Disclaimer: I never claim to own anything but plot line. Story plotline, not the show;)
Author's Notes: I posted the first two chapters of this right as this site went completely nuts, so I'm posting it again so I could change the title and fix a few things;) I hope you enjoy; it's a story I'm having a lot of fun telling.
Dedication: This whole story is for my Daddy, even though he'll never really know;) He is my hero, having served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the mid 1960's. A painful part of his life, but one that he has shared with me. I love you, Daddy.
****
Some Kind of Wonderful
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"And when I touch you, I feel happy inside...it's such a feeling that my love...I can't hide...I can't hide." -The Beatles
****
Peacecraft, North Carolina
April 1965
"And at the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded, #01 steps up to the plate." From the little booth high over the screaming crowd of fans, the announcer continued. "Heero Yuy, graduating senior and captain of the varsity baseball team has certainly lived up to his number in this, his last season, with nine home runs. Can he make it ten to round off his high school career?"
"Yes, he can!" A feminine voice, drowned out by her classmates, answered the announcer with much indignation. "Come on, Heero!! You can do it!! Home run!"
Someone tugged at the bottom of her skirt. "Sit down, Relena. You're blocking about five people behind you."
Relena Peacecraft looked down at her best friend, hands propped on her cinched waist. "Hilde, if it were Duo up to bat, nothing short of a nuclear attack could keep you in your seat."
"True." With a little sigh, Hilde stood up and brushed off the back of her tight, cropped blue jeans. "All right, Heero!" she cried, clapping her hands. "Take it all the way!!"
Down on the field, Heero Yuy swung two bats back and forth, testing their weight. After a moment, he tossed one aside and shook out his arms. Suddenly, he heard the umpire call a time out.
His best friend, Duo Maxwell, jogged over to him from the home team dugout. "Heero, man!"
"What's going on? Why the time-out?" Heero demanded as soon as Duo was within hearing distance.
The other boy clapped a hand onto Heero's shoulder. "Lots of pressure from Coach back there. And from everyone up there..." He glanced back at the crowd. It didn't take long for him to spot the two people he was looking for, the fresh-faced blonde in a sweater set and the dark pixie in denim. "With Relena watching and all...I wanted you to take a minute to get your shit together."
Heero's eyes followed Duo's gaze until he spotted his long-time girlfriend. A smile nearly touched his lips to see her clapping madly, smiling at him like no one else in the world could. He looked back at Duo. "I don't need a minute. If I strike out, I strike out. Life will go on."
Duo caught him by the sleeve of his jersey before he could walk back to the plate. "You sure? What about NC State? The scholarship?"
"We'll find out soon." Heero signaled to the umpire to end the time-out. "Won't we?"
"He's ready now. Heero Yuy, at the plate, batting for Peacecraft High for the last time. Here's the pitch..." The announcer drew in a breath. "And it's in the dirt. Ball one."
Back in the dugout, Duo chewed on his thumbnail. "Come on, man..."
"The pitcher winds....Yuy swings..." The announcer's voice raised to a feverish pitch. "What a hit!!!! Oh, sweet Lord, did you see that?! It's over the fence!! Home run number ten for number zero-one, Heero Yuy!!"
Relena was already on feet when Heero sent his bat swinging the final time. She heard the wood smack against the hard ball; the crack was like lightning. Her eyes followed the ball as it sailed in a high arch across the players before falling back to the earth on the other side of the field's fence.
She let out a loud cry as her boyfriend began running, without even waiting to see where the ball had gone. "Heero!!" she cried with as much feeling as her slender body could produce. Beside her, Hilde jumped up and down on the wooden stands.
"All right!! Way to fucking go, Heero!!!" Duo ripped the baseball cap off his head and joined his teammates in screaming on their captain as he reached first base. "Hope you were watching that, Mr. State Recruiter!"
By the time Heero approached second base, he had slowed down considerably. The roar of the crowd was enough to tell him that he had done it; running the bases was merely a formality now. He shook his head as he jogged, unable to hold back a smile. When he crossed over the home plate, the cheering picked up again, reaching a new level of sound and fury.
Heero was unaware of his teammates, gathering around him. He couldn't hear Duo yelling congratulations and explicatives in his ear. He didn't even notice that he had been lifted off the ground and was being carried around the field. His focus was completely on the girl in the middle of the crowd, staring back at him with pride and joy. His girl for as long as he could remember.
****
"I can't believe we're fucking graduating tomorrow."
Relena, ignoring the curse word, reached across the diner table to pat Duo's head. "It'll be all right, Duo. Remember this time last year? You were convinced we'd never make it to tomorrow night. And we have." Under the Formica table top, Heero's hand gently squeezed hers.
"The prom queen has spoken." Hilde licked a spot of milkshake off her full lower lip and smiled at her boyfriend. There was no bitterness in her voice; she had headed the campaign to get Relena voted. "What does the prom king have to say about it all?"
Heero untangled his fingers from Relena's to rake his bangs off his forehead. "About all of what?"
Duo answered for his girlfriend, gesturing widely with a cold french fry. "Graduation, baseball scholarships..." He looked meaningfully at his best friend. "Wedding bells?"
Flushing a dark pink, Relena looked down at her plate. "Duo..."
Her boyfriend cleared his throat. "Let's just get through graduation first, okay?"
Hilde came to the couple's rescue by yanking on her boyfriend's long braid of hair. "You forgot Hollywood for me." She threw her head back into a dramatic pose.
"For a good reason." Duo's smile morphed into a scowl. "I still don't want you to go."
Sensing a long-fought argument re-surfacing, Relena looked at Heero. "I need to be home in an hour or else my brother will be coming after me."
He nodded and stood up, reaching into the pocket of his dark pants for money to cover their dinner. As Relena eased out of the booth, the discussion over Hilde's post-graduation plans escalated. "It's so far away, babe!" Duo's voice held equal parts worry and anger.
"Exactly!" Hilde replied. "I have to get out of this town, Duo, or else I'll go crazy!"
"But I'm in this town!" he protested.
Relena threaded her arm through Heero's and shot the couple a sympathetic look. "Bye, you two." She gave them a little wave which they didn't notice as Heero escorted her out of the packed diner.
There were a lot of approving looks and shouts of congratulations as Heero opened the passenger's side door of the 1959 Cadillac he had slaved every summer for three years to buy. Relena slid into the car and waited a moment until Heero was behind the wheel. She didn't have to ask where they were going. With an hour until she was due at home, a short stop at Pinnacle Park was on both their minds.
****
Heero had first laid eyes on Relena Peacecraft, the only daughter of the town's founding family, when he was eight years old. He and his mother, having lost William Yuy only five months earlier, moved to Peacecraft, North Carolina to start a new life in the house that just happened to be next door to hers.
His father's death had hit Heero hard. He had refused to go to school, prompting the move and the change in scenery. That Sunday, in the early spring of 1955, Heero was scheduled to start school at Peacecraft Elementary the next day. He was already planning how to skip out.
The best place to think was at the top of a good climbing tree. His old house in New York had been home to just such a tree, and the only redeeming feature of the new house was that it did, too. Still in his Sunday suit, Heero made a beeline for the tree and began climbing.
He was a third of the way up when the branches became much thinner. He didn't know what kind of tree he was climbing, but it was very different than the one in New York. Heero looked down at the ground, seemingly miles away. Common sense compelled him to descend to a safer level. But the limbs above beckoned, and he answered.
Heero lost his footing when he was halfway up the fifteen foot tree. He didn't cry out as he fell; several branches helped break his fall. The ground was a like a slap to his small body, and for a long moment, he couldn't move.
The next thing he was aware of was a little voice calling out to him. "Are you all right?! Can you hear me?"
He cracked an eye open. Through the grass that pressed against his cheek, he could just make out a tiny person in a pink organdy dress. His lip curled up in disgust. It was a girl who had come to his rescue.
She didn't wait for his reply and the next thing he knew, she was kneeling next to him on the grass, mindless of her dress and started tugging at his shoulders, as if to flip him over. "Say something!" she ordered him. When he didn't reply, she stood up. "I'm going to get a grown-up!"
Heero's arm shot out and grabbed the white ruffle on her ankle sock. "I'm okay." He dragged himself off the ground and shook out his little arms. "Don't worry about me."
The girl's blue eyes were wide and wet. "I thought you were dead!" She sniffed. "I should still get my Daddy to..."
"Only babies and girls run to the grown-ups." Heero crossed his arms over his grass-stained suit.
Something in the look she gave him managed to put a small crack in the shell his father's long illness and death had created around him. "But I am a girl," she had whispered.
From that day on, Heero's mission in life had been to take care of his rescuer, the girl next door, not because she was just a girl, but because she was *his* girl. And he had no problems with school from then on; school-time was just more time spent with Relena.
In the years that followed, she would become his playmate, his confidante until the turbulence of adolescence formed a thin barrier between them and they each sought out friends of their own sex. Then, she became the object of his innocent desires and fantasies. His girlfriend. He had held her hand through the tragic car accident that had claimed both of her parents; she had been by his side through a painful appendectomy. They were inseparable. In Peacecraft, it was hard to mention one of their names without mentioning the other.
****
Their first kiss had been at the exact spot he now pulled his car into, only five years earlier on a picnic blanket. Still thinking of the past, Heero put the car into park, leaving the engine running for the radio.
A moment passed as he watched his girlfriend twist the radio's dial to find a suitable station. In truth, Heero could have stared at her for hours and been completely happy. She had grown from a precocious child to a graceful girl and then, into a beautiful woman. Her long, blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, revealing her slender neck. The sweater she wore was conservative, her older brother wouldn't let her out of the house any other way, but the material clung to her full breasts and small waist in away that made his head spin.
When she found what she was looking for, a song from the new Beatles band, Relena turned to Heero and smiled. "Have I told you how proud I was of you today?"
He reached across the wide front seat to stroke her soft cheek. "I saw you up there in the stands. It helped more than you can ever know."
Relena closed her eyes at the touch of his fingers. "Heero," she whispered.
Edging towards her, Heero continued. "You looked so beautiful tonight..." His fingers trailed down the line of her throat.
She drew in a breath and forced her eyes open. "The recruiter from...NC State. Will you find out tomorrow...at graduation?"
Heero's knee touched hers. Without anymore waiting, he took her lips in a deep kiss. A little whimper escaped from her as she gave in and kissed him back. Heero's mouth was hot and familiar; she loved kissing him. She savored the feeling of his strong hand cupping her breast through her clothes.
In the last few months of their senior year, she had progressed to letting him unbutton her blouse. Now as they kissed, his hand quickly slipped into her shirt and unfastened the hook of her bra with no small amount of dexterity.
"Heero," she murmured. His touch was so wonderful. Forbidden and all-too sweet. In response, he dropped his kisses down to her neck, pushing the cups of her bra down until her breasts were bared to his hungry stare.
This was new territory for both of them, charted only since the night of their senior prom. The pleasure she had felt that night when his lips teased her nipples was enough to squelch any protests from her conscience. She arched her back slightly as his mouth closed over one taut bud. "Oh god..."
Heero carefully angled his body as he continued, to keep his hard flesh from being noticed. The few times she had felt him against her thigh had only startled her. All he wanted was for her to be comfortable and if that meant his own discomfort, so be it.
Thirty minutes later, all that his efforts had done was raise both of their passions to a level of supreme frustration. Heero held Relena against his shoulder, running his fingers up and down her silky back. She turned her face into his neck, pressing her breasts into his chest. "I love you, Heero."
He pressed his lips to her temple. "And I...adore you."
There was a long pause. Relena swallowed. If there was ever a time for Heero to propose marriage, this would be it. She breathed in the clean scent of his after-game shower. It wasn't as though the idea was far-fetched. They had talked about the future when he would be a student at NC State on his baseball scholarship. She had even applied to the school herself, but once they were married, there would be no need for her attend classes. Everything was in line for them. All he had to do was ask.
But the question never came. Heero pulled back and gave her a soft kiss as he tugged her bra back up her arms. "I think I'll get you home with a few minutes to spare."
Relena attempted a smile as she fixed her clothes. "Millardo will be very happy. He's been really upset the last few times. Especially prom night."
Heero resettled himself behind the wheel, ignoring his throbbing lap. When they were on the road again, heading for their street, he reached for her left hand. She looked down, then over at him, a pure smile back on her slightly swollen lips.
Marriage would come. They had their whole lives.
****
TBC
Author's Notes: I posted the first two chapters of this right as this site went completely nuts, so I'm posting it again so I could change the title and fix a few things;) I hope you enjoy; it's a story I'm having a lot of fun telling.
Dedication: This whole story is for my Daddy, even though he'll never really know;) He is my hero, having served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the mid 1960's. A painful part of his life, but one that he has shared with me. I love you, Daddy.
****
Some Kind of Wonderful
by Kristen Elizabeth
****
"And when I touch you, I feel happy inside...it's such a feeling that my love...I can't hide...I can't hide." -The Beatles
****
Peacecraft, North Carolina
April 1965
"And at the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded, #01 steps up to the plate." From the little booth high over the screaming crowd of fans, the announcer continued. "Heero Yuy, graduating senior and captain of the varsity baseball team has certainly lived up to his number in this, his last season, with nine home runs. Can he make it ten to round off his high school career?"
"Yes, he can!" A feminine voice, drowned out by her classmates, answered the announcer with much indignation. "Come on, Heero!! You can do it!! Home run!"
Someone tugged at the bottom of her skirt. "Sit down, Relena. You're blocking about five people behind you."
Relena Peacecraft looked down at her best friend, hands propped on her cinched waist. "Hilde, if it were Duo up to bat, nothing short of a nuclear attack could keep you in your seat."
"True." With a little sigh, Hilde stood up and brushed off the back of her tight, cropped blue jeans. "All right, Heero!" she cried, clapping her hands. "Take it all the way!!"
Down on the field, Heero Yuy swung two bats back and forth, testing their weight. After a moment, he tossed one aside and shook out his arms. Suddenly, he heard the umpire call a time out.
His best friend, Duo Maxwell, jogged over to him from the home team dugout. "Heero, man!"
"What's going on? Why the time-out?" Heero demanded as soon as Duo was within hearing distance.
The other boy clapped a hand onto Heero's shoulder. "Lots of pressure from Coach back there. And from everyone up there..." He glanced back at the crowd. It didn't take long for him to spot the two people he was looking for, the fresh-faced blonde in a sweater set and the dark pixie in denim. "With Relena watching and all...I wanted you to take a minute to get your shit together."
Heero's eyes followed Duo's gaze until he spotted his long-time girlfriend. A smile nearly touched his lips to see her clapping madly, smiling at him like no one else in the world could. He looked back at Duo. "I don't need a minute. If I strike out, I strike out. Life will go on."
Duo caught him by the sleeve of his jersey before he could walk back to the plate. "You sure? What about NC State? The scholarship?"
"We'll find out soon." Heero signaled to the umpire to end the time-out. "Won't we?"
"He's ready now. Heero Yuy, at the plate, batting for Peacecraft High for the last time. Here's the pitch..." The announcer drew in a breath. "And it's in the dirt. Ball one."
Back in the dugout, Duo chewed on his thumbnail. "Come on, man..."
"The pitcher winds....Yuy swings..." The announcer's voice raised to a feverish pitch. "What a hit!!!! Oh, sweet Lord, did you see that?! It's over the fence!! Home run number ten for number zero-one, Heero Yuy!!"
Relena was already on feet when Heero sent his bat swinging the final time. She heard the wood smack against the hard ball; the crack was like lightning. Her eyes followed the ball as it sailed in a high arch across the players before falling back to the earth on the other side of the field's fence.
She let out a loud cry as her boyfriend began running, without even waiting to see where the ball had gone. "Heero!!" she cried with as much feeling as her slender body could produce. Beside her, Hilde jumped up and down on the wooden stands.
"All right!! Way to fucking go, Heero!!!" Duo ripped the baseball cap off his head and joined his teammates in screaming on their captain as he reached first base. "Hope you were watching that, Mr. State Recruiter!"
By the time Heero approached second base, he had slowed down considerably. The roar of the crowd was enough to tell him that he had done it; running the bases was merely a formality now. He shook his head as he jogged, unable to hold back a smile. When he crossed over the home plate, the cheering picked up again, reaching a new level of sound and fury.
Heero was unaware of his teammates, gathering around him. He couldn't hear Duo yelling congratulations and explicatives in his ear. He didn't even notice that he had been lifted off the ground and was being carried around the field. His focus was completely on the girl in the middle of the crowd, staring back at him with pride and joy. His girl for as long as he could remember.
****
"I can't believe we're fucking graduating tomorrow."
Relena, ignoring the curse word, reached across the diner table to pat Duo's head. "It'll be all right, Duo. Remember this time last year? You were convinced we'd never make it to tomorrow night. And we have." Under the Formica table top, Heero's hand gently squeezed hers.
"The prom queen has spoken." Hilde licked a spot of milkshake off her full lower lip and smiled at her boyfriend. There was no bitterness in her voice; she had headed the campaign to get Relena voted. "What does the prom king have to say about it all?"
Heero untangled his fingers from Relena's to rake his bangs off his forehead. "About all of what?"
Duo answered for his girlfriend, gesturing widely with a cold french fry. "Graduation, baseball scholarships..." He looked meaningfully at his best friend. "Wedding bells?"
Flushing a dark pink, Relena looked down at her plate. "Duo..."
Her boyfriend cleared his throat. "Let's just get through graduation first, okay?"
Hilde came to the couple's rescue by yanking on her boyfriend's long braid of hair. "You forgot Hollywood for me." She threw her head back into a dramatic pose.
"For a good reason." Duo's smile morphed into a scowl. "I still don't want you to go."
Sensing a long-fought argument re-surfacing, Relena looked at Heero. "I need to be home in an hour or else my brother will be coming after me."
He nodded and stood up, reaching into the pocket of his dark pants for money to cover their dinner. As Relena eased out of the booth, the discussion over Hilde's post-graduation plans escalated. "It's so far away, babe!" Duo's voice held equal parts worry and anger.
"Exactly!" Hilde replied. "I have to get out of this town, Duo, or else I'll go crazy!"
"But I'm in this town!" he protested.
Relena threaded her arm through Heero's and shot the couple a sympathetic look. "Bye, you two." She gave them a little wave which they didn't notice as Heero escorted her out of the packed diner.
There were a lot of approving looks and shouts of congratulations as Heero opened the passenger's side door of the 1959 Cadillac he had slaved every summer for three years to buy. Relena slid into the car and waited a moment until Heero was behind the wheel. She didn't have to ask where they were going. With an hour until she was due at home, a short stop at Pinnacle Park was on both their minds.
****
Heero had first laid eyes on Relena Peacecraft, the only daughter of the town's founding family, when he was eight years old. He and his mother, having lost William Yuy only five months earlier, moved to Peacecraft, North Carolina to start a new life in the house that just happened to be next door to hers.
His father's death had hit Heero hard. He had refused to go to school, prompting the move and the change in scenery. That Sunday, in the early spring of 1955, Heero was scheduled to start school at Peacecraft Elementary the next day. He was already planning how to skip out.
The best place to think was at the top of a good climbing tree. His old house in New York had been home to just such a tree, and the only redeeming feature of the new house was that it did, too. Still in his Sunday suit, Heero made a beeline for the tree and began climbing.
He was a third of the way up when the branches became much thinner. He didn't know what kind of tree he was climbing, but it was very different than the one in New York. Heero looked down at the ground, seemingly miles away. Common sense compelled him to descend to a safer level. But the limbs above beckoned, and he answered.
Heero lost his footing when he was halfway up the fifteen foot tree. He didn't cry out as he fell; several branches helped break his fall. The ground was a like a slap to his small body, and for a long moment, he couldn't move.
The next thing he was aware of was a little voice calling out to him. "Are you all right?! Can you hear me?"
He cracked an eye open. Through the grass that pressed against his cheek, he could just make out a tiny person in a pink organdy dress. His lip curled up in disgust. It was a girl who had come to his rescue.
She didn't wait for his reply and the next thing he knew, she was kneeling next to him on the grass, mindless of her dress and started tugging at his shoulders, as if to flip him over. "Say something!" she ordered him. When he didn't reply, she stood up. "I'm going to get a grown-up!"
Heero's arm shot out and grabbed the white ruffle on her ankle sock. "I'm okay." He dragged himself off the ground and shook out his little arms. "Don't worry about me."
The girl's blue eyes were wide and wet. "I thought you were dead!" She sniffed. "I should still get my Daddy to..."
"Only babies and girls run to the grown-ups." Heero crossed his arms over his grass-stained suit.
Something in the look she gave him managed to put a small crack in the shell his father's long illness and death had created around him. "But I am a girl," she had whispered.
From that day on, Heero's mission in life had been to take care of his rescuer, the girl next door, not because she was just a girl, but because she was *his* girl. And he had no problems with school from then on; school-time was just more time spent with Relena.
In the years that followed, she would become his playmate, his confidante until the turbulence of adolescence formed a thin barrier between them and they each sought out friends of their own sex. Then, she became the object of his innocent desires and fantasies. His girlfriend. He had held her hand through the tragic car accident that had claimed both of her parents; she had been by his side through a painful appendectomy. They were inseparable. In Peacecraft, it was hard to mention one of their names without mentioning the other.
****
Their first kiss had been at the exact spot he now pulled his car into, only five years earlier on a picnic blanket. Still thinking of the past, Heero put the car into park, leaving the engine running for the radio.
A moment passed as he watched his girlfriend twist the radio's dial to find a suitable station. In truth, Heero could have stared at her for hours and been completely happy. She had grown from a precocious child to a graceful girl and then, into a beautiful woman. Her long, blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, revealing her slender neck. The sweater she wore was conservative, her older brother wouldn't let her out of the house any other way, but the material clung to her full breasts and small waist in away that made his head spin.
When she found what she was looking for, a song from the new Beatles band, Relena turned to Heero and smiled. "Have I told you how proud I was of you today?"
He reached across the wide front seat to stroke her soft cheek. "I saw you up there in the stands. It helped more than you can ever know."
Relena closed her eyes at the touch of his fingers. "Heero," she whispered.
Edging towards her, Heero continued. "You looked so beautiful tonight..." His fingers trailed down the line of her throat.
She drew in a breath and forced her eyes open. "The recruiter from...NC State. Will you find out tomorrow...at graduation?"
Heero's knee touched hers. Without anymore waiting, he took her lips in a deep kiss. A little whimper escaped from her as she gave in and kissed him back. Heero's mouth was hot and familiar; she loved kissing him. She savored the feeling of his strong hand cupping her breast through her clothes.
In the last few months of their senior year, she had progressed to letting him unbutton her blouse. Now as they kissed, his hand quickly slipped into her shirt and unfastened the hook of her bra with no small amount of dexterity.
"Heero," she murmured. His touch was so wonderful. Forbidden and all-too sweet. In response, he dropped his kisses down to her neck, pushing the cups of her bra down until her breasts were bared to his hungry stare.
This was new territory for both of them, charted only since the night of their senior prom. The pleasure she had felt that night when his lips teased her nipples was enough to squelch any protests from her conscience. She arched her back slightly as his mouth closed over one taut bud. "Oh god..."
Heero carefully angled his body as he continued, to keep his hard flesh from being noticed. The few times she had felt him against her thigh had only startled her. All he wanted was for her to be comfortable and if that meant his own discomfort, so be it.
Thirty minutes later, all that his efforts had done was raise both of their passions to a level of supreme frustration. Heero held Relena against his shoulder, running his fingers up and down her silky back. She turned her face into his neck, pressing her breasts into his chest. "I love you, Heero."
He pressed his lips to her temple. "And I...adore you."
There was a long pause. Relena swallowed. If there was ever a time for Heero to propose marriage, this would be it. She breathed in the clean scent of his after-game shower. It wasn't as though the idea was far-fetched. They had talked about the future when he would be a student at NC State on his baseball scholarship. She had even applied to the school herself, but once they were married, there would be no need for her attend classes. Everything was in line for them. All he had to do was ask.
But the question never came. Heero pulled back and gave her a soft kiss as he tugged her bra back up her arms. "I think I'll get you home with a few minutes to spare."
Relena attempted a smile as she fixed her clothes. "Millardo will be very happy. He's been really upset the last few times. Especially prom night."
Heero resettled himself behind the wheel, ignoring his throbbing lap. When they were on the road again, heading for their street, he reached for her left hand. She looked down, then over at him, a pure smile back on her slightly swollen lips.
Marriage would come. They had their whole lives.
****
TBC