Love Letter
Chapter Four
Sendai, AC
198
The first person Ni saw when he came out of the house that morning was
an over exuberant Relena Peacecraft.
"Well?" she asked. "How'd it go?"
Ni couldn’t help but smile at her energy. She was practically bouncing
up and down. "I'm not sure. I gave him the letter, and he said he'd
read it later."
Relena squealed. "Sugoi! Arigatou, Ni."
"Don't mention it." Ni yawned. They were practically at the school now,
and he could see Heero coming towards them on a bike.
"Heero-kun!" Relena yelled. To her surprise he didn't turn away like he
usually did.
"Hello, Ni, Relena."
"Did you get my letter, Heero?"
"Oh, was that yours? I never read it."
Ni shot Heero an indignant look. "What do you mean you didn't read it?"
Heero shrugged. "I threw it away."
This didn’t seem to phase Relena, who was happy enough just because
Heero had said hello to her. "Never mind the letter, Heero. I forgive
you. What it said was... well, pretty much, that I really like you and
that I'd like to go out with you some time. Like on a date? Maybe to a
movie or something like that."
There was an unreadable expression on Heero’s face. "Relena, I can't
stand being around you for a few minutes, let alone an entire evening.
I would never go out with you. It's insulting that you think I would
even consider it."
Ni looked at Heero in shock, disbelief clear on his expression. He
shifted his gaze to Relena, who looked like she was about to cry.
"Gomen nasai, Heero-kun," she said before she ran off.
"What the hell was that?" Ni yelled at Heero.
Heero shrugged. "What?"
"Don't give me that. What you said was mean."
"So what?"
"So what? You could have just said no!"
Heero shrugged again. Ni was beginning to hate that shrug. "She's
weird."
"She may be a little strange, but at least she's nice, which is more
than I can say about you."
Heero looked somewhat remorseful at that, but it was quickly covered
with his normal, unreadable expression.
"And what about the letter?" Ni continued. "You told me you would read
it."
"What do you care? It's not like you wrote it or anything."
"But one of my friends did!"
Ni was getting frustrated, and this conversation wasn't getting
anywhere. He ran off, deciding to go find Relena and make sure she was
okay.
* * *
Ni didn’t see Relena for a few days. During that time span he made a
point to ignore Heero, who in turn made it a point to try more to get
Ni's attention. Ni couldn't believe how callous Heero could be. Didn't
he realize how much he hurt Relena, and all those other girls who
practically worshiped him? And then to lie to him- to tell him that he
would read the letter when he never had any intention of doing so. That
really got to him. He turned the corner, intent on getting to the
school cafeteria before they sold out of the good stuff and he was
stuck with tuna casserole. That was when he crashed into Heero again.
He got up and was about to run for the cafeteria when Heero grabbed his
wrist.
"Why are you so mad at me?"
Nich bristled. Heero could be such an ass sometimes. "Heero, in case
you didn't notice, you made Relena cry the other day."
"Why is that so important? So Relena got a little hurt, what do you
care?"
"Relena is one of my closest friends at this school. I don't like
seeing her get hurt."
Heero let go of Ni's wrist, sensing he wouldn't run off again. "I don't
remember you guys being so close a few days ago."
Ni shrugged, a sad look briefly glazing his eyes over. "Yeah well,
friends are hard for me to come by here. I take what I can get."
Heero looked mildly shocked. "What do you mean? You have problems
making friends?"
"Kids here already have their own little cliques. I guess they don't
feel like assimilating a new member. Anyway, besides Hilde and Relena
they've all assumed I'm some kind of rich snob, since I've been in
private school up until now."
"I never thought that you'd have that kind of problem. You seem like
the type of person that'd make friends easily."
Ni shrugged again and started towards the cafeteria. "You better hurry,
Heero, or else you’ll be late for your class."
Ni could hear Heero turn around and walk away as he opened the door to
the cafeteria. He was mildly surprised to see Relena at one of the
tables, waving at him.
"Ni!" she yelled. "Come sit by me!"
Ni nodded, signaling that he was going to buy lunch first. When he came
back he took a seat across from Relena.
"Relena," he started, "I’ve never seen you in this lunch before. Don't
you have a class?"
"I skipped."
"Oh. Are you okay?"
Relena smiled. "Are you referring to the Heero incident?"
Ni wondered what other incident he could be referring too. He nodded.
"I think I'm over that. Any way, I had my normal lunch period with him
just last period and he came over to apologize to me."
"Really? He apologized?"
Relena nodded happily. "He was very nice about it, though he made it
clear that he didn't want a relationship with me. But I thought maybe,
after we became friends and all, then maybe he'd change his mind."
"Ummm… that's great, Relena."
"Ni, do you think you could give this to him?" Relena pressed a folded
piece of paper into Ni's hand. "I'd do it myself, but... I still feel
that he'd respond more favorably to you. It's nothing much, it just
tells him that I forgive him and hope we can become friends. He left
before I could tell him that."
"Sure thing." Ni pushed the paper into his back pocket. "I'll give it
to him right after school."
* * *
Ni ran to catch up with Heero. "Heero! Matte!"
Heero turned around and stopped. "What is it, Ni?"
Ni held out the letter, panting. "Relena wanted me to give this to you.
It's nothing, just a little note."
Heero grabbed the paper from Ni's fingers. "Okay, I'll read it later."
"Uh uh. That's what you said last time and you lied to me. I want to
see you read it."
"I can't, I'm already late to practice."
Ni frowned.
"Why don't you wait for me after my practice is over? I’ll meet you
somewhere."
"When's your practice over?"
"Five."
Ni let out an exasperated sigh. They were in the middle of winter. It
was cold outside, and by that time it'd probably be dark too. He didn’t
know why he was going to agree with this. "Where do you want to meet?"
"How about by the school gates?"
Ni nodded. "Okay. I'll see you there then."
Heero smiled and handed the paper back to Ni. "For safekeeping."
Ni sighed and waved as Heero ran off to the locker room. He turned and
walked towards the library, determined to get his homework done before
he went to meet Heero later on.
* * *
Heero was tapping his fingers on his bike handlebars and just looking
bored when Ni got to the front gate.
"You're late," he said.
"Sorry," Ni apologized, "I wanted to finish up my calculus before I met
you- it took me a little longer than expected."
"Oh? I take calculus and I don't remember any homework being assigned
for tonight."
"I take multivariable."
"Oh."
Ni fumbled in his pocket for Relena's letter when Heero stopped him.
"Let's go to the park down the street- it's nicer there."
Ni nodded his assent and started walking towards the park, Heero
following, rolling his bike along by the handlebars. When they got to
the park, which was only a block away, Ni sat down on a bench and
immediately pulled the note out. Heero just stared at it.
"You know, I can't read it in this dark."
"You're kidding! Then what was the point of my even waiting for you?"
"Wait, I've got an idea."
Heero sat down on the ground in front of the bike, and motioned for Ni
to join him a few feet away. "Keep turning the foot pedal on my bike,
that will power the light and I can use it to read the letter."
Ni shot Heero an incredulous look that Heero was completely oblivious
to, but got down to start pushing the pedal when Heero took the letter
from him.
"So what does it say?" Ni asked out of boredom.
"Nothing and a lot of stuff all at once," Heero replied as he continued
reading. "It's a really long letter."
"Seriously? She told me it was just a little note."
"And you believed her? The girl's psychotic."
"Still."
It was taking Heero an awfully long time to read the letter.
"Heero, my arm's kind of tired."
"I'm almost done."
Ni stopped pedaling. "Well, you've probably gotten the gist of the
letter by now."
Heero looked up and nodded, folding the letter up and pushing it into
his knapsack.
"Are you going to go talk to her tomorrow?"
Heero shook his head no. "I think she needs to distance herself from
me. She seems kind of obsessed. The letter pretty much went on and on
about how we're destined to be together."
Ni laughed a little at that. "That's Relena for you. Don't worry, I'll
break it to her tomorrow."
Ni stood up to go, realizing that Heero wasn't standing up as well.
"Aren't you going to go home now, Heero?"
Heero leaned back on his elbows. "No. I forgot my keys this morning and
my parents won't be home for at least an hour. I figured I'd just wait
here until then."
Ni sat back down. "I guess I'll wait with you, then."
Heero looked surprised. "Really? You'd stay here with me?"
"Sure."
"Thank you."
Ni plopped down on the ground, spreading his arms over cool grass. His
skin made contact with bits of ice here and there, but he didn't mind.
"Ni?"
"Mmmmm?"
"I'm sorry for making you wait for me, and for making you pedal my
bike."
"No problem, Heero."
Heero crawled closer to Ni and laid down next to him. "Won't your
parents be worried if you're late?"
Ni tensed up for a moment before he relaxed again. His voice was so
soft when he spoke that Heero barely heard him. "I don't have any
parents."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Ni was about to say no, but Heero had begun stroking his hair in steady
movements against the side of his head. Ni unconsciously pressed
against the pressure, reveling in the feeling of fingers moving up and
done against his cheek. It was all so soothing, and for some reason he
didn't feel as if he would mind talking about it this one time. His
voice was clipped and slow when he did speak.
"I don't know what happened to my biological parents. Sister Helen,
she's the nun I live with, she found me in some alley, digging through
the trash or something like that. I don't know. I was about four or
five. Her and Father Maxwell took me in for a little bit. He's the
priest that runs the Catholic church on fifth avenue. A friend of
Father Maxwell's adopted me. It was really nice living with him and his
wife. They gave me a name; actually, they gave me his. He was Heero Yuy
Senior. That's why they call me Ni, because I'm the second one. Some
times I forgot they weren't really my parents. But then mom passed away
a few years ago from cancer. Dad's always been sick, something about a
shot immune system, I'm not good with all that medical stuff. Remember
the big snow storm last winter? That's when he ran up this really high
fever. He was delirious and everything. We were visiting Father Maxwell
and Sister Helen at the time. Father Maxwell called an ambulance, but
in the end it didn't matter. We waited for almost two hours, and by the
time they got there it was too late. There was nothing for them to do
but take the body away. I live with the Father and Sister Helen now.
The doctors say I have the same thing as Dad did, which is funny
because we're not even related."
Ni, whose eyes had been gazing upwards throughout the speech, turned
his head to look at Heero. He realized that Heero had been staring at
him the entire time he had been speaking, and now those prussian blue
eyes were only a few inches from his own. They were always so focused.
He turned his head back towards the sky and stretched an arm up,
fingers flexing to point at some faraway place.
"You can see all the constellations tonight. Usually you can't even
make out the North Star with all the clouds and light around. See it?"
Heero looked up. "Yeah."
Ni lowered his arm. "I bet your home life is a lot better."
"It's more conventional. I have one dad and one mom. We don't talk
much, but I get good grades, so they're proud of me. They love me too,
sure, but I doubt if they like me very much. It's pretty basic."
"Sometimes I wish I had basic."
Ni could here Heero shuffling to his side, getting up onto his elbows
again. "I'm moving to Tokyo in two weeks."
"What?" Ni sat up and turned to face Heero.
"My dad's transferring there, and since I've taken enough classes to
graduate a semester early, we've decided that we should all move there
and that I could enroll at the university come spring term."
"So... you're just leaving?"
Heero nodded. His hand crept towards Ni's, but stopped before they made
contact. "I don't want to. But I don't really have a choice in the
matter."
"I see."
Heero got up and pulled his bike off of its resting place against the
bench. "We should probably go now."
He offered his hand to help pull Ni up, and the two boys walked towards
the park entrance. They stopped there, and just stared at each other
for a little bit.
"I'll see you in school tomorrow," Heero said. Ni was about to reply in
kind when suddenly Heero moved forward and he felt something press
against his lips. The contact was gone in an instant, and before Ni
realized it Heero had jumped onto his bike and was racing away. Ni
moved his fingers up to his mouth, wondering at the tingling pressure
left where two lips had just been.
* * *
Ni didn't go to school the next few days, and when he got back Heero
didn't say anything about the kiss. So he decided to let it go.
He wished he could talk to the boy more before he moved to Tokyo,
though. It wasn't until a week after the conversation in the park that
Heero decided to talk to him. It was after school and Ni had been
watching a game show on tv when there was a ring at the door. Opening
it, he had been surprised when he found Heero waiting on his front
porch.
"Hey, Heero," he said, "I'm glad you're here. I was thinking maybe we
could go hang out or something before you left."
Heero shook his head no. "I have a lot of packing to do today. I was
just wondering if you could do me a favor."
"Sure."
Heero held out a book. "I checked this out from the school library, and
I was wondering if you could return it for me. I'm done with exams, so
I won't be coming to school any more."
"No problem." Ni took the book from Heero. Great Expectations. "I'll do
it as soon as I get a chance."
"Thanks. You'll remember, right?"
Ni nodded, wondering why Heero was so pressed over returning the book
on time. It's not like the school library ever fined you or anything.
"I guess this is good bye, then."
After a brief hesitation Heero nodded, but didn't say good bye back. Ni
watched as he turned around and headed back to his house, then placed
the book on a table by the front door so he wouldn´t forget it
when he went to school tomorrow.