Author’s two cents: It occurred to me that in Circle of the Earth I never showed how Arys related to the other students in the school. All her interaction was with the Gundam pilots. This fic is from Heero’s point of view as he observes the newest student at the school.

Heero walked into the banquet room, searching the tables for an empty seat. There were numerous ones scattered throughout the room; he could even see Quatre seated at one table, waving him over, that friendly grin on his face. Heero shook his head, motioning to another table with his chin. Quatre glanced at the other table and nodded. The blond-haired pilot returned to his conversation with his tablemates. Heero felt that he needed to find out more about the newest student, Arys Walker. She had only arrived today and there was something about her that felt… wrong.

Heero walked up to the table where Arys sat, alone. She glanced up at him when he moved to the chair beside her.

"I should have known this table wouldn’t be empty for long. Have a seat, Heero." Arys frowned at him, waving at the chair as if dismissing it from her charge.

Something about her mannerisms reminded him of Duo. He wondered how that could be with her cold attitude. If they were in a more casual atmosphere, Heero had the feeling that she would have her feet propped up on the table, something that Duo would have done, in spite of the atmosphere.

She played with her fork, twirling it in her fingers. "With you here, this table should fill up in no time."

"What?"

Arys put down her fork and glanced at him, gray eyes amused. "You are a MALE, Heero. Females like males." She laughed, a hard sound. "Not to mention that you are one of two males at this school. Case in point, look at Quatre’s table." She pointed at the table across the room.

Heero saw that Quatre was surrounded by girls, all of them vying for his attention. Of course, Quatre took the attention in stride, being his normal, polite self. He grimaced.

"There he is!" A voice called across the room.

Arys leaned back, a satisfied look on her face. She smirked at Heero. "Your turn."

Heero groaned inwardly, managing to keep his face impassive as Relena and a few of her friends walked up to their table.

"Hello, Heero." Relena sat down on Heero’s other side. Her friends followed suit, sitting down at the empty chairs until the table was full.

"Relena." Heero nodded a greeting. He glanced back at Arys. She sat with her arms crossed over her chest, that smirk still on her face, as if she were waiting for some great comedy show to begin.

As soon as Relena sat down, waiters began strolling around the room, bringing food to each table. Heero watched a white-gloved hand set a plate of roast beef and mashed potatoes in front of him. He looked down at it, still not used to such food after eating rations on the field all the time. Most of the time he chose not to eat.

Halfway through the meal, the girls began to chatter to each other, talking about so-and-so’s newest dress or so-and-so’s violin recital. Arys had finished her meal quickly without speaking one word and had once again settled back to watch the girls. The smirk had softened slightly, but it was still there. He put down his fork, signaling that he was finished with his plate, and looked at Arys again. He noticed something in her eyes. Pain. He saw pain there. And perhaps some regret.

Arys saw him looking at her, and the emotion disappeared from her eyes. When she turned to him, her eyes held that amused look again. "Have you wondered how girls can talk about such trivial things?"

"You’re a girl. Don’t you?"

Arys shook her head. She did not offer more.

"Heero, can you tell us about the war? I know that men tend to follow such things." Sandra, a red-haired girl, asked suddenly.

He should have known that he would not be able to escape having to make conversation. "There’s not much to tell. Men fighting men, all in the name of peace." And right now there is a conflict brewing right outside this school. But he couldn’t tell her that. He could not worry them about things that they would not understand.

"But so many people die. Why can’t everyone just get along?" Claire, a brunette, said. The other girls agreed.

"It is man’s nature to fight for what he believes in. The problem is, not every man believes in the same thing."

Heero looked at Arys in surprise. Did she just say that? The amused indifference hid a much deeper person than he thought.

"That’s why we have to work to make man believe in the same thing, right, girls? Without the use of weapons." Relena stated emphatically.

"Right!" They replied.

Arys burst into cynical laughter. The entire table quieted at the harsh sound, looking at her in surprise. Her laughter stopped as quickly as it had begun. Her gaze was serious when she spoke again. "It takes a lot of words to change a man’s heart, Relena. It takes even more than words to change all men’s hearts." Here, her voice saddened. "Sometimes, force is necessary."

"I don’t believe that!" Relena leaped to her feet, pounding the table with one fist.

Arys tried to smile, but failed. "See, we’ve just demonstrated that not every man believes in the same thing, Relena."

The anger drained from Relena’s face and she sat back down. "I still believe that peace can come without war," she said, determination in her voice.

"And you can keep on believing in that, Relena. Sometimes, it takes different people to stop a war."

Heero had leaned back in his chair through the whole exchange, taking his turn to watch the show. He could see why Arys found them amusing. Observing was more fun than taking part in a conversation. He had to admit that both girls had held their own pretty well. A tense silence settled over the table for a few moments before Sandra spoke up again.

"So, Arys, what’s it like in Antarctica?" She asked.

"Cold." Heero almost choked on his water. The amused indifference had returned.

Sandra stared at her, obviously surprised to see such a quick transformation from the wise to the cynical Arys.

"What did you do there?" That was Claire.

She actually had to think about that one. Arys’ hesitation made Heero suspicious. Was she simply trying to piece her words together so that they would make sense or was she trying to arrange her words so that they would hide what she truly did at the Antarctic Outpost?

"I was a test pilot." The answer was too short, too vague. But it was enough for the girls. It was not enough for Heero, however.

"You fly planes?" Sandra asked, the surprise on her face fading with this tidbit of new information.

Arys nodded. "The Antarctic is a volatile weather region. What better place to test commercial planes than an area with a lot of bad weather?"

Sandra nodded back. "Sounds like a dangerous job."

"It is. In fact, I’ve crashed quite a few times."

At this news, Claire and Sandra began to barrage her with questions about her experiences. Heero glanced at Relena and saw that she was listening intently as well. She noticed him looking at her and smiled at him. Heero did not smile back. He did not believe one word Arys was saying. It looked like he was the only one who didn’t.

"You’re quite a story-teller, Arys Walker." Heero walked into Arys’ room, coming up behind her desk. She sat at a laptop, which she immediately slammed shut upon hearing his voice.

She looked up as the laptop beeped at her, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was gazing out the window. Heero knew better though. She was actually looking at his reflection in the glass. "A knock is considered the polite way of entering someone’s room, you know."

"None of those stories were true," Heero said.

"The girls enjoyed them." Arys turned in her chair to gaze at him directly. "You should have too."

"You’re not just a test pilot, are you?"

"I am what I said I am." Those gray eyes frosted over, hiding the inner part of her from his probing eyes.

Heero grabbed the arm of her chair and leaned down until his face was inches from hers. "Stop being so cryptic! Who are you?"

She sat there, that annoying amusement again on her face, in her eyes. "My name is Arys Walker." She smirked at him. "At least, I know who I am, Heero Yuy. Who are you?"

Heero roughly let go of her chair and stepped back. "You have a heart of ice, Arys."

"And you have a heart of stone, Heero. Ice melts; stone doesn’t."

Heero glared at her and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Distantly, he heard Arys shout through the door at him.

"At least, you have a heart, Heero! Do you know what happens when ice melts? You have nothing! And that would leave me with no heart!"

Heero stopped in the hallway at the words. He stared down at the floor.

"Better to have no heart at all."

Heero strode away from Arys’ room.