[GW, 1xR, Oneshot] Timeless (LEMON)
Written for CoL 2008. I have gotten soooooo rusty at this whole writing thing. This entry contains less explicitness than in years past, and Heero and Relena are actually having sex in a bed this time around--which I believe is a first for me, ha!
Hope you enjoy it! All comments and criticisms are welcome so feel free to rip it up in every possible fashion and critique it to pieces if you are so inclined.
Thanks to miakamouse for providing the inspiration to drag this sucker out, dust it off, and finish it up.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and distributed in America exclusively under license by Bandai Entertainment. It's not mine. Believe me, I could use the cash.
Title: Timeless
Status: Complete Oneshot
Date Completed: March 15, 2008
Date Edited: March 22, 2008
Series: Gundam Wing
Genres: Smut, romance, fluff, WAFF. My standards.
Rating: 18+
Warnings: The genres should say it all this time around.
Pairing: 1xR (Heero x Relena)
Word Count: 4,920
Summary: Some presents just mean more than others do.
(April 1, A.C. 199)
"Hey-ho, Charley-O! Time for gramps to go take his nap, eh? You just leave everything to me."
The younger controller clapped Charley on the shoulder as they passed one another, but instead of responding with his customary bravado, the wiry man merely rolled his shoulder to distribute the blow and grunted, his concentration obviously elsewhere.
"You see anything unusual outside on your way up?" he muttered, pausing in the middle of the floor and glancing back across the room he was leaving with thoughtful but unfocused eyes.
"What are you talking about, Charley? Is it time to up the prescription on your glasses or something?"
"Forget it then. Yeah, too much time staring at a screen." Charley headed for the door, pausing with his hand across the power pad. "Wind's gusting pretty hard today. Better keep them well apart."
Charley navigated the elevator system and strode down the hallways of the tower with deliberate purpose, bypassing his usual destination of the napping room and heading straight for the lounge. He sighed in relief as the automatic doors swished closed behind him, enveloping him in a fluorescent lit sanctuary that smelled of coffee, pastry, and potato chips and echoed with the dull sounds of cards and checkers thrown down.
"You're early. Breaking the normal order of the universe today, Charley?"
"It's April Fool's, Thomas. This is all some dastardly trick. Just wait. Charley's never this sociable."
"Charley-Charley better watch the donuts! They've got that special sugar on them today, courtesy of Roy and a glue gun!"
"Jerry got his lips stuck together! Finally shut him up for about ten seconds!"
He raised one hand in greeting in the midst of the chorus of laughter following that last proclamation but barely spared a glance at his fellow relaxing workers as he headed for the small kitchen area. His need for a caffeine and sugar hit superseded all other concerns because it just would not do to be hallucinating on an empty stomach. When those needs had been filled, he wandered casually over to the bay of windows facing the ocean, armed with a steaming mug and a jelly-filled pastry.
"So, I wasn't seeing things." His eyes narrowed wryly behind their large aviator lenses. "He's still out there."
Charley watched the young man down on the beach with amused interest as he sipped his coffee. Only for such novelty as this would he abandon a single moment of his napping session. Just this once, rather than placing a little bit of shut-eye in its proper order of importance, he had allowed himself to be slave to his curiosity, immediately heading to the break room for a closer view of the tiny speck he had seen moving on the sand from the top of control tower.
Though the beach was not technically a restricted area, it very rarely received any visitors due to its proximity to the former military airport. It also was perhaps not the best day to be on the beach and exposed to the heavily gusting ocean winds. However, a young man with wind-tousled dark hair knelt on the beach below, apparently stuffing handfuls of loose, dry sand into a canvas bag. The wind and sand buffeted and blasted him from side to side and tried to rip the bag from his hands, but he persisted with a dogged determination that Charley found himself admiring in spite of himself.
"What an idiot. April fools indeed."
A grin played about Charley's lips. Yes, indeed, beachcombers were a rarity, but sand thieves? Now that was something you didn't see every day!
(April 3, A.C. 199)
Relena glanced up from her paperwork when the familiar quiet knock of her longtime butler sounded at her door. "Yes, Pagan?"
"Another gift has arrived for you, Miss Relena," came the muffled answer.
"Bring it in then," she called and then sighed, putting down her pen and wearily massaging the back of her neck.
Pagan entered and with his usual quiet efficiency deposited another box among the stack already resting against one wall of her bedroom suite, collected the remains of her supper, and left. Relena eyed the new box with open curiosity. It was about average size, not as big as some of the unopened presents lining the wall but nowhere near as small as the numerous jewelry boxes piled together in one corner either. The truly extraordinary thing about that box in particular was that it was so plainly packaged, wrapped only in plain brown butcher paper and packing tape. It stood out in sharp contrast from the mass of brightly colored and shiny packages streaming with ribbons and bows behind it.
"Intriguing," Relena murmured as she rose from her seat, the package's sheer plainness and unassuming nature drawing her to it. The giver obviously felt no need to impress or woo her with fancy trimmings. Very few people felt comfortable enough to gift her so modestly, and they just happened to be all the people dearest in the world to her. She settled herself on the carpet and picked the box up carefully, humming a bit in surprise at its weight and turning it over in her hands in her lap. Someone had printed her address on the top in plain script, but no postage marks adorned it. Slanting across two sides were the words "Open upon arrival."
"No 'please'?" she mused aloud to herself, her lips curling upwards in gentle delight. "This is interesting. My birthday is still several days away, and I was going to wait until then to open all my presents . . . but I think I'll make a special exception for this one since it's so demanding."
She tore into the package eagerly, giddy and curious as a young child. An equally plain cardboard box lay inside the plain butcher paper, and her eyebrows quirked with amusement as she jabbed her sensibly well-manicured nails into the seam between the lids and applied pressure, cutting the tape that sealed it. Relena pulled back the lids with exaggerated care, her breath caught in her throat in anticipation.
Plain packing peanuts greeted her eyes.
Relena laughed, plunging her arm in among the clinging foam pellets and groping with her fingers for something more substantial inside. Her fingertips brushed across something cold and smooth, and a frown of concentration wrinkled her forehead. It was somewhat slippery and curved beneath her hand. She followed the slope of that curve blindly before coming finally to what felt like a rod running across the outside. Her hand closed around that rod, and she reached in to cradle the sloping thing with her other hand. Her eyes widened and her mouth curled in an "o" of surprise when she pulled the object out in a stream of packing peanuts.
An hourglass rested in her hands, the light from the setting sun pouring through her window reflecting off the curved glass in a blinding shimmer. The rod she had felt in the box revealed itself to be one of the wooden support beams. An air of simple elegance surrounded the decorative timepiece, and Relena admired its clean lines and the clear varnish that had allowed the wood's natural colors to shine through.
"Oak," she murmured, running her hands over it. "Or maple perhaps. Lovely craftsmanship. "
A note fluttered out from between her hands, causing Relena to realize belatedly that it had been tied with a simple piece of string to the beam. She set the hourglass down carefully and reached for the paper.
"Turn four times," she read, switching her gaze back and forth between the note and the hourglass. Something about the visual of the writing across the card struck her, and she grabbed the discarded, torn wrapper, searching for the piece that had contained her address. Upon finding it she stared at the way the letters of her first name flowed into one another. Oh, yes, she had known that handwriting very well, had once upon a time practically memorized the way her name looked in it because it was all she had.
"If you say so, Heero," she replied to the air, rising to her feet and walking to her desk with the hourglass. She shoved a stack of papers to one side to make room for it and flipped it over before setting it down. Sand started slowly trickling down from the top section into the bottom, and Relena resumed her paperwork.
Pagan made no inquiries about the remains of the single open present in the middle of her floor although she caught him sending an openly knowing glance at the hourglass. As the end of the four turns drew progressively nearer, Relena became more and more jittery. Several times she found herself contemplating turning the hourglass before the sand had completely run through, but she realized that cheating would not make time itself run any faster. She also doubted that Heero would approve of her cheating, and she did not want to ruin whatever game was currently going on between them. She waited, watching the golden grains trickle down, her stomach fluttering with anticipation.
(April 7, A.C. 199)
As the shadows lengthened across the floor, Relena finally stopped pacing, folding her arms across her chest and hugging herself while tension and anxiety thrummed through her body. She eyed the remaining slants of late afternoon light coming through her windows, following them in their path across the floor and up the side of her desk to the hourglass. She licked her lips, her eyes focused intently on the diminishing stream of sand. Sunset again, and time was almost out.
The last grain fell.
She held her breath and waited, ears straining to hear the slightest sound.
Nothing happened.
Relena tried not to feel too disappointed, really she did, but her shoulders seemed to slump of their own accord. She sighed and turned around.
And stifled a scream as a pair of large, warm hands closed around her elbows. A figure stood just behind her, back lit by the setting sun, dark and menacing in its stealth except for a familiar pair of extraordinary blue eyes.
"Heero!" she gasped, relaxing into his grip with automatic relief.
"Relena," he acknowledged, something like amusement dancing in those beautiful eyes as he released her.
Relena lifted one hand to her collarbone, her fingers brushing against the pulse pounding in the hollow of her throat, and did her best to glare at him, although the twitching of her lips ruined the effect. "You scared me! I had wondered if it was you who sent the hourglass."
"No, you didn't." His voice was most definitely amused then, a thread of humor running clearly beneath the surface of his dry tone.
"No, I didn't," Relena agreed with a chuckle, sliding her gaze away from his with a feeling akin to shyness. "It's very beautiful. Thank you. Why exactly are you here though? It's not my birthday yet."
"This is why," he replied pulling her by the hand over to one of the windows. The setting sun turned everything to gold while sinking into the distant shimmer of the sea along the horizon beyond the expanse of impeccable lawn and neatly trimmed border trees. "Four years ago you found a 'body' washed up on the beach. One day for each year since we've met. Life changes, the world changes, we change. Time changes too, but it doesn't forget."
"That's shockingly poetic of you." She smiled at him and squeezed his hand with a soft laugh. "Happy anniversary then, Heero. I am baffled but gladdened that you remembered."
She rose on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his cheek with the most featherlight of touches, lingering there for a few moments and breathing softly against his skin. Relena hummed low in her throat and started to pull away, but Heero's grip tightening on her hand stopped her. She turned her gaze up to meet his eyes with jerky, exaggerated slowness. Heero smiled, rare and beautiful, and Relena felt her heart give a sharp tug in her chest. Her eyes prickled and her breath caught in her throat as he cradled her cheeks in his hands and pulled her back to him, his eyes twinkling with humor and something else that was both amazing and terrifying.
His mouth closed over hers with a delicacy and gentleness that left her trembling in his arms at the sweetness of it. Heero teased her mouth open with gentle pressure, stroking his lips and tongue across flesh that was more sensitive than Relena could have ever imagined. She sighed into the open space between them as he drew back and licked her lips unconsciously as if in some attempt to prolong the sense of physical contact that he had taken away. Her eyes opened slowly, and she watched him watching her as a suddenly burning question forced its away past her swollen lips.
"Will you stay with me tonight?"
Heero went very still, even his breathing seeming to cease. Relena felt her face redden as the boldness of her question registered in her mind, but she stood her ground and lifted her chin to gaze back at him squarely. She had never heard of anyone dying from mortification, and once spoken, such impulsive yet sincere words could not be taken back. She had no desire to take them back anyway when it was desire for the man before her that had spurred her on in the first place. Standing so before him, still quivering from the memory of his touch and awaiting the break in his silence, she felt as bare and vulnerable as if she was naked.
"You can say 'no,'" she prodded gently when still more time had passed with Heero just staring at her in beautifully dumbstruck vacancy.
His gaze snapped back into the present and settled on her, and she suddenly felt naked for quite a different reason.
"Why would I?" he asked very, very softly, voice pitched lower than its usual timbre and quite a bit huskier.
Relena found she had no answer for that. In fact, she found that rational thought and speech had been stolen from her. She swallowed, her throat gone very dry and her heart thudding against her ribcage, blood rushing through her ears. She stepped backward and gestured vaguely in the air.
"What now then?"
"We can discuss the semantics of what exactly you meant when you asked me to stay the night," Heero replied as he bore down on her with all the intensity of a predator.
Relena's temper flared and she threw her head back in order to properly glare at him in such close proximity. "What exactly did you think I me--"
Heero's mouth slamming down on hers silenced her question quite effectively.
She arched upward into the hard planes of his body with a muffled moan, battling back at him with teeth and tongue. His left hand twined in her hair, cradling the back of her head, as his right came up to curve around her waist, press possessively against her lower back, and pull her more tightly against him. She drew her own arms up through the press of their bodies, thrilling at the feel of the ridges of the musculature of his torso, and wound them about Heero's neck, toying with the hair at the nape of his neck. She swayed on her feet as her body protested the lack of oxygen and started to wonder if she had made a very wise decision. Obviously she could not keep up with him. Just as obviously, she did not mind because breathing was highly overrated.
Relena was panting when Heero pulled away. She stared up at him, dazed, and opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly Heero's fingers were on her lips. "You talk too much."
Relena frowned.
"You talk too much," he repeated. "Are you sure you want this? Yes or no. Nothing else."
In answer she yanked his head back to hers and shoved her tongue in his mouth. He responded with enthusiasm and began backing her toward the bed. Her knees hit the side of the mattress, and she fell with a thump, Heero following her down and sprawling heavily atop her. Relena raked her nails up the length of his back, the fabric of his shirt bunching beneath her hands and pulling free from the waistband of his slacks.
A thought occurred to Relena, and she abandoned her fascinated mapping of the skin of his lower back in order to tug his hands away from where they were occupied fumbling with the buttons of her blouse.
"Heero, the door."
He grumbled what sounded like a plaintive wordless question against her neck before scraping his teeth down the column of her throat. Relena keened at the unexpected sensation, her head thrashing from side to side.
"Heero, I mean it," she gasped, forcing his hands against the mattress as they attempted to return to her body. "The door."
He reared up off of her abruptly, and Relena was left dazed and stunned as he stalked to the door, clicking the lock home with a finality that had her stomach tightening into knots. She struggled to prop herself on her elbows and watched Heero close the distance between them, unabashedly pulling off items of clothing as he came. Relena's eyes widened with every new bit of exposed skin, and by the time he knelt nakedly at the side of her bed and began pulling her socks from her feet, she was quivering so thoroughly that she was surprised her teeth were not chattering.
"This hardly seems fair," she protested as his hands slid up her legs, pausing to stroke across her thighs and hips in a fascinating manner before reaching the waistband of her pants.
Heero pressed his hand against her stomach and toyed lightly with the remaining buttons of her blouse. "Make yourself useful, Relena."
Her fingers obediently tugged the buttons through their holes, and she shrugged out of the shirt as Heero stretched upward, curling his arms around her back to fumble with the fastening of her bra. She enjoyed the sensation of his skin against hers, dropping light kisses across his shoulders and alongside his neck before finally dissolving into breathy laughter at his continued struggles. She reached behind herself and batted his hands away, undoing her bra with a practiced flick of her fingers. Heero growled and yanked her hips off the edge of the bed in order to quickly divulge her of the remainder of her clothing.
As Relena's final bits of clothing fell away, stillness settled between them. Relena perched precariously on the edge of the bed with Heero kneeling between her legs. They stared at one another without touching, eyes drinking in wondrous new vistas just waiting to be explored and charted. Their gazes locked for the space of one heartbeat, then two, then three, then without any signal Heero lunged upward at the exact moment that she extended her arms to him.
The rolled about on Relena's bed in a tangle of intertwining limbs and seeking hands and mouths. Relena's body seemed to have caught aflame, and she felt positively luminescent in his arms as he marked her skin with his hands, his mouth, his teeth, on a journey that took him ever closer to the juncture between her legs. A strangled curse left his mouth at the waiting wetness there, and the first brush of his fingers left her keening his name at the ceiling, amazement painted across her features.
Her restless hands encouraged him back up her body as her legs curled about his hips, seeking greater fullness and friction than what his hands could provide. Impatient and fumbling but driven by passion, their hips rolled against one another with greater speed and frequency, until Heero slipped inside of her. Relena arched against him, startled, her fingernails scoring shallow gouges down his forearms. She writhed on the bed beneath him until he had to steady her with his hands and hold her hips to the mattress while they both grew accustomed to the new sensations.
"Okay," she gasped, throwing her head back and panting as he pressed kisses and apologies against her throat, "okay, try it again."
Heero thrust into her with all the slowness that he could stand, shifting to cradle her head with one hand while the other slipped between their rocking bodies to caress that elusive bundle of nerves between her legs.
"Oh, yes, like that!"
As Heero continued his movements, Relena's body seemed to grow warmer, and the coil of liquid flame low in her belly flickered brighter with each thrust of Heero's body into hers. She chanted his name as their pace increased, lifting her hips up to meet him and stroking her hands down every bit of his body that she could. She tasted his sweat on her tongue as she pressed her mouth against his flesh, and after he stiffened above her with a guttural moan, the syllables of her name rolled soundlessly across her face as he lowered himself down fully against her. His fingers still moved, however, and in moments she fractured into pure light and heat, shuddering in his arms before sinking into a sense of pure relaxation like she had never felt before.
When he rolled to her side, wrapped an arm around her, and tucked her against him, she ran one hand idly up and down his rib cage, amusing herself with the rise and fall of his panting breath.
"Heero?"
"Hn?"
"Will you come to my birthday party this year, Heero? I'm afraid I don't have an invitation for you to tear up."
He shrugged and snorted, but a smile graced his lips and his eyes.
(April 9, A.C. 199)
"Happy birthday, Relena."
"Thank you so much for coming."
Relena inclined her head graciously and murmured the appropriate remarks in response to each guest as she wound her way through the crowded ballroom, sometimes pausing to bestow the honor of a genuine smile, a touch on the arm, or a hug to break the tedium. Accustomed as she had been to lavish childhood birthday parties, in recent years even she found her public birthday galas to be overblown and unnecessary. Nevertheless, she knew her public role as radiant young hostess in a midnight blue ball gown and played it well, smiling, dancing, bowing, and curtseying as appropriate.
She turned with a smothered giggle when she felt now familiar fingers glide lightly up the back of her neck at the same time that her champagne flute was plucked from her hand.
"Good evening, Heero," she purred, bracing one hand on his forearm and the other against his chest.
One of his brows arched as he looked down at her, and he shook his head. Her grin widened, and she leaned in closer, challenging him with a lifted eyebrow of her own. Heero set her flute down on the tray of a passing waiter and swept Relena into a waltzing position as the hired orchestra changed the tempo of its playing.
"Your behavior may be unwise," he murmured as they flowed across the floor among other couples.
"I don't care," Relena shot back, moving in closer than was appropriate. "You stayed. You're here now. That means more to me than anything anyone else could think."
"You thought I wouldn't?"
Relena laughed and looked up at him with wry amusement. "You have to admit your track record in that regard isn't exactly stellar. You show up just in time to save me or the world and then you leave without a word."
Heero laughed back at her, leaning in until their noses brushed together. "Perhaps you just never gave me the proper incentive to stay before."
Relena colored in a combination of delight at his easy laughter and desire in response to the way his voice and words seemed to resonate in her very bones, furtively glancing from side to side at the other dancers to see if anyone had taken notice of them. Heero followed her gaze and stepped back from her, breaking the pattern of the dance. Relena's head swung back to him in alarm, but he did not release her hand as he began walking away. Heero guided her through the crowd with the casual grace of one born to privilege, tucking his chin and murmuring meaningless pleasantries along the way, and she felt a sense of pride watching him interact with her peers so easily.
He stopped at the table stacked high with her gifts and produced a dark chocolate brown teddy bear from among the pile. He presented it to her without any flourish or ceremony, but the sincerity in his eyes more than made up for it.
"You said to give it to you in person next time."
"Somehow I doubt I meant 'next time' to be several years away," she replied dryly, accepting the plush toy and cuddling it to her. She rubbed her cheek against its soft fur and gazed up at him through her lashes. "I'm also not sure it counts since you didn't give me the hourglass in person either. Better late than never though, I guess. Thank you, Heero, for everything."
"Don't thank me yet."
A strange smile played across his lips, and her curiosity stirred. She lifted her head, and her mouth parted in a silent question that she had yet to form the words to.
"I gave you presents," Heero continued, no longer staring at her, his gaze focused somewhere above her left shoulder. Color began to subtly stain his cheeks, but he pressed on, "It's not my fault you couldn't see them. You have my protection, my trust, my esteem, and my affection. One for each year all delivered in person even when you didn't see me. And that wasn't your present. This is."
Heero reached across the space between them and tugged at the ribbon around the bear's neck. As the knot slipped loose, a ring slid down the satin and came to rest atop Heero's palm.
"If you'll have me, I will give you my future."
The roaring in her ears was so great that Relena fully expected the ocean to come crashing into the ballroom at anytime. She gaped at the simple diamond solitaire in Heero's hand and swayed slightly on her feet. The teddy bear slipped from suddenly numb fingers and fell to the floor. She licked her lips, tried to speak, found that her voice would not work, and licked her lips again.
"Are you," she stuttered, "are you asking what I think you're asking?"
"I don't have much to give you. Among other things, I don't have a marriageable identity yet." Heero was definitely blushing at that point and boring a hole into the wall with the intensity of his stare.
Relena hiccupped and raised a shaking hand to her face to touch the wetness on her cheeks. She marveled at the liquid on her fingertips and started laughing through the tears.
"Yes, oh yes, Heero!" she cried, throwing herself at him. Heero staggered at bit at the impact, her left hand twining around his right holding the ring and her right yanking his head to her in order to kiss him quite thoroughly.
All eyes in the room turned towards the pair at her shriek, and gasps and murmurs filled the air. Relena simply thrust her left hand into the air for all to see the diamond sparkling on her finger. She hummed with happiness against Heero's lips as the crowd had the good sense to burst into applause.
(April 7, A.C. 200)
"Charley, hey, Charley, come look at this!"
Charley grumbled wordlessly at Jerry as he stumbled into the lounge and headed for the coffee pot. After he got his caffeine and sugar hit, he would have to kill Jerry for being so loud and Roy for jumping around like a deranged pogo stick right behind Jerry. While he was at it, he just might kill everyone else in the room too because, with the way they were all pressed against the window, they must all be out of their minds.
Their excited chatter filled the air as he poured a cup of coffee and blearily stirred a packet of sugar into it.
"This must be why security's been so over the top lately."
"Well, yeah, I mean it's Relena freaking Darlian!"
Charley paused as his barely awake mind processed those words.
"Getting married! On our beach of all places!"
"Who's the lucky bastard again?"
"I've heard he's some guy she met during the beginning of the war. Again, on our beach of all places!"
That was all it took to have him charging to the window and pushing Jerry aside in order to get a better view. Charley plastered himself to the window with the same reckless enthusiasm that he would have mocked in his colleagues and stared down at the tousled dark head standing next to veiled sleek gold.
"Well, I'll be damned," Charley muttered, as a wide smile stretched across his face. "I guess that sand thief did pretty good after all."
On the beach below, vows apparently complete, the bride ripped off her veil, hiked up her skirts, and went racing down the beach with her groom right behind her. He caught her before she reached the water, sweeping her up in his arms and spinning her in a circle then pressing his mouth to hers as the waves curled around his feet.
Hope you enjoy it! All comments and criticisms are welcome so feel free to rip it up in every possible fashion and critique it to pieces if you are so inclined.
Thanks to miakamouse for providing the inspiration to drag this sucker out, dust it off, and finish it up.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is owned by Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and distributed in America exclusively under license by Bandai Entertainment. It's not mine. Believe me, I could use the cash.
Title: Timeless
Status: Complete Oneshot
Date Completed: March 15, 2008
Date Edited: March 22, 2008
Series: Gundam Wing
Genres: Smut, romance, fluff, WAFF. My standards.
Rating: 18+
Warnings: The genres should say it all this time around.
Pairing: 1xR (Heero x Relena)
Word Count: 4,920
Summary: Some presents just mean more than others do.
(April 1, A.C. 199)
"Hey-ho, Charley-O! Time for gramps to go take his nap, eh? You just leave everything to me."
The younger controller clapped Charley on the shoulder as they passed one another, but instead of responding with his customary bravado, the wiry man merely rolled his shoulder to distribute the blow and grunted, his concentration obviously elsewhere.
"You see anything unusual outside on your way up?" he muttered, pausing in the middle of the floor and glancing back across the room he was leaving with thoughtful but unfocused eyes.
"What are you talking about, Charley? Is it time to up the prescription on your glasses or something?"
"Forget it then. Yeah, too much time staring at a screen." Charley headed for the door, pausing with his hand across the power pad. "Wind's gusting pretty hard today. Better keep them well apart."
Charley navigated the elevator system and strode down the hallways of the tower with deliberate purpose, bypassing his usual destination of the napping room and heading straight for the lounge. He sighed in relief as the automatic doors swished closed behind him, enveloping him in a fluorescent lit sanctuary that smelled of coffee, pastry, and potato chips and echoed with the dull sounds of cards and checkers thrown down.
"You're early. Breaking the normal order of the universe today, Charley?"
"It's April Fool's, Thomas. This is all some dastardly trick. Just wait. Charley's never this sociable."
"Charley-Charley better watch the donuts! They've got that special sugar on them today, courtesy of Roy and a glue gun!"
"Jerry got his lips stuck together! Finally shut him up for about ten seconds!"
He raised one hand in greeting in the midst of the chorus of laughter following that last proclamation but barely spared a glance at his fellow relaxing workers as he headed for the small kitchen area. His need for a caffeine and sugar hit superseded all other concerns because it just would not do to be hallucinating on an empty stomach. When those needs had been filled, he wandered casually over to the bay of windows facing the ocean, armed with a steaming mug and a jelly-filled pastry.
"So, I wasn't seeing things." His eyes narrowed wryly behind their large aviator lenses. "He's still out there."
Charley watched the young man down on the beach with amused interest as he sipped his coffee. Only for such novelty as this would he abandon a single moment of his napping session. Just this once, rather than placing a little bit of shut-eye in its proper order of importance, he had allowed himself to be slave to his curiosity, immediately heading to the break room for a closer view of the tiny speck he had seen moving on the sand from the top of control tower.
Though the beach was not technically a restricted area, it very rarely received any visitors due to its proximity to the former military airport. It also was perhaps not the best day to be on the beach and exposed to the heavily gusting ocean winds. However, a young man with wind-tousled dark hair knelt on the beach below, apparently stuffing handfuls of loose, dry sand into a canvas bag. The wind and sand buffeted and blasted him from side to side and tried to rip the bag from his hands, but he persisted with a dogged determination that Charley found himself admiring in spite of himself.
"What an idiot. April fools indeed."
A grin played about Charley's lips. Yes, indeed, beachcombers were a rarity, but sand thieves? Now that was something you didn't see every day!
(April 3, A.C. 199)
Relena glanced up from her paperwork when the familiar quiet knock of her longtime butler sounded at her door. "Yes, Pagan?"
"Another gift has arrived for you, Miss Relena," came the muffled answer.
"Bring it in then," she called and then sighed, putting down her pen and wearily massaging the back of her neck.
Pagan entered and with his usual quiet efficiency deposited another box among the stack already resting against one wall of her bedroom suite, collected the remains of her supper, and left. Relena eyed the new box with open curiosity. It was about average size, not as big as some of the unopened presents lining the wall but nowhere near as small as the numerous jewelry boxes piled together in one corner either. The truly extraordinary thing about that box in particular was that it was so plainly packaged, wrapped only in plain brown butcher paper and packing tape. It stood out in sharp contrast from the mass of brightly colored and shiny packages streaming with ribbons and bows behind it.
"Intriguing," Relena murmured as she rose from her seat, the package's sheer plainness and unassuming nature drawing her to it. The giver obviously felt no need to impress or woo her with fancy trimmings. Very few people felt comfortable enough to gift her so modestly, and they just happened to be all the people dearest in the world to her. She settled herself on the carpet and picked the box up carefully, humming a bit in surprise at its weight and turning it over in her hands in her lap. Someone had printed her address on the top in plain script, but no postage marks adorned it. Slanting across two sides were the words "Open upon arrival."
"No 'please'?" she mused aloud to herself, her lips curling upwards in gentle delight. "This is interesting. My birthday is still several days away, and I was going to wait until then to open all my presents . . . but I think I'll make a special exception for this one since it's so demanding."
She tore into the package eagerly, giddy and curious as a young child. An equally plain cardboard box lay inside the plain butcher paper, and her eyebrows quirked with amusement as she jabbed her sensibly well-manicured nails into the seam between the lids and applied pressure, cutting the tape that sealed it. Relena pulled back the lids with exaggerated care, her breath caught in her throat in anticipation.
Plain packing peanuts greeted her eyes.
Relena laughed, plunging her arm in among the clinging foam pellets and groping with her fingers for something more substantial inside. Her fingertips brushed across something cold and smooth, and a frown of concentration wrinkled her forehead. It was somewhat slippery and curved beneath her hand. She followed the slope of that curve blindly before coming finally to what felt like a rod running across the outside. Her hand closed around that rod, and she reached in to cradle the sloping thing with her other hand. Her eyes widened and her mouth curled in an "o" of surprise when she pulled the object out in a stream of packing peanuts.
An hourglass rested in her hands, the light from the setting sun pouring through her window reflecting off the curved glass in a blinding shimmer. The rod she had felt in the box revealed itself to be one of the wooden support beams. An air of simple elegance surrounded the decorative timepiece, and Relena admired its clean lines and the clear varnish that had allowed the wood's natural colors to shine through.
"Oak," she murmured, running her hands over it. "Or maple perhaps. Lovely craftsmanship. "
A note fluttered out from between her hands, causing Relena to realize belatedly that it had been tied with a simple piece of string to the beam. She set the hourglass down carefully and reached for the paper.
"Turn four times," she read, switching her gaze back and forth between the note and the hourglass. Something about the visual of the writing across the card struck her, and she grabbed the discarded, torn wrapper, searching for the piece that had contained her address. Upon finding it she stared at the way the letters of her first name flowed into one another. Oh, yes, she had known that handwriting very well, had once upon a time practically memorized the way her name looked in it because it was all she had.
"If you say so, Heero," she replied to the air, rising to her feet and walking to her desk with the hourglass. She shoved a stack of papers to one side to make room for it and flipped it over before setting it down. Sand started slowly trickling down from the top section into the bottom, and Relena resumed her paperwork.
Pagan made no inquiries about the remains of the single open present in the middle of her floor although she caught him sending an openly knowing glance at the hourglass. As the end of the four turns drew progressively nearer, Relena became more and more jittery. Several times she found herself contemplating turning the hourglass before the sand had completely run through, but she realized that cheating would not make time itself run any faster. She also doubted that Heero would approve of her cheating, and she did not want to ruin whatever game was currently going on between them. She waited, watching the golden grains trickle down, her stomach fluttering with anticipation.
(April 7, A.C. 199)
As the shadows lengthened across the floor, Relena finally stopped pacing, folding her arms across her chest and hugging herself while tension and anxiety thrummed through her body. She eyed the remaining slants of late afternoon light coming through her windows, following them in their path across the floor and up the side of her desk to the hourglass. She licked her lips, her eyes focused intently on the diminishing stream of sand. Sunset again, and time was almost out.
The last grain fell.
She held her breath and waited, ears straining to hear the slightest sound.
Nothing happened.
Relena tried not to feel too disappointed, really she did, but her shoulders seemed to slump of their own accord. She sighed and turned around.
And stifled a scream as a pair of large, warm hands closed around her elbows. A figure stood just behind her, back lit by the setting sun, dark and menacing in its stealth except for a familiar pair of extraordinary blue eyes.
"Heero!" she gasped, relaxing into his grip with automatic relief.
"Relena," he acknowledged, something like amusement dancing in those beautiful eyes as he released her.
Relena lifted one hand to her collarbone, her fingers brushing against the pulse pounding in the hollow of her throat, and did her best to glare at him, although the twitching of her lips ruined the effect. "You scared me! I had wondered if it was you who sent the hourglass."
"No, you didn't." His voice was most definitely amused then, a thread of humor running clearly beneath the surface of his dry tone.
"No, I didn't," Relena agreed with a chuckle, sliding her gaze away from his with a feeling akin to shyness. "It's very beautiful. Thank you. Why exactly are you here though? It's not my birthday yet."
"This is why," he replied pulling her by the hand over to one of the windows. The setting sun turned everything to gold while sinking into the distant shimmer of the sea along the horizon beyond the expanse of impeccable lawn and neatly trimmed border trees. "Four years ago you found a 'body' washed up on the beach. One day for each year since we've met. Life changes, the world changes, we change. Time changes too, but it doesn't forget."
"That's shockingly poetic of you." She smiled at him and squeezed his hand with a soft laugh. "Happy anniversary then, Heero. I am baffled but gladdened that you remembered."
She rose on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his cheek with the most featherlight of touches, lingering there for a few moments and breathing softly against his skin. Relena hummed low in her throat and started to pull away, but Heero's grip tightening on her hand stopped her. She turned her gaze up to meet his eyes with jerky, exaggerated slowness. Heero smiled, rare and beautiful, and Relena felt her heart give a sharp tug in her chest. Her eyes prickled and her breath caught in her throat as he cradled her cheeks in his hands and pulled her back to him, his eyes twinkling with humor and something else that was both amazing and terrifying.
His mouth closed over hers with a delicacy and gentleness that left her trembling in his arms at the sweetness of it. Heero teased her mouth open with gentle pressure, stroking his lips and tongue across flesh that was more sensitive than Relena could have ever imagined. She sighed into the open space between them as he drew back and licked her lips unconsciously as if in some attempt to prolong the sense of physical contact that he had taken away. Her eyes opened slowly, and she watched him watching her as a suddenly burning question forced its away past her swollen lips.
"Will you stay with me tonight?"
Heero went very still, even his breathing seeming to cease. Relena felt her face redden as the boldness of her question registered in her mind, but she stood her ground and lifted her chin to gaze back at him squarely. She had never heard of anyone dying from mortification, and once spoken, such impulsive yet sincere words could not be taken back. She had no desire to take them back anyway when it was desire for the man before her that had spurred her on in the first place. Standing so before him, still quivering from the memory of his touch and awaiting the break in his silence, she felt as bare and vulnerable as if she was naked.
"You can say 'no,'" she prodded gently when still more time had passed with Heero just staring at her in beautifully dumbstruck vacancy.
His gaze snapped back into the present and settled on her, and she suddenly felt naked for quite a different reason.
"Why would I?" he asked very, very softly, voice pitched lower than its usual timbre and quite a bit huskier.
Relena found she had no answer for that. In fact, she found that rational thought and speech had been stolen from her. She swallowed, her throat gone very dry and her heart thudding against her ribcage, blood rushing through her ears. She stepped backward and gestured vaguely in the air.
"What now then?"
"We can discuss the semantics of what exactly you meant when you asked me to stay the night," Heero replied as he bore down on her with all the intensity of a predator.
Relena's temper flared and she threw her head back in order to properly glare at him in such close proximity. "What exactly did you think I me--"
Heero's mouth slamming down on hers silenced her question quite effectively.
She arched upward into the hard planes of his body with a muffled moan, battling back at him with teeth and tongue. His left hand twined in her hair, cradling the back of her head, as his right came up to curve around her waist, press possessively against her lower back, and pull her more tightly against him. She drew her own arms up through the press of their bodies, thrilling at the feel of the ridges of the musculature of his torso, and wound them about Heero's neck, toying with the hair at the nape of his neck. She swayed on her feet as her body protested the lack of oxygen and started to wonder if she had made a very wise decision. Obviously she could not keep up with him. Just as obviously, she did not mind because breathing was highly overrated.
Relena was panting when Heero pulled away. She stared up at him, dazed, and opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly Heero's fingers were on her lips. "You talk too much."
Relena frowned.
"You talk too much," he repeated. "Are you sure you want this? Yes or no. Nothing else."
In answer she yanked his head back to hers and shoved her tongue in his mouth. He responded with enthusiasm and began backing her toward the bed. Her knees hit the side of the mattress, and she fell with a thump, Heero following her down and sprawling heavily atop her. Relena raked her nails up the length of his back, the fabric of his shirt bunching beneath her hands and pulling free from the waistband of his slacks.
A thought occurred to Relena, and she abandoned her fascinated mapping of the skin of his lower back in order to tug his hands away from where they were occupied fumbling with the buttons of her blouse.
"Heero, the door."
He grumbled what sounded like a plaintive wordless question against her neck before scraping his teeth down the column of her throat. Relena keened at the unexpected sensation, her head thrashing from side to side.
"Heero, I mean it," she gasped, forcing his hands against the mattress as they attempted to return to her body. "The door."
He reared up off of her abruptly, and Relena was left dazed and stunned as he stalked to the door, clicking the lock home with a finality that had her stomach tightening into knots. She struggled to prop herself on her elbows and watched Heero close the distance between them, unabashedly pulling off items of clothing as he came. Relena's eyes widened with every new bit of exposed skin, and by the time he knelt nakedly at the side of her bed and began pulling her socks from her feet, she was quivering so thoroughly that she was surprised her teeth were not chattering.
"This hardly seems fair," she protested as his hands slid up her legs, pausing to stroke across her thighs and hips in a fascinating manner before reaching the waistband of her pants.
Heero pressed his hand against her stomach and toyed lightly with the remaining buttons of her blouse. "Make yourself useful, Relena."
Her fingers obediently tugged the buttons through their holes, and she shrugged out of the shirt as Heero stretched upward, curling his arms around her back to fumble with the fastening of her bra. She enjoyed the sensation of his skin against hers, dropping light kisses across his shoulders and alongside his neck before finally dissolving into breathy laughter at his continued struggles. She reached behind herself and batted his hands away, undoing her bra with a practiced flick of her fingers. Heero growled and yanked her hips off the edge of the bed in order to quickly divulge her of the remainder of her clothing.
As Relena's final bits of clothing fell away, stillness settled between them. Relena perched precariously on the edge of the bed with Heero kneeling between her legs. They stared at one another without touching, eyes drinking in wondrous new vistas just waiting to be explored and charted. Their gazes locked for the space of one heartbeat, then two, then three, then without any signal Heero lunged upward at the exact moment that she extended her arms to him.
The rolled about on Relena's bed in a tangle of intertwining limbs and seeking hands and mouths. Relena's body seemed to have caught aflame, and she felt positively luminescent in his arms as he marked her skin with his hands, his mouth, his teeth, on a journey that took him ever closer to the juncture between her legs. A strangled curse left his mouth at the waiting wetness there, and the first brush of his fingers left her keening his name at the ceiling, amazement painted across her features.
Her restless hands encouraged him back up her body as her legs curled about his hips, seeking greater fullness and friction than what his hands could provide. Impatient and fumbling but driven by passion, their hips rolled against one another with greater speed and frequency, until Heero slipped inside of her. Relena arched against him, startled, her fingernails scoring shallow gouges down his forearms. She writhed on the bed beneath him until he had to steady her with his hands and hold her hips to the mattress while they both grew accustomed to the new sensations.
"Okay," she gasped, throwing her head back and panting as he pressed kisses and apologies against her throat, "okay, try it again."
Heero thrust into her with all the slowness that he could stand, shifting to cradle her head with one hand while the other slipped between their rocking bodies to caress that elusive bundle of nerves between her legs.
"Oh, yes, like that!"
As Heero continued his movements, Relena's body seemed to grow warmer, and the coil of liquid flame low in her belly flickered brighter with each thrust of Heero's body into hers. She chanted his name as their pace increased, lifting her hips up to meet him and stroking her hands down every bit of his body that she could. She tasted his sweat on her tongue as she pressed her mouth against his flesh, and after he stiffened above her with a guttural moan, the syllables of her name rolled soundlessly across her face as he lowered himself down fully against her. His fingers still moved, however, and in moments she fractured into pure light and heat, shuddering in his arms before sinking into a sense of pure relaxation like she had never felt before.
When he rolled to her side, wrapped an arm around her, and tucked her against him, she ran one hand idly up and down his rib cage, amusing herself with the rise and fall of his panting breath.
"Heero?"
"Hn?"
"Will you come to my birthday party this year, Heero? I'm afraid I don't have an invitation for you to tear up."
He shrugged and snorted, but a smile graced his lips and his eyes.
(April 9, A.C. 199)
"Happy birthday, Relena."
"Thank you so much for coming."
Relena inclined her head graciously and murmured the appropriate remarks in response to each guest as she wound her way through the crowded ballroom, sometimes pausing to bestow the honor of a genuine smile, a touch on the arm, or a hug to break the tedium. Accustomed as she had been to lavish childhood birthday parties, in recent years even she found her public birthday galas to be overblown and unnecessary. Nevertheless, she knew her public role as radiant young hostess in a midnight blue ball gown and played it well, smiling, dancing, bowing, and curtseying as appropriate.
She turned with a smothered giggle when she felt now familiar fingers glide lightly up the back of her neck at the same time that her champagne flute was plucked from her hand.
"Good evening, Heero," she purred, bracing one hand on his forearm and the other against his chest.
One of his brows arched as he looked down at her, and he shook his head. Her grin widened, and she leaned in closer, challenging him with a lifted eyebrow of her own. Heero set her flute down on the tray of a passing waiter and swept Relena into a waltzing position as the hired orchestra changed the tempo of its playing.
"Your behavior may be unwise," he murmured as they flowed across the floor among other couples.
"I don't care," Relena shot back, moving in closer than was appropriate. "You stayed. You're here now. That means more to me than anything anyone else could think."
"You thought I wouldn't?"
Relena laughed and looked up at him with wry amusement. "You have to admit your track record in that regard isn't exactly stellar. You show up just in time to save me or the world and then you leave without a word."
Heero laughed back at her, leaning in until their noses brushed together. "Perhaps you just never gave me the proper incentive to stay before."
Relena colored in a combination of delight at his easy laughter and desire in response to the way his voice and words seemed to resonate in her very bones, furtively glancing from side to side at the other dancers to see if anyone had taken notice of them. Heero followed her gaze and stepped back from her, breaking the pattern of the dance. Relena's head swung back to him in alarm, but he did not release her hand as he began walking away. Heero guided her through the crowd with the casual grace of one born to privilege, tucking his chin and murmuring meaningless pleasantries along the way, and she felt a sense of pride watching him interact with her peers so easily.
He stopped at the table stacked high with her gifts and produced a dark chocolate brown teddy bear from among the pile. He presented it to her without any flourish or ceremony, but the sincerity in his eyes more than made up for it.
"You said to give it to you in person next time."
"Somehow I doubt I meant 'next time' to be several years away," she replied dryly, accepting the plush toy and cuddling it to her. She rubbed her cheek against its soft fur and gazed up at him through her lashes. "I'm also not sure it counts since you didn't give me the hourglass in person either. Better late than never though, I guess. Thank you, Heero, for everything."
"Don't thank me yet."
A strange smile played across his lips, and her curiosity stirred. She lifted her head, and her mouth parted in a silent question that she had yet to form the words to.
"I gave you presents," Heero continued, no longer staring at her, his gaze focused somewhere above her left shoulder. Color began to subtly stain his cheeks, but he pressed on, "It's not my fault you couldn't see them. You have my protection, my trust, my esteem, and my affection. One for each year all delivered in person even when you didn't see me. And that wasn't your present. This is."
Heero reached across the space between them and tugged at the ribbon around the bear's neck. As the knot slipped loose, a ring slid down the satin and came to rest atop Heero's palm.
"If you'll have me, I will give you my future."
The roaring in her ears was so great that Relena fully expected the ocean to come crashing into the ballroom at anytime. She gaped at the simple diamond solitaire in Heero's hand and swayed slightly on her feet. The teddy bear slipped from suddenly numb fingers and fell to the floor. She licked her lips, tried to speak, found that her voice would not work, and licked her lips again.
"Are you," she stuttered, "are you asking what I think you're asking?"
"I don't have much to give you. Among other things, I don't have a marriageable identity yet." Heero was definitely blushing at that point and boring a hole into the wall with the intensity of his stare.
Relena hiccupped and raised a shaking hand to her face to touch the wetness on her cheeks. She marveled at the liquid on her fingertips and started laughing through the tears.
"Yes, oh yes, Heero!" she cried, throwing herself at him. Heero staggered at bit at the impact, her left hand twining around his right holding the ring and her right yanking his head to her in order to kiss him quite thoroughly.
All eyes in the room turned towards the pair at her shriek, and gasps and murmurs filled the air. Relena simply thrust her left hand into the air for all to see the diamond sparkling on her finger. She hummed with happiness against Heero's lips as the crowd had the good sense to burst into applause.
(April 7, A.C. 200)
"Charley, hey, Charley, come look at this!"
Charley grumbled wordlessly at Jerry as he stumbled into the lounge and headed for the coffee pot. After he got his caffeine and sugar hit, he would have to kill Jerry for being so loud and Roy for jumping around like a deranged pogo stick right behind Jerry. While he was at it, he just might kill everyone else in the room too because, with the way they were all pressed against the window, they must all be out of their minds.
Their excited chatter filled the air as he poured a cup of coffee and blearily stirred a packet of sugar into it.
"This must be why security's been so over the top lately."
"Well, yeah, I mean it's Relena freaking Darlian!"
Charley paused as his barely awake mind processed those words.
"Getting married! On our beach of all places!"
"Who's the lucky bastard again?"
"I've heard he's some guy she met during the beginning of the war. Again, on our beach of all places!"
That was all it took to have him charging to the window and pushing Jerry aside in order to get a better view. Charley plastered himself to the window with the same reckless enthusiasm that he would have mocked in his colleagues and stared down at the tousled dark head standing next to veiled sleek gold.
"Well, I'll be damned," Charley muttered, as a wide smile stretched across his face. "I guess that sand thief did pretty good after all."
On the beach below, vows apparently complete, the bride ripped off her veil, hiked up her skirts, and went racing down the beach with her groom right behind her. He caught her before she reached the water, sweeping her up in his arms and spinning her in a circle then pressing his mouth to hers as the waves curled around his feet.