|
"Agglomeration"Written By: The Plotting Housewife Disclaimer: Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sotsu
and associated Parties. This work is written for pleasure not profit. Rating: R Warnings: Major
character death (but they die peacefully of old age) Pairings: 1xR, 2xH, 3x4 Summary:
It was a domino effect. When one went down, the rest followed. "Ricochet " No one could say the Gundam pilots hadn't lived a full life. It was enriched with experience, wisdom, adventure, strife, and even love. Still, that didn't make their deaths any easier to take. No one could be sure why it happened the way it did, but when one went down, the rest followed. One after the other in the span of a week. Wufei had been fine the day before. Still a stickler for fitness, eating healthy, and routine meditation, he was still teaching his classes at the ripe old age of eighty three. The following morning, he dropped like a ton of bricks, dead before he hit the ground. The autopsy revealed sudden kidney failure as the culprit. They hadn't even begun planning the funeral when the following night, Quatre died in his sleep. It was sudden cardiac death. His heart simply just stopped. Relena got the teary call from his partner and lover, Trowa. Duo had come down with the flu the following day and by the next morning, he was also gone. Hilde had been heartbroken, Duo Jr. solemn as he informed her that her ex-husband had passed. Two days later, Trowa dropped while at the funeral parlor. Some said it was from a broken heart. Katherine and her husband, Trowa Phobos, took over the funeral planning for both of them. Heero lasted another two days, but he was off during that time, distant. Relena thought it was because of the grief. Maybe it was, but she later suspected that her husband somehow knew his own death was coming. She'd felt it, too, though neither of them spoke of it. She brought him tea as he sat silently in the library looking through an old photo book. Pictures of the pilots together in their youth, as successful middle aged men, of their families, their children and grandchildren. He was unusually quiet and she didn't push him to talk about it. She just fixed him his tea, made him sandwiches, and rubbed his shoulders, all the while, her heart screamed that something was terribly wrong. She believed Heero knew his time had come and he'd accepted it. He was tired. Just so damn tired. He'd lived his life and he'd made a wonderful one. Now, it was time to make room for the next generation. She found him later in the afternoon slumped over in his favorite chair, the photo book open on his lap, his hand laid over one of the pictures. She lifted it and saw that it was a photo of all the pilots together at the end of the Eve Wars. They were only seventeen, with a full life still ahead of them. Relena had taken the photo herself, had to pull teeth to get Heero and Wufei to pose for it. Smoothing her husband's hair back, she leaned down and kissed his head. She blinked back tears as she whispered, "Go to them. They're waiting for you. I won't be too far behind, but it's not my time yet. I'll see you again someday, but for now, I must look after our family. Be at peace now, darling. I love you." She went to bed that night with his wedding ring tucked in her palm. She didn't weep. There was no need to. She would see him again soon, her own life coming to a close. But, for now, she had their children and grandchildren to think about and she had to be strong for them. She'd always known the pilots had some sort of special connection. Something she was never truly able to comprehend. And she didn't really try. It was something precious and it was something that didn't involve her. Even when they'd gone their separate ways to live their own lives, they always seemed to know when one was in distress. Looking back on it, it wasn't surprising that with one death, the effect upon all of them would ricochet, bouncing from one pilot to the next. In that sense, there was a beauty in how they died. Quick, painless, and together. The unusual, but felicitous phenomenon was almost poetic, melodious in nature. It simply couldn't have, wouldn't have happened any other way.
~ * ~ |
