rotating her glass. "We're doing fine, Heero."
She heard him before he reached the kitchen.
"Stop. I'll get you a towel before you even step in my kitchen."
It wasn't her words that stopped him short of the sliding door, however. He had noticed the stranger.
"I'll be right back," Hilde reminded them both.
Heero stared at the boy. The child stared back, unblinking. "What's your name?"
"Seth. What's yours?" He returned without hesitation, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
"Heero Yuy."
Seth tried it out. "He-row Yoo-ee."
"No, Seth. Heero Yuy," Hilde corrected, brushing past the man whose name they were volleying to briskly rub Seth down with a towel.
"I'm tryin', mama."
She smiled at him, and gave his hair a quick pat. "I know."
Grasping her by the shoulders, Seth leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Should I get dressed?"
"Go ahead."
He straightened. "Okay! Don't go anywhere, Mr. Heero. I gotta get dressed!"
When Heero didn't answer, Seth skidded to a halt at the bottom of the stairs and turned. "You're gonna stay, right?"
Heero nodded. "Yeah."
Seth flashed him a grin, all charisma and Duo. If it hadn't been obvious to Heero before, Hilde knew it would be now.
"I can't get him to stop running in the house."
He shrugged. "Kids are going to get hurt."
She sighed, folding her arms. "I know."
"He looks like his father."
Her eyes cut to him sharply. "Seth doesn't know. He's only five."
Hilde knew what he was doing. She didn't appreciate it, so when she noticed he had drained his glass, she snatched it from his hand and whirled away from him.
Carriage stiff, she set it in the sink, running water into it in a gesture he thought automatic. When she turned back to him, her expression was set and her eyes shuttered, holding none of the welcome he had seen when she invited him into her kitchen. She all but bared her teeth at him.
"I don't want you talking to him about Duo, Heero. If you do, so help me, I'll kick your ass. He's my son. I'll tell him what needs to be told when I'm ready."
The cool cast to her eyes could have bitten him and drawn blood if it were possible. Short of killing him, she would do whatever it took to shelter Seth.
"It's not my place to tell him."
Mouth turning down unhappily at the corners, her eyes flattened into irritated slits. "That's not the answer I'm looking for."
She watched him drop his gaze to the tile, looking at a smear of jelly at his feet before lifting his head to meet her furious stare.
"Well?" She demanded impatiently, transferring her weight to the opposite hip, both hands fisted at her waist.
He smiled then. Not simply stretching his lips, but with his teeth and his eyes. It drove the shadows and edges from his face, making him seem boyish and oddly dangerous.
"Do you want me to sign it in blood too?"
After living with Duo for six years, she had gotten to where she thought she could read him. Heero, however, was a blank to her and nearly as much a stranger as someone who walked into her house off the street. She wasn't sure of her moves around him, or his with regard to Seth. She didn't want her son hurt. When the time came and he was old enough to understand, she would tell him about the man who had fathered him.
But she couldn't shake the feeling that Heero was having fun at her expense.
"Yeah, just let me get a knife," she quipped tightly, refusing to relent.
The humor left his face, and looking at him, she wouldn't have been able to tell that he smiled at all.
"I won't tell him. You have my word."
Not quite willing to relinquish her suspicion, she dropped her arms, and said, "I guess that'll have to do. But I meant what I said."
"I believe you."
A hurricane of energy and excitement burst in between them, pausing upon almost reaching Heero to cast an apologetic glance at his mother. Her face smoothed out, and she shook her head, making a small motion with her shoulder as if to say 'I can't win'.
"Mr. Heero, are you mama's friend?"
Heero lifted his eyes to Hilde's.
"Yes he is, Seth," Hilde answered for him, noticing that her son had put on his favorite shorts and T-shirt set. He was looking to impress Heero. Something turned over and settled in her stomach like a stone. Seth needed some kind of male influence... And she just wasn't willing to do the dating it required to find one.
Seth beamed at both of them. It set off warning bells in Hilde. He was up to something.
"Then, can he stay for dinner? Can you, Mr. Heero?" Seth turned his eyes on Heero, pleading.
"Dinner isn't for another few hours, Seth."
"But he could stay 'till then. I can show him my car collection."
A part of her--a strong part--wanted to grab Heero by the shoulders and shove him out the door. She didn't need the unease of his knowledge or the sharp pain that stabbed at her every time Seth looked at him with such trust and adoration. Her son didn't even know the man. Why couldn't the two of them alone be enough? She thought she was doing a damn good job of raising him for having never known how.
"Can he mama?" Seth begged.
Sighing, Hilde pressed a palm to her forehead. "If Heero wants to stay, it's fine with me."
When Seth focused on Heero again, Hilde wasn't prepared for the him to grasp the man's fingers. Staring at their joined hands, the knot in her stomach twisted.
"I got a lot of neat cars," Seth informed him shyly. "Wanna come see them?"
"All right," he found himself agreeing.
"Mama, we'll be upstairs, okay?"
Hilde watched her son lead Heero away, and fought to quell the rising panic that stirred.
"He's just a man, Hilde. And he promised," she whispered to herself, even as she crossed the tile and lowered herself weakly into a chair.
End Part 2
(:./jen/tears2)
