I Never Wanna Leave You

Some ways away from the sprawling, elegantly beautiful Winner Mansion was the Yuy house, sitting silent in its simple splendor. Inside, beyond the living room and the staircase, was a room. In this room there were two twin beds, one for each of the two little girls listening to a dark-haired man tell them a bedtime story. The one on the left listened with large violet eyes while the other, though older and quite fond of a good story, was slowly drifting off to sleep.

“And then the princess and the prince went riding off into the sunset, living happily ever after,” Heero Yuy finished, his voice quieting as he spied the older one, Shannon, fast asleep. Abigail, her eyes eager, looked innocently up into his face and waited for him to say something else.

“Did you like the story?” Heero asked.

Abigail nodded eagerly. “I like the part when the princess met the prince,” she admitted, her little voice laced with uncharacteristic excitement. “The princess kinda reminds me of Mommy, and the prince kinda reminds me of you.”

Heero mustered up a half-smile and ruffled her hair. The truth was he had kinda modeled the prince and princess in the bedtime story after him and her mommy. At first, he thought that it was purely on accident, but then he realized why. It wasn’t to be sappy or romantic; in a way, it was a sign of his feelings. With that realization, he thought of her.

Danie…

“Heero?”

The little voice beckoned again. “Yes, Abby?”

Without blinking or flinching, the little girl stated, “I love you, Heero.”

Heero smiled, and this time it was not forced or strained. He leaned in and kissed the little girl’s forehead. In that instant, he came to another realization. This little girl, only knowing him almost two-and-a-half months, just told him that she loved him. And in that, also, came her desire for a father. Well, whatever it took, he would be a father to her as much as he could.

Unfortunately, it would have to wait.

“I love you too, Abby,” he whispered. The little one smiled and snuggled down in the covers to go to sleep. She closed her eyes, face drawing into peaceful lines, and Heero pulled the covers up to her chin. He sat there a minute, watching her cherubic face as she drifted farther into sleep. When he had first met Abigail Thomas, he knew she was a different kid than all the others. Her sweetness was almost enough to take that edge away from his feelings about kids. He sighed. And time would do the rest.

Down the hall, he became acutely aware of the sound of soft music. He knew the song: “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. Coming to his feet, he braced himself for the hurricane (now tropical depression) named Daniella. And boy was it going to be a stormy night in Yuy Bay…

He walked across the hall. The carpet made no sound under his bare feet as he slowly walked into his bedroom. What he saw surprised him.

“Danie?” he said aloud.

She wasn’t there.

Heero sat down on the bed he and his wife had so painstakingly made into a haven of escape for the two of them. His fingers caressed the outline of one of the designs on the comforter. I’m going to miss all this, he mused. He fell back onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling. I’m even going to miss the damn ceiling. He closed his eyes. Along with everything else…

“Heero?”

The voice was unmistakable. It was the voice of the woman of his dreams, his fairy tale princess, his passionate lover. He opened his eyes and sat up, wanting to see her.

She was wearing a baby blue tank top and judging from appearances, she wasn’t wearing a bra. He swallowed hard, looking at the sweatpants that shaped her hips. Her black hair was pulled away from her face, showing an olive complexion, no makeup, and large violet eyes.

“I wanted to say good night to Abby and Shannon before I went to bed,” she explained hesitantly. Heero frowned a little. She was nervous but she had cause to be. So did he. As a matter of fact, her presence rendered him speechless for a moment, until he found his voice.

“Come lie down here next to me.” Danie did so, tracing the outline of his jaw, his chin, his lips, his nose, his eyes. He held her in his arms and at that moment, it was just the two of them in their own little world.
“You know,” Danie began in a conversational tone that quivered with tears, “I was thinking that we should just go away some where and not do this. You know, just blow things off–”

“Danie,” Heero began.

“–I can find us somewhere where we can stay and–”

“Danie,” Heero repeated, more insistently.

“–we can do it, I know we can…”

Heero grabbed Danie’s shoulders gently but firmly. Her large eyes were now brimming with tears. She looked like a little girl in the rain who had just lost her puppy. Tears clung to her large eyelashes. She stared at him before collapsing into tears in his chest.

“I don’t want you to go!” Danie sobbed. “I can’t do this! Not after…not after…”

Heero raised Danie’s head so he could look into her watery eyes. “Look at me, Daniella Yuy.” She did so, gulping down her tears. “I don’t want to do this either. But I have to.”

“I know,” she whimpered. “But it doesn’t change the fact that it hurts like hell.”

Heero nodded. “I know it hurts. But there’s no way around it…okay?”

Danie gave him a slight nod, then buried her head in his chest again. Never before had be seen his wife so vulnerable, so morose. He enveloped her into his embrace, feeling the soft skin of her arms and neck and never wanting to leave them.

The scent of freesia traveled up to his nose. Danie’s tears had quieted and her breathing…it was different now. Heero’s senses could tell in a way, her demeanor had changed. She had shifted into grieving wife mode into…

“Danie?”

Danie looked up. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but her expression wasn’t sad anymore. She looked downright…mischievous. Well, actually, not quite. She wasn’t quite there yet but very close to it. There was still a bit of sadness in her eyes, but she had gained a bit of her old self. Heero’s lips slowly formed a smile.

“You know, Heero darling,” she began in a low tone, “I figure we can either sit here and cry about it or…” She leaned over and whispered some words in his ear. A jolt of shock went through Heero as his wife’s words reached his brain. But it wasn’t unhappy shock, mind you. It was happy shock, a happy shock that sent tingles through him. It was like whoa. That was all he could say about it.

“You know, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Heero admitted, advancing slowly upon Danie. She laid back for him, parting her lips and shivering when his lips met hers. As the light went off, the music played softly in the background, and Heero’s hands caressed Danie’s body.

“Oh Heero,” she whispered. “I never wanna leave you. I want to stay this way forever in your arms, in this bed…”

“I want to, too,” Heero whispered back. “But we only have tonight. And we have to make it special.”

Danie slowly took off her tank top and Heero smoldered inside. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s good for you.”

Heero took him in her arms again. The moon peeked in, and for one night, the world was just full of Danie and Heero Yuy, lying in bed, savoring their last night together. Well, at least on this side of town anyway.

* * *

Dawn was usually a very pretty part of the morning in Daniella Yuy’s opinion. The colors in their prime mixing together to make a picture perfect sight had always made her heart swell. But this particular sunrise of this morning brought pain to her heart. As a new day dawned on her and her husband, a hollow ache settled in her heart.

He was still sleeping beside her. It was a wonder that he was, considering the fact that he had vowed to stay up all night with her. She, of course, didn’t keep her vow either; sadness and exhaustion from their last night of love for ten years had left her feeling empty. In his arms, she fell into a troubled sleep, until later on when she woke up, finding him sitting in a chair and staring longingly at her naked form. She cried as usual, until he took her into his arms and they collapsed onto the bed again.

Danie sat up and took Heero’s head into her arms. His dark hair was soft on her skin, and she regretted the fact this would be the last time she would hold him for ten years. She dimly remembered their first night alone together. He had been so eager and passionate with her. Thinking about it made her cry again.

“Oh Heero,” she wept. “Don’t leave me this way. I can’t live without you. You know I can’t do this…”

He stirred. She babbled on, despite the fact that the person she was talking to was still asleep. Tears fell down her cheeks faster than anyone could wipe away. Slowly she poured her heart out to her sleeping lover’s ears. After a long silence, she murmured four words that she would whisper every night for the next ten years to his favorite pillow.

“I love you, Heero.”

“I love you too, Danie.”

Danie gasped. Heero lifted his head from her chest, and his eyes bore into hers. She hadn’t expected him to be awake, much less speak. She succumbed to tears once again as he cradled her face in his hands.

“Oh Heero,” she wept again. She averted his eyes, feeling ashamed for not being strong. That was one thing she had prided herself in being-strong. She recalled Jessica’s look of admiration the night before when she had hugged Kristana and Crys goodbye for the last time, keeping the tears away. She had been upset, and so she dealt with it. But now… She sighed. What was there to do now? She couldn’t just tie Heero to the bed. Things just didn’t work that way.

“Don’t cry, Danie,” he whispered. He took her into his arms. Danie felt him quiver. He was scared. In a way, it consoled her that she was going to be missed by him. But it was such a small consolation that it didn’t help much. She listened to the sound of his heartbeat, strong, steady, satisfying like the rest of him. She closed her eyes as he spoke to her, voice low and vibrating his chest.
“I know this is going to be hard for you, Danie,” he said, stroking her hair, “but it’s gonna be hard for me too. I just want you to know that I’ve deeply valued these last several weeks with you and everything you’ve done for me…” He broke off, and Danie could feel that his voice had caught in his throat. After a moment, he continued. “I will never forget the memorable moments we’ve created and shared, and I definitely won’t forget the face of my beautiful wife.”

Danie laughed through her tears. “Don’t you mean ‘the body of my beautiful wife’ Heero?”

Heero blushed a little for many obvious reasons. “Well, that too.” Then he smiled. She looked up at him and got a flashback she didn’t hesitate to share with him.

“Remember the black bikini incident on our honeymoon?” Heero laughed, sincerely ticked this time. “I still remember that rich man who wanted turn our honeymoon into a scene from Indecent Proposal.”

“What kept me from killing him, anyway?” Heero wondered aloud.

Danie grinned like the cat that ate the canary. “You don’t remember? Your memory is quite short, darling.”

Heero’s eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t tell me…” He paused for a moment. “That was the guy you spilled your drink all over and proceeded to take me back to our room looking like you were on a catwalk.”

“That’s the one!”

A moment later, after remembering the shocked look on the man’s face and the events in the hotel room afterward (events, Heero would protest while blushing furiously, that were all Danie’s fault), the newlyweds burst into hysterical laughter.

“How in the world did you fall so hard anyway?” Danie asked, still laughing. “I mean, one moment you were stalking around me about to have a conniption and next thing I know you’re on the floor looking at me with your eyes bugging out.” She giggled. “Not to mention the fact that you were wearing that stupid Hawaiian shirt…”

Heero looked indignant. “I thought you like that shirt! That’s the only reason why I wore it.”

“Oh.” Danie poked him. “But it still doesn’t explain the fact why you fell.”

“Well, one is bound to be shocked when he is arguing with his wife and she says, ‘Well, if I wanted to go off with him, then he’d get to have this’-and proceed to throw her bikini top at him.”

Danie giggled maddeningly. “Oh yeah. I forgot that part. So you had just cause then.”

“You’re damn right I did.” Heero grinned at her suggestively. He didn’t have to say anything. Danie knew what he was thinking. But then, as his smile faded into a regretful expression, she felt the hollowness come back. For an instant, they were normal, laughing and joking around like always. The dark cloud settled over them again. Danie hastily got out of bed.

“Where are you going?” Heero asked, feeling lonely even though she was in the room with him.

“There’s something I want to give you,” Danie explained. She reached into her shirt drawer and pulled out an envelope. She re-joined him in bed and gave it to him. “It’s like a little memory box thing but in an envelope. There’s a letter in there too. Don’t open it until…” She found that she couldn’t form the words with her mouth. Until you’re gone…

He stared at the envelope. Then he looked into her violet eyes. “I’ll read it every night before I go to sleep.”

Danie smiled. “Good.” Her smile faded as he dropped the envelope and kissed her passionately. She could feel the longing and the love in his lips and wanted to take his pain away. But she couldn’t. At least not at this moment.

“Are you sure I can’t go with you?” Danie murmured.

Heero laughed, but it was forced. “If you and I were alone together in another dimension with just a kid around, then we’d do nothing but–”

“Got the point, Yuy.” Her voice was wry but her eyes were sad. “Well then, just hold me. If I can’t go with you, then let’s make this last time special.”

Heero nodded, and he settled back into his special place, the only place he could call his own within her, hearing her sigh with half pleasure and half sadness. Until the sun blazed into their room, Heero took special care in letting his wife know that he would miss her immensely. And when it was all over, he silently moved away from her sleeping form with the envelope in his hand, the absence of her body leaving him cold. After dressing, he saw that she was still sleeping. He leaned over, catching her freesia scent, and kissed her lips one last time.

“Goodbye, Danie,” he whispered. “I love you.”

Somehow he got the strength to rise from the bed and walk away from the bed. After two feet, he turned and looked back at her. At first, he had been conflicted when telling her to go to sleep, but now he was glad she wasn’t awake. When she slept, everything was gone; in her dream world he was still there and he hoped that would help ease the pain. But there was another reason. He didn’t want her to see him cry.