02-Oct-2000
Category: Fluffy sappiness
Pairing: 2+R (implied 2xR), references to 2+1
Disclaimer: Don't own boys or girl, of course.
Warnings: Fluff/sap, little pinches of angst, oblique references to shounen-ai.
Notes: This is a side story to "Complicated," and is set between Parts 4 and 5. Some background, if you haven't
been riding that train: the wars are over, Heero is
god-knows-where, and Relena and Duo have gotten around
to being a couple. Now that I think about it, all of this is
pretty obvious from the story itself--but oh, well....
// denotes thoughts
Relena dumped the last pile of financial reports onto the stack of documents to be filed and sighed, reaching for the next sheaf of insistent papers. It had been a long day already, and it was only about one o'clock in the afternoon.
A knock at her office door brought her head up, but warily. Unexpected interruptions generally meant yet more work, unless it was--
It was. She knew her smile was entirely too wide, bordering on silly, but she couldn't help it. It was just that good to see him, even when seeing him was something she got to do every day.
Every day, every night--if this lasted the rest of her life, she would never get tired of looking at Duo Maxwell.
Especially when he was smiling like that, as if he had some amazing secret that he could barely contain. "Get your coat--I want to show you something."
"But I have to work on the--"
"No arguments. This stuff will be here when you get back. Come on, already!"
She barely had time to grab her jacket from the coat-tree in the foyer on the way out the door; before she could fully adjust to the feeling of being outdoors in the mid-afternoon, they were in his car on the way to--where, exactly?
"Duo, where are we going? What do you have to show me?"
"Secret. But you'll like it."
She shook her head. Would he ever grow up? Would she be able to stand it if he did?
The car drew into an ordinary-looking parking lot, next to an ordinary-looking building. Some sort of warehouse? They were well outside the city, so perhaps--could this be the airfield?
"This is it! Now, shut your eyes."
"You're kidding, right? I'll trip and break my neck, and then you'll have to give that speech next week."
"Not a chance. Don't you trust me?"
"About as far as I could throw you, Maxwell." She shut the car door and turned, letting out a squeak of surprise as he lifted her off her feet.
"You need to learn trust, Minister. Now close your eyes before I have to blindfold you!"
Grumbling in an elaborate show of reluctance, she squinched her eyes obediently. This was hardly torture, after all--not so very bad, being carried in these arms. If this ride was the surprise, she decided, it was worth putting off that pile of work. He barely seemed to register her weight, pushing open doors and climbing stairs as if he didn't have a blonde world leader cradled against his chest.
Outdoors, again, and he was setting her on her feet. "Okay. Now you can look."
A silver aircraft sat on the runway in front of her--a metal wedge with room for pilot and copilot, one seat in front of the other. Its flowing lines suggested motion even as it sat, reluctantly grounded but somehow straining for the sky. It was beautiful.
She looked back at him, inquiringly; he was eyeing the ship with the proprietary air usually reserved for proud consorts of supermodels. "What is that?"
"They call it a skimmer--same propulsion, same controls as a fighter, but no guns. For reconnaissance and fast transport, mostly. And man, is she ever fast--wait till you see this thing move."
"Wherever did you get your hands on something like that--or do I want to ask?"
He laughed. "Don't worry--I'm not dragging you on a joyride. This one's a prototype of the latest model, and they wanted someone to test it. They asked around to find the best, and ended up with my number."
She glared at him. "You've been playing around with experimental aircraft, and didn't even tell me?"
"It's perfectly safe. Really. And anyway, I'm indestructible."
"Don't push it--I know better, remember?"
He saw the remembered darkness in her eyes and moved to give her a quick embrace. "I'm more careful these days. Now, come on!"
"I take it we're going up in this thing?"
"All the way up, Lena. Here--put this on."
He pushed a helmet into her hands, then boosted her into the front seat.
"Are you crazy? I can't fly this!"
"Dual controls, Lena. I'll pilot from the back seat. But you can see better from the front, and the view's going to be amazing."
The engines were surprisingly quiet as they taxied, but their whine rose to a piercing scream as the sleek ship reached greedily for the open air. This thing was fast, very fast, climbing steadily into the afternoon sky until it settled into flight like an arrow headed confidently for its target.
Relena realized it had been a while since she blinked, since she had remembered to draw breath. Laughter spilled over, almost involuntarily--the exhilaration of speed, of the open sky, made perfect by total trust in the pilot. Her pilot.
/You and your machines,/ she thought. /How many, many times has your life depended on this gift of yours, on this combination of wildness and control?/ The best, indeed. She smiled inside her helmet; just thinking of his hands on the controls made shivers run up her spine.
He laughed, too, but then his voice was suddenly serious over the helmet's comlink.
"That wasn't the whole surprise."
"There's more?"
"Yeah. I wanted to--I mean, I thought maybe I could--" He stopped, then tried again. "Lena. Let me show you how you make me feel."
"What?"
"Being with you. It feels like this."
The skimmer went into a sharp climb, up and up until they were past the clouds, dipping and swooping over the piled cotton of drifting cumulus. The sun glinting off silver wings, flashing back off the unbelievable whiteness of the billowing vapor. Then a long spiraling turn, banking into the wind, cutting through the cloud-tops. It was play, and freedom, and joy--a dance in the blue and white and gold of the sky.
She was laughing again, closing her eyes to concentrate on the feeling of this flight. When they finally leveled out, she sighed. "Really? Like that?"
"All the time."
"It was--wonderful. Wonderful. I don't have words for it."
"Neither do I--that's why I had to bring you up here."
"Duo."
"Yeah?"
"Can you--would you show me--" She hardly dared ask; the favor was too great.
"Anything."
"Show me Heero?"
He caught his breath, then turned it into a laugh. "Hold on."
Climbing, again, but almost straight up--and then a dive so steep that her whole field of view was taken up by the ground below them. It seemed like a suicidal plunge until the last possible second, when the ship simultaneously pulled up and swerved right, skimming the ground. Darting just above treetops, cutting back and forth so fast that the terrain was a blur. Then back up, hurtling into a series of somersaults and rolls that left her momentarily uncertain which way was up.
So this was what it was like: this speed, courting insanity but always dancing back from the edge. This unbearable rising and falling, land and sky blurring until anything seemed possible. What a ride, what a rush--imagine a life like that. Imagine living without it, once you had known it.
"Wow."
"I know."
She leaned back against the headrest as the skimmer came in for a landing, trying to frame adequate thanks for the incredible thing he had given her. Just the latest in a series of undeserved gifts, really.
"Thank you. You do know--that could have been something you kept for yourself. You didn't have to give it to me just because I asked."
"I know. That's partly why I could give it."
"And the rest?"
His laugh again, so warm. "You're holding all of me, all the time. Why not this, too?"
"Oh, love." She wanted to cry.
The canopy slid open, and she battled with her harness--needing to get out of the cramped seat, needing her arms around him. He vaulted easily out of the compartment and reached up for her, his face darkening with concern as soon as he saw her tears.
"This isn't exactly the reaction I was going for--don't, Lena. Don't cry, please?"
She shook her head, trying to smile. "It's too much. You give me too much."
"Never enough. Shh. Come on, let's go home, okay? I can carry you again, if you want."
"You already are, you know. Carrying all of me, all the time."
"Good. Then we're almost even."
The sun was low in the sky when the low black car purred back onto the grounds of the Peacecraft complex. She turned in her seat to watch him, his face intent on the curving drive ahead. It occurred to her to wonder what had passed over that face, through those eyes, while he was flying. Reaching out, she pushed an escaping lock of hair back from his face, and smiled when he glanced sideways at her.
"Do you think we'll ever stop? Missing him, I mean."
"Hope not."
"Me, too."
The End
(:./lilias/up)
