Mission Accepted: Awake
8/19/01 to
The characters in this "standalone" Gundam Wing fanfic (some aspects of which came to me in a dream), which is set in AC198, belong to Sunrise, Sotsu and Bandai. This is for entertainment only (including the pokes at the characters) and contains mild language and certain innuendos. Those of you who have perfect grammar, please don't over-scold any incorrect presentation of my words. I'm not a professional writer. Comments (no flames please)? Go back?

The tweeting and chittering of birds woke Heero up.

Temporarily confused and disoriented, he jerked and sat upright, then regretted it; he had to remain still for a few seconds while his body and gravity reached a compromise.

Dammit...

His eyes widened for a few seconds as he noticed that a thin white cotton bedsheet had settled itself around his waist and on his legs.

I'm in someone's bed. What the hell? And—

His chest was bare. He was exposed. Anything could have happened to him while he'd been sleeping.

Like what?

He couldn't remember. But he planned to do a full examination of himself once he remembered. Or sooner, if he could manage it.

Preferably sooner.

Where am I?

Sunlight touched his face and spread its reach over the bed. He reflexively squinted and turned away.

At least it's daytime. But I don't remember anything after...

He scowled.

After what?

Finding out where he was took priority. He could fill in the rest after that. Then he could make whatever move he needed to make...once he remembered what that was.

Okay. The sooner I figure everything out the sooner I'm outta here...

He looked around and cursed mildly.

He was in a full-sized, short-sheeted bed in a room three-quarters of the size of a typical Earth living room. The room itself was sparsely furnished. On the wall to his left were two safety-barred plate windows under three thin, dirty cotton curtains. There was a small square fake oak table with an unplugged no-shade lamp on it in a few feet away from the bed. Next to the table, yellowed newspaper sections sat on a folding metal chair such as those used for catered events. A five-inch-diameter cast iron saucepan rested under the chair and had an uncovered steel penknife in it. Finally, along the wall at Heero's right, stood a falling-apart imitation oak wood dresser with a broken mirror against a wall with an aging imitation oak stool in front of it.

There were three doors in the room. One was along the same wall as the curtains were, and was deadbolted shut in three consecutive areas near the round knob on the right-hand side of the door. The other was to the far left of the dresser, had no handle whatsoever, was ajar, and revealed a dirty bathroom with even dirtier facilities.

The third door was in the bathroom. If its two deadbolts were unlocked, it would reveal a short hallway that led to the twice-deadbolted third door of the bathroom of the room next to this one.

Heero ran a hand over his face.

My enemies wouldn't sleep in this hellhole. But whose room is this?

He exhaled.

What was I doing last night?

He vaguely remembered saying something about taking a detour to someone...someones.

He scowled again.

We all came here last night because....

His expression softened.

We all needed to lay low for a few hours.

He looked right and down.

A nearly shapeless form under some of the rest of the bedsheet, in a fetal position and the thin cotton up to her neck, Relena slept peacefully nearly two feet away from him, a small smile on her face and her hair strewn over her pillow.

One year had gone by since the last time they had seen each other face to face, since the people of Earth and of the colonies had made a true peace with each other.

Things had changed. It was safe to walk on the streets again. It was all right to voice one's opinions in public again. It was perfectly okay to live.

But Heero had always been suspicious of this new existence. It was too peaceful. Those suspicions had led him to a new path, a new adventure, and the young woman next to him, wanting a break from her predictable new life, had decided to join him on that path.

If not for their sheer purpose of will, they would probably be dead now, along with perhaps countless others and the four young men who were in a room somewhere above this one.

Those four had decided to join the path as well.

Heero hoped that it wasn't one that led to a dead end.

He smiled at her and, for a second, his entire body relaxed.

I didn't disturb you. And I don't want to. Not yet.

Damn, she was beautiful. And strong. And last night...she had been so open to him. She wouldn't have denied him anything.

Last night...had been a revelation for both of them.

The smile faded. His eyes hardened.

"Don't give me any trouble, Relena."

But he knew that she would.

He looked straight ahead and remembered how they'd gotten there in the first place...three days ago...

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