Come and Kill Me
Thyme

Red. Everything was red. Relena's honey-blonde hair was wet with it, and her clothes were stained...but he knew he would be stained so much deeper. This time it went past the scars and the missions.

"Come and kill me," she used to say. Funny, that. She'd never thought he would actually do it someday. neither had he.

The war was over. There was nothing left for him. Not even her. She was busy with politics, making the world beautiful. He was powerless to help her. She made him feel so strange, but...he needed her. He needed war. He had nothing without them and needed one or the other.

Relena was too busy.

"Come and kill me."

It seemed easy enough, really.

He watched her make her speech and admired the way her pretty blue eyes shone strongly, confident while her words bounced around the room. The weight and feel of his gun in his fingers had been so reassuring.

It seemed so easy. It was all so fucking ridiculous, how easily this world could die. She was so beautiful...could the world survive without such beauty?

Pulling the trigger was as easy as he'd thought. Her crystalline eyes shattered moments after, leaking crimson tears. Why were they red, he wondered. Why? Such a color didn't suit her. He thought she would look nicer in blue, frozen and strangled in death's fingers. Her body lay half-slumped over the podium as cameras flashed, women screamed and people scattered.

"Heero," she whispered in final desperation. Her broken blue eyes rolled up, as if to ask God why, why would He allow such a thing, before she spit blood and closed them quickly against the pain.

"Heero...you didn't save me...."

No, this went deeper than the scars and the missions. He was going to fight for himself, this time; wasn't going to listen to anyone but his own mind.

Then...why had he just killed the woman he loved? Aah, but he would get over it. Wouldn't he? There were other people in other places. Maybe he would meet another Relena Peacecraft that wouldn't abandon him in the name of peace.

Maybe he'd meet someone that wasn't just chasing a dream, like she had. Someday, he hoped he'd find someone *real* to love.

Yes, this went so much deeper than the scars....