PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This is something I wrote about a month ago and just never got around to posting. The recent story by Mika-chan, "A Thousand Cranes" reminded me of it, and since a few people were interested in the story surrounding Sembazuru (thousand cranes), I thought I'd go ahead and post this. This is in no way meant to infringe on Mika-chan's very wonderful story. ^__^

I've been into origami (the Japanese art of folding paper...oru-'to fold', kami-'paper') for several years, and have a few wonderful books on the subject. The information contained in this comes from a book by Eric Kenneway entitled: "Complete Origami". While I don't think the actual instructions for folding models are that great, the history contained therein makes it worth a look. ^__^

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters belongs to Bandai, Sunrise and Sotsu Agency and are only being used for non profit entertainment purposes.

16-Oct-2000

The house was motionless, had been motionless for days, filled to the brim with the deafening hum of silence. Not even the air seemed willing to move, all perhaps suspended in time by forces unknown and unseen by Man. To one occupant of the house, it was all very comforting. To the other, a bit maddening. Heero may have been enjoying the silence, but Quatre was finding it rather disturbing.

Lonely? He'd never *been* alone. He'd always had someone: his sisters first, the Maguanacs next, and now the other pilots...well, at the moment only Heero. But Heero wasn't proving to be much good in the companionship department. Oh, he'd talk all right...about mission plans, Gundam repairs, any *business* he could come up with.

The thing was, if Heero were really that single-minded, Quatre would have accepted him for who he was and not given it a second thought. But he could feel that Heero was so much more than he seemed...there was a real person in there somewhere. Someone who could laugh, cry, and love...why wouldn't he show Quatre that side of himself? What was he hiding?

He'd failed in so many attempts to draw the Japanese boy out into casual conversation it was pathetic. A lesser person would have given up by now...Quatre wasn't even *close* to admitting defeat. If he was anything, Quatre was persistent.

In the meantime, however, he needed something to occupy himself with. One could only do housework for so long before it became suspicious...he'd been mortified just yesterday when Heero had questioned him on why he'd polished the coffee table three times in a two-hour period. And that was *after* he'd had the floor wax hidden from him...something about slipping and a safety hazard.

So that was why, in part, Quatre found himself taking up an old, forgotten hobby. Heero was sure to question him about it...maybe *this* would lure the boy into a conversation. And then he could accomplish three goals at once: entertain himself, befriend Heero, and maybe something a little more grand...but that was probably too much to hope for.

Quatre didn't even jump when he heard Heero's voice from behind, even though he hadn't noticed the boy entering the room.

"What...are you doing?"

Was that curiosity in Heero's voice? This was going better than he'd thought it would.

"It's called origami. Surely you've heard of it...you are Japanese." Quatre continued folding as he spoke to the boy.

"No."

"Not even in school?"

"I never went to school."

"Really? Some people might think you were lucky. I didn't either...Father had private tutors come in."

"Why?"

"I'm not really sure, exactly. He didn't..."

"No, I mean, why are you doing this?" Heero raised his arm to indicate the table strewn with squares of paper and small bird-like figures.

"Oh...well, aside from the fact that it's relaxing and rather fun, you could say I'm doing it for peace." A small smile played at the corners of Quatre's mouth as he spoke, knowing full well that his statement begged *several* questions.

"I don't understand."

Extremely pleased at Heero's inquisitiveness, Quatre motioned to his left. "Why don't you sit down and I'll tell you about it?"

Heero didn't answer, but pulled out a chair and sat opposite the blonde.

"You are familiar with World War II?"

"Yes, I've studied every major conflict in recorded history."

Quatre smiled at that. "That's very impressive. History tends to be written around wars, doesn't it?"

Heero nodded once. Quatre was a little disappointed in the lack of response, but decided not to dwell on it.

With an elegant tilt of his neck, Quatre focused on the sheet of paper before him as he began. "The story goes that there was once a Japanese child, a little girl, who was orphaned by the bomb which fell on Hiroshima. She herself became a victim of radiation sickness. While she was in the hospital, she used the little pieces of paper that the staff wrapped her powdered medicines in to fold cranes."

As he finished, Quatre picked up one of his own creations, offering it to Heero. The Japanese boy took the model, eyeing it rather suspiciously. Quatre took up his story once more.

"The belief was that if she could fold one thousand cranes, her prayers would be answered, and she would recover. As time went on, and she saw other children in the ward begin to die and began to suspect that she was not destined to recover, she changed her prayer to one for universal peace."

Heero placed the model back on the table. "Did she succeed?"

Quatre glanced up at Heero, momentarily forgetting his model. "Well, that's a matter of opinion. The girl only managed to complete 644 cranes herself, before she died, but after her story was publicized, thousands of cranes were sent to Hiroshima, made by children all over Japan and the rest of the world. Since then, the crane has become somewhat of a symbol of peace."

Heero's voice was very quiet as he asked, "What was her name...the little girl?"

"Oh, I'm not sure if I remember, it's been a while since I read about this. Sadako, I believe. Sadako Sasaki. Yes, that's it."

"And you're doing *this* to end the war?"

Quatre released a long, drawn out sigh. "I don't know, Heero. It's something. I mean, I fight, even though I'm supposed to be a pacifist. If I could...I just thought that maybe I..." Quatre let his head fall, refocusing his gaze on his resting hands. "But I guess you're right. It's probably a silly fantasy, the delirious dream of a dying child."

Heero gave Quatre's pile of cranes, and then Quatre himself, one last glance before rising to his feet and heading out of the room. "I'm going to work on Wing."

Glumly, Quatre resumed folding the small sheet of paper he'd been working with before Heero's entrance. Another failure to add to a *very* long list. He'd try again tomorrow, but Heero was proving to be a greater challenge than he'd ever thought possible. Shifting slightly in his chair, Quatre returned to the task at hand. Just 975 more to go...

It had been a long day. No, scratch that. It had been a long week. Quatre had barely seen Heero in the past seven days. Add that to the fact that their three friends...well, *his* three friends, who knew *what* Heero thought of the other pilots...wouldn't be coming back for another 8-10 days, and Quatre was about ready to have a breakdown. He'd taken to folding models almost obsessively now, seeing how many he could make in an hour...going all-out, he could produce up to 20 in that amount of time.

He had a chronic pain in his shoulder from remaining hunched over all the time. Some nights found him working well into the morning hours...it was really hard to stop after a while. Maybe the girl *had* been right...maybe he could succeed where she had failed. 644...she'd only been able to make 644...he already had 399. Problem was, he was running out of paper. He'd long since used up his stash of proper origami paper *and* all the plain white sheets he'd trimmed to the correct shape. Well, he'd never liked this particular book much any way...a few snips of his scissors and he was ready to go.

The day had not gone well at all. It had started out fine...good, in fact. Heero had put in an appearance in the kitchen. Not that he'd *spoken* to Quatre, but it was still nice to see him. Yes, that had been the high point of the day. The low point came later that afternoon. He'd stopped to make himself a sandwich for lunch. In the process of slicing a tomato, he'd cut his left index finger...deeply. That had ended his origami career for a while. 450 cranes, and it had all been for nothing? Poor, useless Quatre...really pathetic.

As he walked to his bedroom, retiring for the evening at the earliest hour that he had in quite a while, Quatre kept turning it all over in his mind. How could he have been so careless? Cutting his finger...what kind of idiot was he? Now it would never happen...not that it would have in the first place, but still... Peace was just a dream...how foolish. It had taken death to stop the child...to stop him, it only took a small flesh wound. Truly, truly pathetic.

Opening his door, Quatre stepped inside, leaning back again the wood as he pulled it to behind him. He was so exhausted, so very, very tired. Really, he just wanted sleep. The room was dark, and rather than risk tripping over something (after slicing his finger, he had lost all confidence in his coordination), Quatre flipped the light switch.

It took a few moments for the sight before him to fully sink in. They were everywhere, covering the bed, the dresser, and the desk...any flat surface in the room entirely utilized. Quatre was surrounded in reds, blues, greens, golds, purples...an overwhelmingly vivid display. How had they gotten in here? Who had brought them? Why was his bedroom nearly filled to the very rafters with tiny paper cranes? There looked to be hundreds of them...there may even have been...a thousand.

Quatre had been so enthralled with his surroundings that he had failed to notice the figure leaning against the far right-hand wall. Heero lightly cleared his throat, drawing the blonde's attention.

Still too shocked to even register surprise at Heero's presence, Quatre mumbled the first thing that popped into his mind. "What's going on?"

"I thought I'd give this a try."

Quatre couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "You...you made these? For me?"

With no inflection to his voice, Heero replied, "I made these."

Not knowing how to respond, Quatre went to his bed and retrieved one of the larger red cranes. Holding it up to the light, he examined it critically for a moment. "You did a really good job on these...how did you..."A thought occurred to him mid-sentence. "You figured out how to make these just by looking at mine?" Quatre had to admit that he was surprised, but then realized, with no small amount of admiration, that he shouldn't have been.

"It's a relatively simple concept." As if single-handedly deciding their conversation was over, Heero leaned away from the wall and headed for the door.

Quatre didn't want him to leave, not just yet. Almost frantically, the blonde called out, "Heero! Why did you do this? Why did you make these for me?"

Having reached the door, Heero grasped the knob and lowered his head, staring intently at his own hand. "Who said I made them for you?" he asked softly.

Quatre was undeterred. "Then why bring them to my room?"

"I didn't know what else to do with them...I thought you might."

"You haven't explained why, Heero."

Heero still didn't turn around. "I...I knew a little girl once, briefly. She...they all deserve better than this." Very quietly he added, "Maybe we all do."

Coming up from behind, Quatre laid a slight hand on Heero's shoulder. "That's a very beautiful thought, Heero."

Letting his hand fall away from the doorknob, the Japanese boy turned towards Quatre, an indiscernible quality to his deep blue eyes. "You're the one with beautiful thoughts, Quatre. You're the one who's beau..." Quickly turning back to the door, Heero continued. "I hope you never lose that."

Quatre wanted to hug the boy, prevent him from leaving the room, to somehow thank him for such a tender gesture, but it just didn't seem appropriate. With a deep regret, he withdrew his hand, freeing Heero. "Thank you." He said simply.

Slowly walking through the door, Heero's final words trailed behind him. "I didn't wish for universal peace, Quatre...I wished that all your dreams would come true. I have more faith in that than peace."

Heero's words coursing through his body and heading straight for his heart, Quatre rushed forward into the hallway, grabbing the boy from behind in a fierce hug, burying his face in the middle of Heero's back. "Oh Heero...dreams are...dream are useless fantasies without some way of putting them into action. That's why I fight, Heero, that's why."

Though he made no move to return the embrace, Heero's voice seemed rather thick as he made his reply. "Then we will continue."

The End