24 Aug 2000
And a note about those pairing symbols -- I don't know how standardized they
are, but I've been using x for actual romance, including citrus, and + for
friendship, non-smoochy encounters, etc. In case that was confusing.
Enjoy, enjoy!
-- Lilias
Parts 5 (2+R, no particular warnings)
/Lights down, we drown
And I know
Beauty has her way/
It didn't make him smile any more, watching him watch her. Somewhere along the line, Duo knew, he'd started to care too much. What was it about her, anyway? Plenty of people at Lauriel outclassed her in the looks department, aesthetically speaking; Miranda Deschamps had auburn ringlets to die for, and Vin Luang's profile could launch a thousand ships, if not more. And plenty of them were more obviously sexy, too -- those Cartwright twins had the entire basketball team neatly tied up in knots every time they walked past, even in their uniforms.
Relena did have unusual eyes -- somewhere between blue and lilac, cool and serene in a face that seemed too small to hold them. But she didn't dress to make the most of her slim body, and her restrained hairstyle hardly lent itself to wild, romantic fantasies. Maybe that was it, in the end -- maybe it was that coolness, that innocence, that made her so irresistible. She might have seemed untouched by the violence that had already set a match to her life, if it hadn't been for the sadness in her face.
Watching her cross the quadrangle, it occurred to him that she stood out almost as much as they did in spite of her efforts to keep a low profile. Like the other day pupils, Relena wasn't obligated to wear the school's uniform -- but her usual blouses and straight skirts seemed almost more formal than the blue pants, white shirts, and jaunty yellow scarves that were standard issue for girls at Lauriel.
Her bearing suited her chaste outfits. For the most part she held herself aloof from the other students, having marked off clear boundaries in her first few days. Ever the diplomat's child, she accepted their overtures graciously -- but rather as if their offers of friendship were so many bouquets clamoring for vases. Everyone was kept at a distance by that distant blue gaze; she always seemed to be looking at something just past their heads, and it was usually Yuy she was looking for. She did seem to see Duo, though, and even sought out his company every so often as if to confirm that something held all three of them together.
And something did, he decided, but it was the sort of tangle that made a better soapvid than a life. At least Heero and Relena were watching each other, if covertly -- all he was doing was watching them, from greater and greater distances. This wasn't a competition, exactly, but he had the feeling she was winning. Maybe he had moved too fast. Maybe imitating her aloofness would have drawn things out longer. Maybe it would have ended up like this -- with him watching from the other side of mile-thick plate glass -- no matter what he tried. <Should've known, Maxwell. You're just the type people walk away from.>
Relena climbed the steps of the library, looking up with a smile to where Duo leaned against a stone lion. "Are you on your way in, or on your way out?"
He returned her smile, resolutely packing his unhappiness back into its box and sitting on the lid. "Neither. Just keeping the big kitty company. You here to work on that history project?"
She nodded. "It seems strange to be worrying about finishing a history paper -- like I'm only in costume as a student in a play, or something, and real life is waiting just past the curtain."
"I know what you mean. But it probably would have been hard for me to care about English class even if I were a student. A real one, I mean."
She regarded him thoughtfully. "Oh, I doubt that. There's plenty of the poet in you, I think."
He snorted. "Not likely. No patience for rhyme."
"Who says poems have to rhyme? Besides, maybe writing poetry would help."
"With what?"
"Whatever's making you so sad."
Ouch. That one zinged a little too close to the mark. He zinged back, almost without thinking: "Does it help you?"
She just laughed. "Not so far. It does help to be here, where he is. You know."
It wasn't a question. He went still, giving her a sidelong look before closing his eyes altogether. "I know." She looked carefully away, but she was smiling.
End of Part 5
(:./lilias/beauty5)
