57Tap. Tap. Tap.
Relena's pen twirled between her index and middle fingers before striking the large oak table and doing another spin, before the motion was repeated. Again. And again.
Normally that was not a detail that Heero would fixate on, but the thing was moving as if it had a mind of its own. Over and over, Relena twirled and tapped, twirled and tapped, and Heero watched until he might go mad. He was tempted to reach over and snatch the thing out of her hand, just to stop the incessant motion, but that would have been even more disruptive.
But, it had been a long meeting.
They were well into hour number two, and the meeting had stretched long past lunch. Not that Heero cared for such particularities, but he did think it odd to have a meeting start at 11 a.m. He figured Relena, at least, had to be hungry. Even he was starting to be, just a little.
He eyed the clock on the back wall, even though he had plenty of other methods for keeping time on his person, including his phone. But he wasn't going to check that, or anything else; not when he was on the job. Taking his eyes off of Relena, while she was at work, would have been a breach of duty.
As of now, he had one job. And, for the most part, it was an easy one. As long as there weren't any immediate threats to neutralize. It was the unknown threats on the horizon that troubled Heero, but he tried not to distract himself with needless worry. No matter what, he had to remain vigilant.
She deserved nothing less.
Relena sighed audibly, and Heero wondered, as he watched her back, whether it was because she disagreed with what the Foreign Minister was saying, or because she was tired. He wouldn't have blamed her either way. She stretched in her seat, rolling her neck, and Heero decided it had to be the latter.
She swept her long blond hair over one shoulder, and Heero was immediately distracted by the movement. Just as quickly, he chided himself. Even when he was supposed to be watching her, he shouldn't be watching her. He knew that intrinsically, and yet he still found her entrancing, much as he tried to remain impartial. The worst part was that he could tell some of the other men in the room were having the same struggle, even though most were old enough to be her father, and then some. She was seventeen. Heero wanted to throttle each and every one of them who looked at Relena the wrong way. And he would have, if given the opportunity…
The Foreign Minister, the current bane of his existence, at last began to cease his long-winded diatribe. At last, they had come to the "new business" order at the bottom of the agenda, meaning the meeting's end was in sight.
"Vice Foreign Minister Darlian." The older man turned his head toward Relena, who sat across the the table from him. "I recently reviewed the draft bid for the request for proposals you submitted on behalf of the Mars terraformation committee regarding the climate control system." Relena nodded eagerly. "Once the rest of the board has voted, you may go ahead and publish the bid for RFPs."
Relena dipped her head. "Thank you."
The Foreign Minister nodded curtly. "I appreciate your diligence on this issue. It has been a long time coming. Now, turning our thoughts to another matter entirely…" His lips curved into a smile. "I understand you'll be celebrating your eighteenth birthday in the capital this year?"
From his post by the door, Heero cast a steely glare at the man, then watched the back of Relena's head as she nodded. "Yes, that's correct."
"That is probably for the best," the Foreign Minister said. "Perhaps this year we can avoid another international incident." He chuckled, and Heero seethed. The near-attack on Relena's birthday the previous year was no laughing matter, and Heero was surprised the senior politician was being so glib about it.
Relena nodded again. "I can assure you, this year's event will be much quieter." She turned her head then, and shot a sheepish look in Heero's direction. He frowned, but she turned her face away.
Event? Heero scowled at the back of Relena's head. What "event"?
He thought, after what happened last year, that any such "event" would be off the table. And anyway, they hadn't discussed it. Surely if Relena had been planning something, it would have come up at some point over the past twelve months, since he had taken over her detail…
It was last year's event that prompted Heero to take the job; at that point, Relena had been held hostage twice in the span of a few months. Her life had been endangered far too many times, and Heero was determined to do something about it.
But, then, if she was planning events behind his back, she wasn't making it any easier. And apparently, she had discussed the matter with someone. Heero's head jerked up at the sound of a throat clearing from the other side of the room.
"The Preventer organization is prepared to provide as much security as the Vice Foreign Minister should require for her birthday celebration," said the smooth, female voice. Heero shot Une an icy glare. Evidently she saw him looking at her, as her brown eyes slid to his briefly before returning to the Foreign Minister. "Last year, it only took six of our agents to apprehend the terrorist faction 'Epyon De Telos.' We are prepared to offer more support this year, if needed." She smiled smugly, and Heero just knew that look was meant for him.
He scowled deeply at the Preventer Commander, and tossed all protocol out the window.
"I'd rather not have a repeat of last year," he murmured. But his low voice boomed throughout the large conference room. Relena spun around in her seat and gaped at him, her eyes sending him a silent plea. He just glowered at her.
"Neither would we," Une said smoothly in answer to Heero's outburst. At least it seemed like one, in the otherwise silent space. "Which is why we will have a thorough plan in place, should the worst case scenario happen." She steepled her hands in front of her, but not before making a show of cracking her knuckles.
Heero had to work to keep from rolling his eyes. Clearly, the Commander was proud of the Preventer's accomplishments over their short tenure, but Heero had already begun distancing himself from the group. Sure, they had managed to disarm a fledgling group of terrorists, but Heero hadn't agreed with how the matter was handled. He realized at the time that each former Gundam pilot - all five of them - had been brought in to contribute his personal expertise to the mission. But if Heero had had his way, the situation would have been nullified long before it turned deadly.
At any rate, Relena was in danger for far too long that day, and Heero viewed the whole operation as sloppy. They were successful, but barely, and lucky that no one had been killed, or the entire Sanc Kingdom destroyed. That it had even come close to happening… He still blamed himself. After the incident, he opted not to return to school - he had recently completed high school and begun taking college courses - or join the Preventers full-time. Rather, he chose to remain at Relena's side to watch over her himself; something he had vowed to do from the shadows, but it became clear to him that he needed to be closer to truly keep her safe.
Much closer.
Of course, when Heero had approached Relena nearly a year ago about joining her detail, she had been amenable to the idea. It didn't hurt that she harbored personal feelings for Heero, and he knew it. Not that he would ever exploit that, but it certainly made their situation all the more convenient.
However, if she was hiding things from him, it was about to make their arrangement much less agreeable…
The meeting finally, blissfully ended, and Relena and her fellow delegates rose from their seats. Heero shot Une another glare as she slipped out of the conference room, and he was tempted to go after her and give her a piece of his mind. But he had to wait for Relena, who was gathering up her laptop and a pile of notes. She swept everything into her briefcase and headed for the door. Heero adjusted his earpiece and followed after her.
She hurried down the hallway of the ESUN capitol building, on the way to her office, but Heero caught her by the elbow to slow her steps.
"What's this about a birthday party?" he murmured into her ear. He could feel Relena bristle against his hold.
"It's not a party party," she said, her voice tinged with the slightest whine.
"Why is this the first I'm hearing of it?" He wondered how Relena had managed to keep such a thing from him, when they lived and worked together.
Something she, quite frankly, seemed a little too gleeful about at times.
"Let's discuss this at home," she said, and the word had a sheen to it, even through her harsh whisper. Once again, Heero had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.
So she thought she had the upper hand, did she? Well, Heero wasn't foolish enough to fall for her emotional manipulations. He could withstand anything she could throw at him. He had done it before-
As if on cue, Relena tilted her head and batted her eyelashes up at him. Heero let out a tense huff. It was already shaping up to be a long day, and he could tell it was going to be an equally long night...
A/N: I WANNA BE YOUR END GAME!
Oh, hi guys! I'm back from another brief hiatus after spending November doing NaNoWriMo, in which I worked on an original fantasy novel (yay!). I hope to finish writing the whole book this winter, although that's quite a feat... And since I've been swept up in my original story, I had to make an effort to dive back into the fanfic world. So I started this story based on a recent dream I had (tee hee) in which Heero Yuy says some... interesting things. But I won't spoil it here; you'll have to keep reading to find out what happens. You know the drill... If you read this and like it so far, please drop me a review!
ALSO, I'd like to give a happy birthday shout-out to my good friend Sara, aka Mistaken-Miracles, who recently completed her first fic! YEAH GIRL! Congratulations, and happy birthday! Also, shout-out to Scarlet Eve, who finished NaNoWriMo this year with, like, a million words, because she's so freaking good. #SQUADGOALS
Anyway, I hope you like this and are ready for more fics that refer to Taylor Swift lyrics... tee hee hee. And like my recent story "Ready for It?" this also functions as a prequel of sorts to "Under the Roses," because I can't stay out of the Dex-verse if I try. Do keep an eye out for updates on my other stories soon!
Hugs!
- RFP
