Disclaimer: Yes, just like in Heart of the Storm, I
don't own Gundam Wing. But the baddie in this
one, Kurt Kensington, and the Dyess' are mine.
*whispers* I don't want the baddie.....I wanna
hang on to my imaginary Duo and Heero.
Ice Princess
Chapter One
I should just quit while I'm ahead, he
thought. Trying to talk to this girl is like trying to talk to a brick
wall.
"Come on, Kay, just one movie. I promise
I'll be good."
The boy looked at the new girl at work. Fiery
red hair and crystal blue eyes, and a real knock out body. But the only
thing about her was the expressionless face she always wore. But Eric Guilroy had come to learn that she had lived an awful life
for the beginning part of the past 3 years. He had tried his hardest to
get even the smallest of smiles out of her. Kayla Landry was her
name. She had just started in the library last week. And ever since she
even first walked in the door, Eric had tried to ask her out.
"No," she stated, pure and simple. She
looked up at the clock. It was the end of her shift. She looked
back to Eric. "Goodbye." She walked into the office and grabbed
her jacket and was pulling it on as she left.
Eric held the door open for her and shook his head as
she left. "I'll get to you one of these days, just watch."
"Idiot," she mumbled as she left, the door
closing behind her. Seems just like a certain Gundam
pilot I once knew.
She walked down the street into a small cafe.
She always stopped there after work. The employees all knew her by name.
A boy that was wiping tables looked up as she
entered. "Good evening, Ms. Landry."
She nodded to him. Not saying anything,
just nodded and walked up to the counter.
The older woman behind the counter smiled.
"Welcome, Kayla. Will you have your usual today?"
She smiled at the old woman. "No, Mrs. Dyess, I think I'll just have a cup of coffee,
today." She spoke to the old woman in a tone that was much different
than the harsh way she spoke to Eric. In fact, the tone she used with Eric was
what she had known to use with everyone except Mrs. Dyess.
To her, Kayla's tone was as soft and as light as it could be.
"All right, dear, coming right
up." Mrs. Dyess turned her back and
picked up a coffee mug.
Kayla took a seat on a barstool at the counter.
"How is Mr. Dyess feeling?"
Mrs. Dyess poured the coffee and set the mug in front
of Kayla. "I'm afraid he's getting worse, dear. The doctors
say there's nothing they can do, he will not let them even try. It's in
God's hands." She sighed.
Mr. Dyess and Mrs. Dyess had owned the small cafe for several years, since
their first child, which was Kayla's age. A few years back, Mr. Dyess was diagnosed with cancer. It steadily became
worse and worse because he simply refused to receive medical treatment.
"I'm sorry," said Kayla. She had
looked up to the Dyess' as family since she came to
this city. No home, no money, no way to make a living.
They took her in, cared for her as best they could. But her attitude
towards others was just the same. Only the Dyess'
saw her calm, kind side. Only the Dyess' knew
who she really was.
"Don't worry about it, dear. We knew it
would happen one of these days." She looked up to Kayla.
"There was a young man in here earlier today, looking for Relena Peacecraft," she
whispered to her.
Kayla looked up to meet the old woman's eyes.
"Who was it?"
Mrs. Dyess looked away and
picked up a pad of paper with a name and number written on it and showed it to Kayla.
"You knew he would find where she was at sooner or later."
"I was rather hoping it would have been
later," whispered Kayla. "Much much later." She shook her head at the
name on the pad.
Mrs. Dyess put the pad
away. "You'd better talk to him, dear. He won't leave until
she's found. He's staying across town. He comes by this cafe every
morning."
Kayla shook her head. "He's better off not
knowing. There was a note left for him, telling him exactly what not to
do." She sighed. "I'm leaving tonight, Mrs. Dyess."
The old woman sighed. "I can't tell you
what not to do, dear. But please, they miss her greatly. The young
man had tears in his eyes when I told him that I had never seen her."
Tears? Heero Yuy? Kayla sighed.
She hadn't expected that one.
"It doesn't matter, Mrs. Dyess.
None of them need to know what Relena Peacecraft has become. Not yet, anyway.
Besides, I stopped by to tell you that Kensington is alive. I have to
leave anyway. If he finds Heero here...well, I
just can't let the war begin all over again."
Mrs. Dyess leaned on the
counter and looked into Kayla's eyes. "You just be careful,
dear. The world wants Relena Peacecraft back. Alive, not dead.
Dealing with Kensington is dangerous. He tried to kill you once, I don't doubt that he won't hesitate to try
again." She glanced at the pad with Heero's
name and phone number.
"Don't you dare to even think about calling him. The less he knows, the
better." Kayla gave the old woman a cool glance to show that she
meant it.
She sighed and nodded. "Just be careful,
dear."
Kayla nodded. "I intend to." She
stood up and reached into her pocket for some change.
"Don't worry about it,
this cup is on the house."
Kayla nodded and resumed her assumed "perfect
soldier" attitude and walked out of the cafe. She caught a cab to her
small apartment and began packing a few necessary items. She looked out
the window of her bedroom in time to see a storm moving in.
Heero Yuy,
perfect soldier, stood staring out of his motel room window. It was
storming that night. The electricity was out on half the block, so the
only light came from either passing cars, which were 4 stories below him, or
from the large clashes of lightning that seemed to fill the sky like daylight.
It was the same routine for him every night for the
past 3 years. No matter where he was, he came back to his room, took a
cold shower, and stood in front of the window for several hours into the
night. Around 2 am or so, he would finally
decide to give in to sleep.
He closed the blinds on the window and pulled back the
sheets on the bed. He lay on his back for several minutes before pulling
the covers over him. He turned onto his side and hugged his pillow as he
closed his eyes. A single tear ran down his cheek.
"Relena..." he
sighed as he drifted to sleep.
Every night, it was the same dream. Flashes of
the war filled his mind. Then, her face as she stared up at him during
their first meeting. Then, the several times, he had said that he was
going to kill her, and sometimes, ended up saving her instead. Relena Dorlain. Relena Peacecraft. Queen Relena. He loved her, and he finally realized it on
the day she disappeared.
She had left a note for him and her brother. In
it, she had said she'd had enough of being a public figure. That she
couldn't lead a "private" life without all of humanity knowing.
Tired of living up to everyone else's expectations.
She specifically told Heero and her brother NOT to
come looking for her or to send anyone else to look for her. She said
that in due time, she'd return. Both he and Milliardo
Peacecraft had kept their promise. But it had
been 3 years ago, she left.
Heero opened his eyes as the
alarm on his watch went off. He turned it off and stared at the
ceiling. 6 am. It was still dark outside except for a little
lightning left after the storm. The electricity was still out.
"Relena.." he said. "3 years is long enough."
He looked over at the clock that was now blinking 12:00. The electricity
was back on. He rolled out of his bed just as the phone rang. He
picked it up.
"Hello." He listened as an old woman
on the other side spoke to him. His eyes sharpened as she mentioned Relena's name. "I'll be right over. Thank you,
Mrs. Dyess." Heero
placed the phone back on the hook and slipped on a pair of jeans, white
T-shirt, shoes, his gun holster and a black leather jacket. He walked out
the door, and locked it.
Mrs. Dyess' cafe was just
down the street from the hotel, so the walk wasn't that far.
Heero walked into the empty
place and saw the old woman standing behind the counter. Heero could tell she had had just about as much sleep, if
not less, than he had.
"Mr. Yuy."
The woman nodded.
"Mrs. Dyess."
Heero replied.
"I couldn't stop her from leaving. I
tried." The woman looked at the pilot.
"Just tell me about her since you've known
her. I'll find out where she's gone."
She looked down to the counter top, wondering if he
wanted to hear everything, but figured it was best to tell him
everything. She looked back to the pilot.
"If you wouldn't mind, Mr. Yuy,
I suggest you go lock the door and come back to the kitchen with
me." She handed Heero the key to the front
door.
Heero nodded, knowing very
well this conversation was important and understanding that the woman was about
to tell him something that certain ears shouldn't hear. He walked to the
door and turned the sign to "closed" and locked the door. He
walked back to the old woman, handed her the key, and followed her behind the
counter into the kitchen.
"She came to this city as Kayla Landry a little
over two and a half years ago." She handed Heero
a recent picture of her.
He looked at the girl in the picture. The only
thing that reminded him of Relena was the curves of
her face and the color of her eyes. The fiery red hair, the build of her
body, and the expressionless face that normally was worn only by him led him to
believe it was a completely different person. But it was Relena.
"She had nothing when she came here and was cold
as ice to anyone that tried to approach her. She made herself a home just
behind this cafe. She stayed there for a week, before one night I went
out there and told the young lady to come inside. She wasn't going to
stay out there, especially with winter approaching." The woman paused for
a moment to take a seat. "She hesitated for a moment, giving me the
coldest looks I had ever received. I refused to take my eyes off of the
girl until she agreed. So she came in. I made her sit down and gave
her some coffee and a plate of food. I just sat and watched her eat with
such delicate manners. I knew she was brought up as a lady, but I never
asked her anything about her past at the time. I could see a resemblance
to Miss Relena, but the thought of her in such a
state just seemed out of the question.
"I asked if she wanted to live upstairs with us,
me and my husband, helping us in the cafe as payment. She agreed.
So I put her to work back here, knowing with her coldness, she wouldn't work
well up front with the customers. Eventually, over time, she softened up
with my husband and I. One night, after we
closed, she and I sat down here with some tea and she finally told me about
herself. Her tone just as soft as it was when she was Relena.
I couldn't not believe her story. I asked her
why she hadn't returned to the
"Why has she left now?" he asked.
The woman took a deep breath and continued.
"Does the name Kurt Kensington mean anything to you?" She
looked into his eyes, which suddenly flashed a look of anger. She
nodded. "Kayla met the man at a local celebration about a year
ago. They were together the entire evening. Kayla's coldness never
seemed to get through to him, but for some reason, she didn't just leave
him. They ended up spending quite a lot of time together. And, one
day about 5 months ago, she went to his apartment, uninvited, and caught on to
the end of a telephone conversation he was having with one of his
associates. He didn't know she was there yet, and left the apartment to
go do something. She hacked into his computer files."
When did she learn that one? Heero asked himself.
"She managed to get everything saved to a disk
and left before he returned. She brought the disk to me and told me to
keep it safe and left. Kensington came to the cafe about an hour later
looking for her. He knew she had been there. He completely tore
this place upside down looking. She came back not long after he finally
left. She was outraged at the mess he left this place in. To
emphasize her rage, her face was the same color as her hair, quite
literally. She caught up to him just down the road aways.
They fought. And if you were thinking of her as Relena
Peacecraft, you wouldn't have thought she could take
him on like she did, but as Kayla Landry, she's very strong for a girl her age,
for a girl, period."
Heero stared at the
woman. He tried to imagine Relena fighting a
man that he knew very well from his past. He couldn't. So he placed
the redheaded girl in the picture. They were complete opposites, but
still, the same person.
"Things were in her favor until he pulled his gun
on her. He shot once, hitting her in the shoulder. But she managed
to wrestle the gun away from him and shot him point blank range in the
chest. We both thought he was dead until recently. She came by
yesterday and said that he was alive. She started to say something about..'if he knew that Heero was here'..but
quickly started another sentence about it." The old woman looked to Heero.
"Let's just say that Kensington and I don't get
along very well." He looked away from the old woman. I
can't believe Relena got involved with that man.
"He doesn't know that she's Relena
Peacecraft. Not to my knowledge, he
doesn't." She got up and walked over to a safe that was in the
pantry. She opened it and removed the disk. She closed the safe and
walked back to Heero, handing him the disk.
"But she's in danger either way," Heero stated, taking the disk. He looked at the old
woman.
Mrs. Dyess nodded.
"And I can't think of anyone that will be able to protect her, except
you."
Heero nodded.
Kayla had just gotten out of the city before coming
face to face with Kurt Kensington.
"You're not getting away from me this time, Kayla
Landry. Or should I say, Relena Peacecraft?" He stared at her.
"That name doesn't mean anything to me," she
said coldly.
"Oh, but it does to me. And to a certain
pilot I've been trying to get a hold of. But, then, you knew that, didn't
you?"
She just stared at him.
"And it came to my attention that the pilot has one
weakness. The one thing I can use against him. And that's
you."
"And how do you know I won't try and kill you
this time."
He smiled. "How does this grab you?
I've got a few of my men on their way to pay a visit to the Dyess'.
Come with me quietly, and they won't get hurt."
She narrowed his eyes at him. "Bastard."
He chuckled. "I kinda
thought you'd see it my way." He opened the door of his car. "Ladies first."
She climbed into the car and slid over.
Kensington got in behind her and looked up to his driver. "Back to
the base," he stated.