Sapphire Eyes

Chapter 4: Come Back to Me

By: Liewe

Standard disclaimers apply, I don’t own the gang from Gundam Wing, but Yanisha is my character and she’s based on my late Great Aunt.

He watched the horizon, his clouded eyes searching for any sign of their return. He was worried, they had been gone a long time, and it was easy to get lost in the desert when one did not know their way.

“Master Quatre?”

“Yes, Auda,” Quatre asked, not turning to look at his Fez wearing companion.

“The sun is beginning to set,” Auda said, Quatre’s coat in hand. “The temperatures will be dropping soon.”

“I know.”

“Would you like your coat Master,” Auda said offering the item as his eyes traveled to the horizon, which Quatre was watching so intently.

“Thank you,” came the absent minded reply as Quatre reached for the coat, his eyes not leaving their spot of fixation.

Auda sighed as he turned to leave, his urge to protect the young master moving into overdrive as he noticed the first signs of love. That woman, Noin, she held his heart, and she didn’t even know it. When she had appeared with Yanisha, Quatre had changed, he had become slightly unsure of himself, and edgy.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“We need to do some shopping, we’ll be back in a few hours,” Yanisha’s melodic voice said as she positioned herself into the Jeep.

“Would you like an escort, Yanisha? I could send one of the Maganac’s with you,” Quatre asked his voice ringed with concern.

“We’ll be fine,” Yanisha assured.

“The desert sands shift with the wind,” Quatre cautioned softly his eyes filled with worry.

“We have the GPS tracker and I have complete faith in Noin,” Yanisha said with a wink as she and Noin took off for the nearest town, the GPS tracker silently showing them the way.

“What if something happens,” Quatre, asked the shifting desert as he watched them disappear.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“I should never of let them go alone,” Quatre said to the coming night, jumping as a large hand rested on his shoulder.

“You should not worry Master Quatre,” the booming voice of Rashid assured his kind face looking silhouetted against the twilight sky.

“They don’t know the desert, they can’t feel it as it shifts,” Quatre said with a sigh as a strong hand moved to brush his golden bangs from his eyes.

“You should have more trust in Mistress Yanisha, and your friend, they can take of themselves,” Rashid assured as he took up vigil with his anxious master.

Quatre only nodded, his hunched shoulders lifting slightly when the faintest signs of a dust trail began to emerge on the horizon of the azure sky. He watched apprehensively, as the dust cloud became more and more apparent.

A sparkle came to his eyes as he waited with bated breath, a black speck moving across the white desert sands, heading towards them. His excitement turned to irritation at the thought of what they’d done to him. The worry they had put him through, the heartache, and they’d only been gone for half a day? What would happen in future, would he go completely insane?

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are you alright Noin,” Yanisha asked, her keen eyes taking in the ashen color of Noin’s face as the other woman ground her teeth in pain.

“I should be asking you that,” Noin exclaimed quickly checking over her shoulder to the still horizon.

“Pah!! I’m fine you dealt with that scoundrel before he could lay a finger on my head. You know that! But I can’t say the same for you, that’s a rather angry looking wound. Maybe you should worry about that, before you start worrying about yourself,” Yanisha said softly as they neared the encampment her kind eyes softening with concern for her newest friend.

“Yanisha, I am your bodyguard, a fact which you often forget, but it’s my duty to protect you, your life and your well being comes before mine,” Noin snapped as she let out a weary sigh, a blood stained hand moving to brush her onyx locks back from her field of vision.

“I’d rather think of you as a friend Noin, and maybe as the daughter I never had, but I could never bear to think that your light had been extinguished in exchange for mine. A crazy old hag that never learned the value of love until it was too late!” Yanisha said softly, her mind far away as the words fell from her lips.

“Yanisha?”

“All I’m saying is that you mustn’t throw love away, it needs to be cultivated without care it will whither and die. And if at all possible keep yourself alive, I would hate to lose such a friend as I have found in you,” Yanisha said softly, her face grave.

Noin didn’t say anything in return Yanisha’s words on love had touched a spot hidden in her heart, one that she had hidden since the day she had discovered the full extent of Zechs’ betrayal. A part which had once again tried to stir when she had first laid eyes on Quatre, his kind angelic smile and sapphire eyes.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Quatre closed his sapphire eyes as he clutched at his chest as he waited and the feeling of dread grew. When the pain had first begun, it had been niggling, and as time progressed the pain had grown from a faint niggling to a constant ache.

“Something happened,” Quatre said his voice stronger than before as he bit back a gasp of pain, his coat swirling around him in the sudden desert wind.

Tears of pain, and despair began to spill unheeded down his cheeks, pooling on his lashes before making their descent as the night sky illuminated the scene. He didn’t notice as Rashid moved to leave, his trusted bodyguard leaving the young master to his thoughts and musings. The trail of dust grew larger with each passing minute, the speck that made the trail growing larger as well. Every once in a while the vehicle would swerve ever so erratically the movements plain to the straining sapphire eyes intently watching.

His hands found themselves in fists as he unknowingly gritted his pearly teeth in anticipation. A headache blossoming from the stress of the situation, unwittingly his gift was being used for a purpose he hadn’t known it existed. To see things at such a distance without aid would have usually been an impossibility, but bound by blood as he was to Yanisha, he was afforded a glimpse of her as she edged closer and closer to their destination. A skeptic would have snorted at such a possibility; a skeptic also would not have believed that the gift, which Quatre possessed, could be used for such a function.

The sound of dogs as they played tore his attention from his long kept vigil, his sapphire eyes turning towards the sound of play. A sound, which reminded him of the childhood, he could have had if it had not been for the ambitions of man, and the tortures of war. He was hit with the flash of memory from his time in the hands of Oz soldiers, their orders to end his life. He remembered running across the shifting sands the dogs in his wake as Heero watched with the eyes of an eagle, never messing a moment’s movement.

The sound of tires muffled by leagues of fine desert sand shifting like the sand in an ancient hourglass brought his attention back to the moment and he could only gasp as he glanced Noin’s wan visage as she pulled herself from the Jeep. It seemed that time had passed more quickly for lack of his watchful eye, his vigil delaying the inevitable not bringing it closer as he had wished. As crimson caught his eye when Yanisha hurried to Noin’s side his fury broke free, masking the worry, which had etched itself into his soul.

“What happened,” his melodic voice snapped, his words harsh as he rushed forward shedding the paralysis, which the vision of Noin’s pale face had brought.

“We were surprised by some old friends of mine,” Yanisha said with a grim smile as she allowed the taller woman, her bodyguard, to lean against her as they shuffled towards the nearest tent. “Noin hear nipped the problem in the bud before it could get out of hand.”

“It seems as if she were not entirely successful in her quest,” came the sharp words as Quatre moved to the side allowing the two woman past him as he watched them with eyes which did not miss a thing, eyes reminiscent of an eagle scouring the sky for his prey.

“There numbers were large, but I agree with you, they got entirely too close to Yanisha. Years of peace have made me soft,” Noin said with a disgusted sigh at herself as she used Yanisha like a crutch, the older woman supporting the younger as they moved with swift steps to the awaiting tent in which Noin’s wounds would be looked to by one of the many Maganac guards.

“Oh yes Noin, that young gentleman, he got within ten feet, much to close for comfort,” Yanisha chided her wounded friend with a chuckle as Quatre and his fury were ignored.

“You are joking about this?” He asked with incredulity, hardly believing what he heard.

“Noin isn’t, but I am. Why not, it’s good for the soul or have you forgotten how to look on the lighter side of things dear nephew,” Yanisha asked with a secretive smile, her silver tinged hair disappearing behind the flapping edges of the canvas tent.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The flaxen haired gentleman watched the stars as they passed them by in the speeding shuttle, his mind on the gentle smile of the woman who had always held his heart. He had tried to drown his sorrows in the bottles of Wild Turkey, which seemed to litter his domicile, the home they had once shared. The empty rooms had only served to further irritate his pain, rubbing salt in his open wound. He had tried to loose himself in the affections of other woman, the tactic which he had used to drive her away, he could not help from comparing their wench like ways to her noble manner.

“Did I do right by you Noin? Are you happier now?” He asked the empty shuttle, only the ticking of computers answering his heartfelt question.

A strong hand moved to twist the silver band which adorned his ring finger, a ring which he had taken pains to hide through those long months when he wished to drive Noin from their home. To break her heart for her own good or so he had told himself. But had he been scared? The emotions which she brought forth from his heart had overwhelmed him many a time, was it best to leave things as they were, or should he try to smooth things over with her. To ease the lines of battle which he had drawn.

The ring was beautifully etched with entwining vines, a short inscription in Spanish, the language, which he had always felt, most identified with his soul and his fiery Italian lover. /Siempre contar conmigo/ You can always count on me, but he had failed her, she couldn’t count on him, but he had counted on her.

“Did I do the right thing? Can I ever be forgiven?” He asked the stars wishing for the answer, which could not be given to his pleading heart.

~*~*~*~*~*~

-To Be Continued…