A.C. 196

10:11 am
"Are you really going to go after her? Alone?"
Duo Maxwell stared at me as if I were crazy. Maybe it /was/ crazy to think that I could break through Mariemaia Khushrenada's stronghold, swarming with her soldiers and heavily guarded by mobile suits, and rescue Relena Darlian. All on my own. Maybe it was crazy for him.
I wasn't worried.
"Hai."
Duo's gaze drifted away from me, out to the city spread before us from our standpoint on the roof of Preventer headquarters. I noticed he was staring off in the direction of the scrap yard he owned and ran with his girlfriend, Hildie Schbeiker.
My Hildie.
I wasn't jealous. Not to the point where I hated him for being the one to love her, anyways. I had a certain respect for Duo Maxwell; whether I liked to admit it or not, he had helped me countless times in the past, and he was an extraordinary fighter. No, I didn't hate him. I didn't hate her, either.
I was determined.
One last time.
"Can I at least come with you? You know, help out a little?" Duo turned back to me. He wasn't smiling.
"Why would you want to leave her?"
Duo shrugged and looked off towards the scrap yard again. "It's not that. Hildie understands war; she knows why I have to fight. She was a soldier, too, you know." He sighed. "Thankfully, she'll never do that again. But I have to. Gundam pilots have to stick together, right?" He looked sideways at me and grinned a little.
"Fine. We leave tomorrow."
Duo's grin widened. "Thanks, buddy! I won't let you down!" He jumped down from his perch on the railing of the rooftop and headed for the door leading to the stairs and the elevator.
"Where are you going?"
"To work on getting us a ride to Mariemaia's headquarters. I want Deathscythe back as soon as possible. We can't expect to do anything without the Gundams first," he replied, reaching for the door.
"What about Hildie?"
Duo smiled. "I'm saving her for later. See you tomorrow, Heero." With a quick wave, he disappeared.
Only one day.
I was determined.

3:45 pm
I spent the entire afternoon walking through the city, trying to clear my mind for what was to come the next day. I hadn't heard from Dr. J in a while. Without the Gundams, there was no need for him to contact me. I really had no one.
Relena Darlian.
I didn't know why I kept thinking about her, why I even wanted to save her. She was important to the welfare of the Earth Sphere United Nation, and therefore everyone's well-being, but other that that there was no reason for me to worry about her. She was only a distraction.
A distraction.
To keep me from thinking of her.

3:48 pm
I came to a park. Looked for an empty bench, sat down.

3:49 pm
I watched a group of children on the playground, running, laughing, pushing and shoving each other. I tried to remember what it was like to be that innocent.
I couldn't remember.
It seemed as if the war didn't touch these children, as if it didn't even exist.
The war...
I was going to fight my last battle tomorrow.
One last chance.

3:50 pm
I finally allowed myself to think about her. The war, and being with Duo, had reminded me of her, of what we had shared so briefly. My first truly failed mission.
She was a soldier back then. Hildie Schbeiker, destined for greatness in the upper echelons of OZ. A devout soldier. My enemy. Someone to be eliminated before she became too much of an adversary for the Gundam pilots.
I was her assassin.
I couldn't kill her.
I felt for her.
I made love to her.
She lived, and Duo Maxwell took my place.

3:51 pm
I looked at my watch. It was getting later. The sun was already starting its slow descent into the horizon. I had a mission to fulfill the next day.
I stood up from the bench.
The scrap yard was only a few blocks away.
One last chance.
I started walking.

3:52 pm
Five minutes.
I was determined.

5:30 pm
I didn't reach the scrap yard until much later after I left the park. I took a longer way there, walking through neighborhoods filled with more children and happy people; people closing up shops for the day, schoolchildren and businessmen alike stepping from buses and entering bright, warm homes. Again, I realized how innocent they all were, how untouched by the war they seemed.
I wanted that, to feel that again. I didn't remember what it was like. She made me feel that way.

5:37 pm
The gates to Maxwell Scrap and Salvage were open, but there was no one around. I walked in easily. The house next to the main yard, the house I knew inside and out from going over it so many times in my memory, was lit only in a few windows.
I knew she was alone.

5:39 pm
I knocked on the door.
"Coming," I heard a muffled voice on the other side say. It took her two minutes to open the door.

5:41 pm
I was face to face with Hildie Schebeiker.
It had been one year.
She didn't look much different from when I had last seen her. Her blue-black hair was still cut short, the bangs long and spiky and falling in her face; she was dressed in a pair of tight black pants and a purple shirt that was much too big for her small, slender body, but that couldn't hide her beautiful figure.
"Hello, Hildie."
She only stared at me.
"Heero."

5:47 pm
"Please... Come inside." She stood back and allowed me to step into the dark house. It looked just as I remembered it that night; everything clean and in its place, except for the pairs of dirty work boots that I knew had to belong to Duo thrown in a heap next to the door. She shut the door and stood against it, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
She wasn't happy to see me.
"Where's Duo?" It was her question.
I looked at her. He wasn't back yet. We were alone.
Again.
"He told me he was going to find us a ride to Mariemaia's headquarters for tomorrow. He should be back soon."
Hildie's face softened and she leaned her head back against the door, sighing heavily. "So you're really going there after all." It wasn't a question.
"Hai."
She stared at me, the deep blue depths of her eyes filled now not only with anger at me, but with sadness. I understood how she felt. She had every right to hate me.
I left her.
Now Duo was leaving her, who knew for how long this mission would last. I knew I wasn't coming back.
I was leaving her again.
Hildie closed her eyes. "Did it mean anything to you?" Her voice trembled when she spoke. A single tear slid down her cheek from under her closed lids, catching in her long, feathery eyelashes before continuing its trek down her face, glinting in the faint illumination from the last rays of sunlight filtering in through the window. I wanted to touch her, to brush the tear away, to hold her.
I didn't move or say a thing.
"Did it mean anything to you when I told you I wanted to come with you? Even though I knew you would never let me, did you even think about it? What it would be like? How we could have been together?" She opened her eyes, letting the tears fall freely now.

6:08 pm
I finally answered her.
"No."
Hildie stared, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. It was much too big for her. "I'm not surpri-"
I closed the distance between us in two strides, making her back up into the door instinctively. I stopped inches from her, placing one finger on her lips to silence her. I knew what she was going to say. I wasn't finished.
"I didn't think about any of that, Hildie. I thought about you, just you. I thought about you being alive." I let my hand fall away from her. She didn't speak. I listened to the sound of her breathing, the steady rush of breath, in and out. She was letting what I had said sink in.
I never felt so completely stupid in my life.
Baka.

6:10 pm
A small, delicate hand touched my face. I hadn't even realized I had closed my eyes. The hand traced patterns on my skin, tenderly, before stopping under my chin, lifting it to face her, even though she was much shorter than I was.
"Arigatou, Heero."
I kissed her.

6:12 pm
I forgot about Duo. I forgot that she belonged to him.
I forgot that tomorrow I would be leaving. Forever.
I forgot that I would die, but she would still be living.
But I remembered I made a vow to myself. One last time.

6:14 pm
I lifted her entire body easily, scooping her up in my arms and carrying her to the bedroom I remembered so vividly; the four-poster bed with its virginal white sheets, the shelves filled with medals and honors she had won during her reign as the darling of OZ, the pictures of a brother she dreamed of following in the footsteps of, a brother who had probably been killed by one of us Gundam pilots.
She smiled up at me.
She remembered it all, too.

6:15 pm
I laid Hildie down on the bed, grabbing the waistband of her pants and pulling them down with her. I kissed my way back up her legs, letting my tongue flick out to gently caress her smooth skin, making my way up her inner thighs. I pressed my face into the damp satin of her panties, loving the feel of her, the smell of her, her body already preparing itself for me. She moaned and tangled her fingers in my hair, pushing my face further against her aching center.
"Hildie." I breathed her name against the soft flesh of her thigh and she giggled a little.
"Heero, don't stop." She allowed me to lift my face. She was gazing down at me, her eyes clear and full of understanding. She knew what I was thinking.
"I know... I know that after tonight, this is over." I nodded slightly. "Hai."
"Just give me this, then. Like you did before..."
She kissed me this time.

6:18 pm
Hildie lost control first. Her kiss was hungry, desperate, and she ripped at my shirt and my jeans while I carefully lifted her shirt over her head. She had me completely undressed before I had even reached around her to undo her bra. I allowed myself to smile a little.
So she was still the same after all.
Hildie slid the lacy black bra off, throwing it to the floor, yanking her panties down at the same time. I watched her, amazed. She sat on top of me, straddling my waist, not allowing me entrance just yet.
I ached for her.

6:19 pm
Hildie bent her head to kiss me again, her mouth moving down my lips, my chin, my neck, stopping at my chest. She ran her tongue over the hard brown nipples, making me moan softly, biting them gently before she concentrated on the place I knew she would have sooner or later.
My battle scar.
The only real, tangible, visible sign that I had truly lost my innocence. I had almost died from the gash across my chest, given to me as an initiation to my Wing Gundam. It was my first mission.
Hildie kissed the scar lovingly, almost adoringly, dragging her tongue across it as if to taste me, to keep a part of me for herself. I felt myself grow even harder as she did this, remembering how completely Hildie Schbeiker gave herself over to me that night, how she held me in the highest respect, how she would do anything for me. She conveyed this without saying a single word that night.
She hadn't lost it.
"Hildie..." I groaned her name and placed my hands on her hips, holding them firmly.

6:20 pm
She looked up. Nodded. Once.

6:21 pm
I tightened my hold on her hips and brought her back down, onto my hard shaft. She sighed heavily as I entered her, her hands finding their way past me, above me, to grasp the bedposts as her body arched and she forced herself down onto me, hard. I cried out and thrusted back into her, harder. My hands slid up her body from her hips to lightly skim over her breasts, cupping them in my hands, so small and perfect, massaging them. She groaned and sighed as I fondled her, her movements against me increasing as she got hotter and hotter. I matched her thrust for thrust.
Our last battle.

6:22 pm We fucked hard. Harder than the last time, harder than I had ever remembered doing with anybody before. My hands touched and caressed every inch of her body. I wanted to remember everything, to keep a part of her as she kept a part of me.
Like a last kiss before dying...
Hildie tightened around me suddenly, her body stiffening under my hands. She tilted her head back, her hands still firmly gripping the bedposts, and screamed my name, finally releasing herself. I felt myself let go at the same moment, all of the tension and anger I had built up over the past year draining out of me. I felt nothing but the pure pleasure and bliss of being inside her, having her with me.
Hildie let go of the bedposts and her body fell slack against mine, her energy spent. I held her close, listening to her breathing slow, feeling the rise and fall of her back under my hands.
We didn't speak.
It was over in five minutes.

7:01 pm
I finally urged myself to get out of the bed, untangling my limbs from hers, careful not to wake her. She had fallen asleep, her head resting on my chest.
I slipped out of the bed and pulled my jeans on. I tugged my tank top over my head. When I could see past the fabric again, she was awake.
Hildie sat up in the bed, wrapping the white sheets around her demurely, almost shyly. As if I hadn't seen all of her just moments before, as if I didn't know the entire plain of her body almost as well as I knew my own. I felt myself smile a little.
"This is good-bye." Again, it wasn't a question.
I picked my jacket up from the floor and shrugged it on. "Hai."
She lowered her eyes for a moment, trying to hide the tears that I knew threatened to fall again. When she finally looked up, her blue eyes were clear. She was always so strong.
"I won't ask you to make promises you can't keep, Heero. But I will ask you to come back alive."
I stared back at her.
"That is a promise, Hildie. And it's one I can't keep."
I walked to the bed. She turned away from me, the tears falling freely now. She was still strong to me. I brushed one warm droplet from her cheek with my fingertips, turning her head to face me at the same time. I kissed her then; long, tenderly.
The last time.
"Wakare, Hildie."

7:15 pm
I left her. Again.
This time it would be forever.

7:27 pm
I finally reached my apartment and let myself inside. It was dark, empty. The same. A message blinked on my computer console. I switched it to video and clicked the "answer" button.

7:28 pm
"Hey, Heero, it's me! I found our ride! An old transport shuttle was scrapped over in the business district. Yours truly did a little repair work on it and it's fully functional now!"
The boy on the screen made a face.
"Not to mention it took me the entire afternoon and cut into my time with Hildie, but we've got the rest of the night, right?"
The boy laughed and winked.
"Well, it looks like you'll be able to save your little princess after all! See ya tomorrow, buddy!"
He tossed his long braid and gave a mock-salute.
End of message.

7:29 pm
I turned off the computer. Decided to take a shower.
My little princess.
Relena.
Hildie.

7:30 pm
Tomorrow I'll die.
The water is cold, as usual.

7:31 pm
But she will live.
I took my last chance.

Fin

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Kate

AP