Thief in the Night
by kebzero
I couldn't sleep that night.
Sure, part of that was the situation with Heero - his problem, his confession... Heck, his crush on me should have been more than enough to keep my mind going for well after I first tried to fall asleep. Despite that, what really kept me awake was the damn lumpy couch.
Yeah, I'd been good and offered my bed up again. Predictably, Heero had declined. I had insisted. So had he. Hilde finally settled the issue by fetching a fresh set of bedclothes and shoving them at Heero's chest. He'd looked a bit baffled, but recovered soon enough.
All in all, I'm glad he finally accepted the offer. The guy could use a good night's sleep somewhere comfortable, for once. The couch and that thing passing for a bed at his old place didn't look like much.
Not that our couch was that much better.
I muttered a pledge to go look for an alternative in the morning. Heero was going to stay here for a while, after all - and once we got all the junk cleared out of the real guest bedroom, we would have to get a bed to fill it with too, since Quatre took the old one.
Hours had passed since I turned off the lights, and I still wasn't more than drowsy. I almost missed the faint creaking sound, recognizing it as my bedroom door. I had been meaning to fix that hinge for ages, but kept forgetting. Or suppressing, perhaps. I know Hilde hates the noise, and using that door was one of my favorite gleeful ways of getting back at her when she wins one of our silly little arguments.
You don't just learn to live with each other's vices. You learn to deliberately trigger each other's peeves too. All in good spirits, of course.
Most of the time.
I closed my eyes, feigned being asleep, struggled to make my breath just uneven enough to pass for that. Heero was up and about, that much was obvious. He was light on his feet, but I could still make it out; bare skin against linoleum. My first thought was that he was going to the bathroom - but the sound didn't move in the right direction.
He was coming closer.
My second thought was that he'd come to watch me sleep, or something. A mild shiver went up my back, and I almost blew my cover.
It wasn't as if I was worried about him watching over me. That thought felt sort of... nice. No, I was more worried about the 'something'. My drowsy mind was more than happy to dream up possible scenarios, spanning a wide specter from fairly innocent to anything but.
I guess the fact Heero changed directions and headed for the kitchen goes to show my imagination is a lot more active than his.
I couldn't help but wonder what he was planning, though. Heero didn't strike me as the type going for a midnight snack.
Unless it came in liquid form, perhaps.
When I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, I opened my eyes, scanned the room. In the clear, I got up and sneaked as quietly as I could towards the kitchen. At the door, I lined up with the wall, cautiously peered around the corner, studying Heero.
He didn't look in the fridge. That made sense - he'd seen the contents there earlier, and juice or milk was probably not the thing he was searching for. Hilde had done as I'd asked and gotten rid of the few cans of beer we kept around. When Heero went to make his bed - my bed - I had made a quick check of the cupboards, just in case she'd missed or hidden something. Heero was done with the bed before I had the chance to finish or flat-out ask her, though. I was afraid to, anyhow - afraid he'd overhear me, afraid it'd hurt him to know I didn't trust his willpower.
Even if there was some truth in that.
It just wasn't worth it risking a temptation, that's all.
Heero opened the cupboard over the counter, reached for a glass. For a moment, I wondered if he was just going for some water.
Then, he knelt down and opened the cupboards under the sink, reached inside and retrieved a corked bottle of dark glass.
Quatre's gift.
Immediately, I knew Hilde had saved that, knowing it'd probably fetch a pretty penny - and knowing I'd think the same way. She'd hidden it, but obviously not well enough. I cursed myself for missing it when I went for the soap earlier. Heero obviously hadn't, and as he stood up and studied the label, I felt dread creep up on me.
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