3Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. ^-^
Song used: Lost Stars by Keira Knightley/Adam Levine
Back to Zero
a 1xR, 3xR fanfic by Ines Kanoyan
Romance/Drama
Chapter 9 Lost Stars
Relena ran like there was no tomorrow. She was bound to be late for her history class again. It was too bad that she already missed the first meeting and she was late for the past consecutive classes. She didn't want her professor thinking that she was not taking this class seriously. History was supposed to be one of the subjects she should be excelling at, given her love for reading.
She tried entering the huge lecture hall as discretely as possible. Too bad, it was an old building and the doors were huge solid wood doors that screeched as she pushed it open, no matter how gently she did it. The professor paused to look at her as she entered. She bowed her head in apology then slowly moved towards her seat.
"Miss Darlian, we have just finished discussing the assignment due next meeting," the professor announced. Since both of you were late, you and Mr. Atkins, will get to be partners. Talk to him after class."
Relena nodded as soon as she settled on her seat. She took out her notes and was ready to listen when she felt as if someone was staring at her. True enough, when she looked on her left side, Prussian blue eyes were looking straight at her. She blinked in shock and this somehow caused the owner of those eyes to blush wildly.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare," he said in a whisper hoping to not disturb their classmates.
They were seated almost at the top of the auditorium-styled lecture hall. Though there were a just a few rows to the back, they were pretty far from the stage where the professor was.
"Hi, I'm Mr. Atkins," he said. "Arthur Atkins,"
Relena's eyes widened upon hearing him introduce himself. But she quickly smiled, though nervously, to somehow stop this interaction from being awkward.
She nodded then scribbled a note on her pad, then handed it to him.
'Let's talk after class.' The note read.
Arthur nodded to her and resumed to listening to the professor's lecture. Relena, on the other hand, was starting to panic. She didn't know why, but she felt anxious and uncomfortable. She kept thinking about the assignment and her groupmate.
As soon as the class was dismissed, Arthur immediately approached Relena. Relena smiled at him, still that nervous and awkward smile. She hated herself for being so self-conscious around him.
"I took notes about the requirements of our assignment," he said, as he handed her his notebook. "Here, you may copy them."
"Thanks," Relena said as she took the notebook and sat down and started copying it.
Arthur pulled one of the arm chairs and seated beside him. He watched as Relena copied his notes. Relena could feel his eyes on her again, making her all the more self-conscious than before. She tried to write as fast as she can.
Arthur noticed Relena was making such effort and said, "Hey, do you have a class immediately after this?"
Relena just looked at him and said nothing and resumed copying.
"You could just take a picture of my notes, if you're such in a hurry." he suggested.
Relena closed her eyes in embarrassment. 'Of course, why didn't I think of that?!' she thought to herself. Arthur's notes were long and she wasn't even halfway through.
"I'm so sorry, wait let me get my phone," she said, as she hurriedly fumbled inside her bag to look for her phone.
Arthur, seeing how instead of helping her out, only made her even more stressed, tried to calm her down.
"Hey, no pressure. I can wait here, I just don't want you being stressed by this," he said as he grinned at her.
Relena stared at him as she heard his soft chuckle. It was Arthur's turn to feel self-conscious when he noticed that Relena was staring at him. He touched his hair and looked down to avert Relena's eyes which were still piercing through him.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked, unable to stand Relena's intent stare.
Only then, Relena had noticed that she had been staring at him. His boyish grin coupled with a chuckle really caught her off guard. Heero never did that. He was always serious and contemplative. But, seeing Arthur do it, somehow made her feel it was Heero who was doing it. And as much as it was startling to see, it made her feel warm and at the same time a part of her, ached for something.
"Sorry, I just remembered someone," she replied then went back to copying his notes.
"Heero," he said.
Relena stopped again and looked at him. "What?'
"Sophie already told me about him," he replied. "Sort of,"
Relena was stunned into silence. She wasn't prepared for this. Sophie did not tell her that she already told Arthur about Heero. Although, they have not really discussed what they would do either.
"What did she say?" she managed to ask.
"That we look so much alike, that you think I might be him." He replied with a blank expression.
Relena nodded in agreement. It was essentially what she had told Sophie.
"Yes," Relena said, not knowing how to approach the situation. "Sorry, if I've been acting all weird, it's just that-"
He smiled as he interrupted her, "it's fine. It used to bother me before but now I get it. It's like I'm a ghost, right?"
Relena could not help but chuckle lightly at what he said. "What?"
"A ghost, coz you all thought I was dead and now you see me and now we're groupmates. I'd be crazy, too, if that happened to me." Arthur replied, as-a-matter-of-factly.
"You have a point," Relena agreed and started finishing copying his notes.
As soon as Relena finished copying his notes, they exchanged phone numbers so they could easily get in touch to do their assignment. Relena watched as Arthur left for his next class, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Sophie.
Please don't see just a girl caught up in dreams and fantasies
Please see me reaching out for someone I can see
Take my hand, let's see where we wake up tomorrow
Relena and Sophie decided to have a snack at the cafeteria. Relena told Sophie, while they were walking, everything that happened in their history class.
"Yeah, sorry if I didn't give you a heads up." Sophie said, as they took their seats on one of the cafeteria tables.
"It's fine, I guess it actually helped." Relena replied. "I had been acting all weird around him, he noticed that but at least he gets it now."
"Really?" Sophie asked. "He told you that?"
Relena blushed in embarrassment.
"I stare at him all the time. He said he felt like a ghost," Relena said, recalling how Arthur described it.
"Oh, that Arthur, I'll talk to him, Relena," Sophie said, fearing that Arthur may have offended Relena in some way.
"No, it's fine Sophie," Relena said. "It's just that, Heero wasn't like that. He was too serious and guarded. Arthur's more relaxed. I guess you guys really took care of him, for him to be like that,"
Relena held Sophie's hands and smiled at her heartily. "It's something, I am really thankful for,"
Sophie smiled back at Relena. "Arthur's a nice guy, my parents, everyone back at home adore him."
Relena smiled and let go of Sophie's hands and resumed eating her snack.
"So, what's the plan?" Sophie asked.
"Honestly, the details have not yet been planned yet," Relena replied. "but, I want to know his reaction when you told him?"
"Well, he understood why you were being weird," Sophie replied.
Relena blushed wildly again. She didn't think Arthur was noticing her that much.
"I sort of talked a lot about you and I was excited for you, two, to meet and then you were acting weird so he thought I was weird too," Sophie laughed as she explained Arthur's weird reaction. "But, to be honest, he was curious. He was asking me how would he know someone as important as you?"
"You told him, that he was a Gundam pilot?" Relena asked.
"Yes, but it was hard, I don't know that much about them but we tried googling pictures if it would stir up his memory."
"And?"
"He had a mild headache but didn't really remember that much," Sophie replied. "Relena, you know the other pilots, right?"
Relena nodded.
"Maybe, we should arrange so Arthur can meet them?" Sophie suggested. "Maybe, they could help,"
"Okay, I think that would help." Relena replied and began thinking of ways how he could get the gang back together.
Who are we? Just a speck of dust within the galaxy
'Woe is me' if we're not careful turns into reality
Don't you dare let all these memories bring you sorrow
Arthur stared at his phone as he waited for Relena's text. They had agreed to text whenever one had a free time so if the other one was free they would meet up and research on their history report.
He texted her as soon as his math professor announced that they wouldn't be having class today and just left a homework due next week. He found himself, looking forward to seeing her again, talking to her. He wanted to know more about his past or rather, their past. She acted like, she knew him very well, like they were close. And since, the accident, he had never felt strongly for anyone as he had for Relena. What those strong feelings were, he still wasn't sure what they were. But, he wanted answers and maybe hanging out with her would give him those.
He, then remembered Sophie and how she made him promise that he would never forget her. Sophie will always be special to him. They were best friends. And he was thankful that again, she found a way to help him again, this time through Relena.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed and he immediately picked it up to see who it was.
'You free? I'm at the cafeteria.' Sophie texted.
Just then, a new message from Relena popped up. 'I'll be done in 15 minutes. See you at the lib?'
Arthur's face lit up upon reading the text and immediately replied. 'Yeah, wait for you here.'
He then texted, Sophie. 'Sorry, need to research something. See you after school?'
Arthur stared at the entrance door of the library. From where he sat, he could easily see everyone that was entering. Soon enough, the person he was waiting for emerged and from where she was, she could not easily see where he was. Arthur allowed himself to watch her from afar, as she went through the process of showing the guard her library card and walking towards the numerous desks. He found himself so mesmerized with her that he didn't notice that she was already in front of him.
"Hey," she greeted.
"Hi," he said, as he immediately stood up to pull a chair for her to sit on.
Relena smiled at his gentlemanly gesture and sat down.
"So, shall we start working?"
Arthur nodded. Right, he almost forgot why they were meeting in the first place. They had a homework to finish.
Relena found Arthur a breeze to work with. He was kind of a nerd. He already had the references splayed out on their table. He had a clear idea how they would tackle the assignment. It was as if he didn't need a group mate.
"You're so good at this," she commented, as he finished discussing his ideas. "I almost feel like I don't want to add anything, it might drag down our grade."
Arthur blushed at Relena's complement. He had made the effort. He wanted to impress her and impress her, he did.
"Don't say that, let me see your notes," he said, as he took and read Relena's notes.
Relena's notes were also thorough and complete. There had been several ideas which she tackled that he failed to mention. It was as if they meant to be paired for this assignment.
"You've outlined a lot of concepts that I missed, I say we elaborate on that and we're good to go." Arthur said, amused with how fast they were finishing their homework.
"We make quite the team, huh?" Relena commented, as she winked at Arthur.
Being groupmates with Arthur, did a lot to ease her up with him. It was like working with a normal college guy, a really intelligent, not to mention handsome, college guy. Relena felt giddy just thinking about it. This was her dream. For her and Heero to exist in a world without war, where they can be normal students doing homework, going on dates.
"I'm glad, I'm starting to be human again," Arthur replied.
"What?" Relena replied, not understanding what he said.
"I was joking, you know, me being a ghost?" he said, as he grinned.
"Geez, yes, sorry, I'm slow. I told you, Heero didn't joke a lot." Relena said as she laughed.
Arthur turned serious and asked, "so, tell me about him,"
"You really cannot remember anything? Even little things?"
Arthur was quiet. He tried his best to recall anything that went on his mind that could point to his past.
"I have flashes of memories. When Sophie and tried googling about the Gundams, I somehow felt something familiar with them and the other mobile suits from OZ." he said. "But, I don't really have a vivid memory of any of it."
Relena frowned sadly. If there was anything that Heero would remember so vividly, it had to be the Gundams and yet all he had were vague traces of them. This would be hard and tedious possibly even heart breaking.
"Heero was the perfect soldier. He was trained to fight at very young age by a scientist named Dr. J." Relena started off her introduction.
"Dr. J," Arthur repeated in a trance, as if he was remembering something.
"Yes, Dr.J, is there something you remember?"
Arthur closed his eyes and placed his hands on his head. Flashes of an old, grey and long haired guy started flashing on his mind. But, his head ached as he tried to force more.
Relena inched closer to him in worry as he winced in pain.
"Arthur, are you ok?"
"I suddenly remembered an old guy with dark, weird glasses,"
"Yes, that's him!" Relena cried in excitement. But remembered to contain it and lower her voice since they were in the library.
Arthur smiled weakly as he said, "that's all I got, my head is aching really bad,"
"Don't force it," Relena replied as she took her thin notepad and used it to fan Arthur, hoping to help him breathe through the pain. "We'll help you remember, slowly."
God, tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young
It's hunting season and this lamb is on the run
We're searching for meaning
But are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark?
Are we all lost stars trying to light up the dark
To be continued...
A/N: Please read and review! Would love to hear from new readers!