Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ A Normal Life ❯ Chapter 20

Disclaimer:
And the pig flew over the rainbow.

Authoress Note: Hello all... Umm... I really got nothing to say... On with the fic, ne?

It had been a few days since the attacks at Heero's house. He'd called up Rose and explained to her why they had left, and that they were returning soon. He'd personally checked out the headquarters of the terrorists, and even inspected the bodies. All throughout that day he was eerily silent. Relena was there too, and was quite disturbed by the whole thing, but even she wasn't as silent and withdrawn as Heero was. During the war, that wouldn't have been strange, but Heero wasn't like that anymore.

When asked about it, he wouldn't respond. Sometimes he would linger over a corpse, touch the face, not saying a word. As the sun set over the sea, which the hideout overlooked, Relena came up, and put a hand on Heero's shoulder. He was kneeling on the ground, next to a woman who had been shot in the head, either by Zechs or by one of his preventer attack team. She had long back hair, and a petite frame. A gun lay near her hand, where she had dropped it when she was killed.

"I knew her." he said softly. "I don't remember her name, but I remember her. She used to bring me soup when I was sick." He looked up at Relena, unshed tears in his eyes. Relena didn't say anything, but she knelt down beside him and put her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. After a while, Heero spoke again. "She wasn't my mother but I always thought of her that way."

Something caught Relena's eye. She reached out and grabbed a gold chain around the woman's neck. She pulled the necklace off, gently, ignoring the blood on her hands. On the necklace was a golden locket, ornately designed. Heero watched her every move, not sure what to do. Relena flipped it open, and held it out, so Heero could see the pictures inside. On one side was a picture of a brown haired man, twenty or so years old. On the other was a picture of a young boy, about seven, with brown hair and dark blue eyes. It was, without a doubt, Heero. The physical resemblance between the two of them was uncanny. Relena could almost see Heero in the man's face. She snapped the locket shut, and handed it to him. He took it with trembling hands.

"Come on, let's go." she said, and stood. Heero stood beside her, and they walked over to where Zechs and Noin were waiting. The preventer cleanup crews were just arriving, now that the investigators were done. Heero looked out through window of the car and saw them zip up the body bag with the woman in it. Then Pagan started the car, and they drove off. The ride back to the mansion was silent and uneventful.

Relena hugged her brother warmly and kissed him on the cheek. Heero loaded the last of her bags into the van that they were borrowing. He looked over at them, and smiled at Relena.

"Ready to go yet?" he asked teasingly.

"Nope." she replied, sticking her tounge out at him and turned to say her goodbyes to Noin. Zechs took this opportunity to try and fry Heero to a crisp via deathglare. Fortunately, Heero was immune to this form of assault.

When Relena was done, Heero placed Aiko and Ayame in the back seat. The motorcycles had been loaded up on a trailer beforehand. Everything was ready to go. Karou laid down on the empty third back seat, and went back into her perpetual nap. Relena climbed in the passenger side, Heero got behind the wheel. Duo was staying behind to stay with Hilde. The two of them shared an apartment, and ran a junk yard together.

The ride home took close to four hours, and a lot of rather interesting conversations took place, most of which flew right over the little girls' heads. About halfway through, Heero suddenly moved the conversation onto a whole new track.

"Did you know that Winter Formal Dance is only two weeks away?" he asked Relena, ignoring the snickering coming from the back seat.

Relena blushed, and stuttered a reply. "Well...uh...no, I didn't know... but..." the snickering grew to full fledged laughter. Heero flipped off the source of the laughter, never taking his eyes off the road.

"Heero, you haven't asked anyone to a dance since... forever!" Karou laughed some more. "In fact, you haven't been to a dance since... umm.... homecoming last year!! With Sara Evans!!"

"Does the concept of 'Mercy Date' mean anything to you?" he growled. Relena started laughing too. This is gonna be a long trip.... he thought.

They arrived back that afternoon. All of the bags were out of the van, and the guest room became Relena's room. She was moving all her stuff into her new home. Aiko and Ayame were taking their naps, and Karou was driving the phone bill sky-high catching up on the latest gossip. Heero sat alone in his room, fingering the bloodied locket that Relena had given to him.

He flipped it open, and stared at the two pictures within. He didn't know who the man was, although the face was familiar. Heero pulled out the two pictures carefully and set them down on the table before going to the kitchen, and washing the blood off of the locket.

When he returned with the cleaned and dried locket, he picked up the pictures to put them back in. He stopped when he saw writing on the back of them. The one with the man said 'To my best friend, Erica. I hope you like the locket. Happy birthday. ~Odin Lowe'

"Odin Lowe... That was my father's name..." he whispered. He quickly flipped over the picture of himself and read the scrawled note. 'To Odin Lowe Jr., If you're reading this, then I, your mother, and your godmother Erica, are dead. Please, do whatever you have to, but lead a normal life. I don't want my son fighting in a war. And a war is coming. Good luck and goodbye. ~Your father, Odin Lowe.'

Heero had trouble reading the last part of the note because his vision was becoming blurry. He rubbed his eyes, only to find that his cheeks were wet. He dropped the locket and the pictures onto his desk and fell onto his bed. He buried his face in the pillow and sobbed. For the first time he could remember, Heero cried himself to sleep.

They returned to school that Friday. They came home with loads of makeup work from the week they were gone. That night, Heero took Relena to a football game, and then around the town, showing her all the places that every high school student must know.

"Welcome to Suburbia." he said, after showing her the local hamburger joint, and having dinner, consisting of Chili Cheese hamburgers and fries. After their meal, they walked down the quiet streets, towards their house. They stopped in a small park, and stared up at the stars.

"Well... about the dance..." he said, breaking the silence awkwardly. He was toying with the locket around his neck, a nervous habit that had taken him all of 2 days to develop. Relena kissed his cheek and hugged him.

"Of course." she said, and Heero smiled broadly. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips under the starlight. They stayed like that for a long while, her in his arms, both feeling warm, happy, and safe.

"You know," she said, whistfully "High school dances, football games, kisses under the stars... that's normal. That's the way everybody our age fall in love. It's normal."

"And?" he prompted.

"It's normal. This is how I always wanted to fall in love."

Heero smiled, and whispered, "Me, too." before kissing her again.

~~Owari~~

WAHHHHH!! End!! I finished it!! I don't know what happened, I thought I had a good load of chapters left but... what's left to say? That stuff with the locket wasn't in my rough draft at all!! *hugs for everyone*