Disclaimer: I will never own Gundam Wing so stop asking! ^_^
Chapter
Ten: A Nightmare Come True
Heero sat in Lady Une’s office watching as she stared at him and impatiently tapped a pencil on her desk. He swallowed a lump in his throat. He knew he had just gotten Relena into trouble. This was not good. Lady Une did not look too happy, and he knew Relena would not be happy either when she found out. ‘Why me?’
“Are we feeling better now?” She inquired as she leaned forward on her desk.
Heero tried to give his best ‘Relena’ smile, but it did not seem to be working. So, he resorted to just nodding his head instead.
“That’s good. Care to tell me what all of that was about?”
Heero shook his head, not able to think of any logical reason behind his actions. He knew he could not tell her the truth.
Lady Une sighed and lowered her head. “Very well. You don’t look like you are ready to talk about it anyway. Maybe later.”
Heero let out the breath he had been holding and then found it easier to smile back at her.
“However, I will ask you this, and I do expect an answer. I will tolerate no more outbursts like that while you are on these premises. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Now, on to the reason I needed to speak with you in the first place.” She finally put down the pencil, and casually folded her arms onto her desk, looking very intently at Heero.
“I know I called the mandatory meeting for this morning. I need to discuss security for tonight.”
Heero’s eyebrows shot up. “Tonight?”
“Yes, next weekend’s fund raiser to benefit war orphans has been pushed up to tonight.”
“Fund raiser?”
Lady Une sighed loudly and frowned across her desk at the young lady. “Yes, the fundraiser, you know, the society gala in which all the proceeds are going to help one of your favorite charities. The one that you gladly accepted the invitation to a month ago.”
“Oh.” Came his reply. Actually it was the only word he could form at the moment.
“Well, aren’t we just full of surprises? Ten minutes ago I could not calm you down. Now I can’t get you to speak more than one or two word sentences.” She said with a smirk.
Heero slightly squirmed in his chair under her intense scrutiny. “Why did the fund raiser get moved up?”
“Well, Senator Cleveland, the host, has to unexpectantly leave tomorrow afternoon to head back to his home colony and will not be able to return to Earth for another two months. So, next weekend’s event got moved to tonight.”
Heero smirked and gave her a look that asked her to come out with it already.
“Well, because of the date
change, a lot of delegates that were coming next weekend are now unable to
attend, but then there are those that couldn’t attend next weekend that are now
coming. And, unfortunately, I know of
one such delegate that is now going to be in attendance that you are probably
not looking forward to seeing.”
Heero’s head was spinning. ‘Please no, don’t let it be that 90-plus year old diplomat that I always catch flirting with Relena and saying how he’d love to have a nice young thing like her attached to him.’ He had to resist the urge to bang his head on the desk. ‘Please no, anybody but him. I’ll go back to the beauty salon and put up with ten Marks, but just let it be anybody but . . .”
“Ambassador Greene.” Une said interrupting his train of thought.
Heero was temporarily relieved because it was not the guy he thought it was. He would have let out a sigh, but the next comment stopped him.
“You know, the one who never takes no for an answer.”
Now Heero knew he did not really want to know who exactly this Ambassador Greene was. However, he also knew he would find out the hard way, if he did not find out now. So, he tried his best to play the part of a confused Relena and inquired casually, “Who?”
Lady Une shook her head. “It must have been pretty bad if you have mentally blocked the guy from your memory.” She leaned back a little in her chair and gave Heero a concerned look. “Ambassador Greene is the diplomat from the new colony cluster of X19555 that was at the March Banquet last year. Don’t you remember, he asked you about half a dozen times to marry him then he even went as far as trying to get you to go talk someplace quiet with him?”
Suddenly, Heero’s memory became quite clear. ‘Now, I remember that bastard. I would have killed him, if Duo hadn’t stopped me.’ Heero did his best to remain calm and asked, “How did he get an invitation?”
“Very few know about last year’s incident. Of course, Heero, Duo, you, and myself know about it and I’m guessing that Heero put the fear of God in Ambassador Greene enough to where he kept his mouth shut.” She took a deep breath. “It turns out that the ambassador is not only a war orphan himself, but he is also good friends with Ambassador Cleveland.”
“Just keep him away.” Heero replied through clenched teeth, barely able to keep the venom out of his voice.
“I plan on it, but I also felt like I needed to warn you beforehand. Your personal guards will also know as well. Which brings up the next thing I need to speak to you about.”
“Yes?” Heero did his best to calmly reply. ‘What else can go wrong?’
“I need Duo and Quatre to be stationed away from you tonight. Yes, they will be there to protect you, but I need two agents to mingle with the guests as an extra precaution. Duo and Quatre are the two most qualified for that job. Both men are bringing dates, further making them the best choices. That still leaves Heero, Trowa, and Wufei as your personal guards for tonight. However . . .”
“Yes?” He asked when she seemed to pause.
“Since I am taking two agents away from you, I’m putting in a replacement for tonight. He’s more than qualified, and he has proven his skills more than once to me.” Une looked at Heero and when he opened his mouth to protest she held up her hand. “Now I know that Heero, Trowa, and Wufei are more than capable of doing their job. However, this whole night is so last minute that anything can go wrong and I’m NOT taking any chances.”
“Who?” Heero asked and like a premonition, knew he would not like the answer.
“Lt. Brian Summers.” She answered as if it was a matter-of-fact.
Heero’s eyes about bulged out of his head. ‘No way!’ He wanted to scream and protest. How could that pretty boy be qualified, or almost as skilled as him for that matter? It was not possible. There had to be some sort of mistake. Maybe he misunderstood. Yeah, that was it. “Excuse me?”
“I’m placing Lt. Summers as one of your personal body guards for tonight.”
‘Over my dead body.’ Heero thought.
“Of course, Heero will remain the captain of your guard. Brian is just a temporary replacement.” She continued to talk, but Heero started tuning her out. His head was reeling.
‘This not happening.’ He was so lost in thought that he almost missed what Lady Une was currently telling him.
“Actually, he requested to have Heero’s place for tonight. Of course, I told him there’s no way I’m replacing Heero. He’s definitely the one most qualified for that position. I think he accepted that answer, but just between you and me I think he has a little crush on you, Relena.” She said with a huge smile.
‘Like hell he does!’ His head started to really spin now. ‘This is so screwed up.’ Despite all of his thoughts he was still able to speak. “Are you sure about this?”
“No, not positive. But, he actually started to blush when he requested to be the captain of your guard. It was kind of cute. Oh! Aren’t you a lucky girl? That boy has every female that has ever laid eyes on him practically drooling and dying for him to notice them and all of a sudden he has eyes for you.” She said still smiling.
‘Argh! Why do these sorts of things always happen?’ Heero fussed in his head. Suddenly, a logical complaint came to mind. “What a minute, if he only has eyes for me, won’t I be a distraction? How can he possibly do his job correctly?” Heero mentally patted himself on the back.
“As I said before, he is more than qualified. I have no doubt that he will do his job correctly. The only other person I’ve met that is as serious is Heero. Plus, now is as good a time as any to see how well these two work together.”
Heero sighed in defeat. He was not going to win this battle. So, he would have to find a way to deal with it. He still had a mission to complete, and he was not about to let Lt. Summers get in his way. Oh yes. He would get through this.
“Well, if you don’t have any other questions, that is all I needed to speak to you about. The other meeting will take place in about five minutes, so I’ll see you there.”
Heero stood up to walk out of her office, then he remembered he had to display Relena’s mannerisms in leaving this office not his own. So, he graciously bowed his head and said, “Thanks Lady, I really appreciate all that you are trying to do for me.” And then, he tried his best attempt at a gracious smile.
“No problem.” And she smiled back.
With that, Heero quietly walked out of her office. Once in the hall he had to fight his inner turmoil. He wanted to scream or hit something, but he maintained his control. Years of physical and mental training to become a perfect soldier can do that to a person. This whole weekend was just so screwed up. Now, he not only had to pretend to be Relena at this fund raiser, he had to ward of the affections of all those bastards trying to flirt, especially two in particular, one, who didn’t know the meaning of the word no, and the other, who would probably be standing by his side all night guarding him from danger.
Heero groaned this was not happening to him. It was not fair. Why couldn’t everything just go back to normal? He never made the stupid wish in the first place, so why should he have to endure all of this?
It would serve them all right if he just went off and locked himself in his dorm room and did not come out until tomorrow morning when all of this mess would hopefully be over. But, that was the coward’s way out, and he was not a coward. He would see this through to the end, and damn-it, nothing was going to stop him from completing his mission.
He turned and saw Relena, Duo, and Hilde walking toward him. The others would not be far behind. He stood and waited for them to catch up.
‘I will get through this, and when this is all over I will have accomplished my objective.’ He smirked at his thoughts. ‘Yes, it will all have been for the best in the end.’
<>
Later back at Hilde and Relena’s home:
Une’s mandatory meeting ended hours ago with the security detail in order. Now they were all back at the house getting ready for the gala.
Heero stood a few feet away from Relena with his arms crossed over his chest and glaring daggers at her through time and space. “Cheer up Heero it is only for a couple of hours.”
“I don’t give a shit how long it is because there is no way in hell that you are going to get me in that.”
Heero narrowed his eyes further, deepening his scowl. Oh, the injustice of it all. How in the world was he supposed to get into that thing to begin with? He did not want to think about it much less attempt it.
Relena was standing in her closet doorway and holding up a dark blue sequin ball gown. Heero shook his head again and Relena let out an exasperated sigh.
“Heero, you might as well suck it up because you know that you don’t have any other choice.”
“Like hell I don’t! That’s it. I’m not going.”
“Oh, stop being difficult and just put it on.”
“No.” He crossed his arms even tighter in front of him and stood his ground. As far as he was concerned, she had finally flipped her lid. There was no way he was putting that thing on. It was a DRESS for crying out long. He did not wear dresses. He never had before, and he was not about to start now.
Relena’s mouth suddenly twitched up into a smirk that made his blood run cold. He didn’t know what it meant, but he didn’t like that look. No, not one bit.
“Then, what do you plan on wearing?” The smug smile on her face widened with her question.
He stopped. Shit. What else could he wear? Why couldn’t women just were pants to these types of functions? His eyes briefly lit up. That’s it! Relena wears pants suits all the time to her meetings so there was no reason he could not were one of those outfits to this fundraiser. He smirked. “I’ll just were one of your pants outfits.”
“You can’t.”
His face fell. “Why not?”
Relena let out a heavy sigh. “Heero, this is a very formal occasion. You know something usually referred to as a ‘black-tie affair’, which means that the men wear tuxedos and women wear ball gowns. And, you my dear Heero, are a woman.”
“I am not!”
Relena smirked. “Have you looked in the mirror any time in the last two days?”
Heero growled. “Omae o korosu!”
She laughed at that one. “I guess you’ll never get tired of that line, huh?”
Heero grumbled.
“If it makes you feel any better, Duo will have to wear a dress too. So that means you won’t be alone in your misery.” She sweetly replied.
“Ghee, that just makes it all better. Thank you very much.” He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
She was starting to lose her patience. There had to be a way to get him to cooperate. There was not any way around it. He had to wear the dress, and he was just being stubborn. “If you’ll just stop complaining and put the damn dress on, I promise I’ll make it up to you.” Her voice dropped to a low tone that Heero would classify as seductive.
One eyebrow quirked up, as the curiosity at what exactly she meant by that got the better of him. “How so?”
She tilted her head and appeared to be considering how to
answer him. “I don’t know, but I
promise you’ll like it. How’s
that?” He smirked as several scenarios
raced through his mind.
“Oh, I will make sure to take you up on your offer because you owe me big time now.” He then grabbed the offending object from her and began reluctantly walking toward the bathroom.
“Oh yeah, there’s one more thing.” She hesitantly replied.
Heero stopped in his tracks and slightly turned his head to glance back at her. ‘What now?’ He thought.
He watched with dread as she deliberately walked over toward her dresser, opened a drawer, and slowly revealed the newest threat to his masculinity.
***
“INJUSTICE!”
“Oh! Come on, Duo, they’re not that bad.” Hilde said and let out a long sigh.
“No way. No how. NO!” He shouted and frantically shook his head.
“Oh, stop being a big baby and just put them on.”
“No and you can’t make me.”
“You wanna bet?”
“But, Hilde.” Duo’s voice changed to a whiny pitch. “They’re pantyhose and you always complain about wearing them so why should I have to?”
“Well, for one your feet will be regretting it later if you don’t.”
“I very seriously doubt that.”
“I’m serious. Heels can not be worn without pantyhose because the back of your heel will be rubbed raw.”
“HEELS! I have to wear heels too? NO WAY HILDE! I’m not doing it!”
She closed her eyes, almost at her wits end. She needed a new tactic. Hilde smirked just as an idea came to her.
Duo gulped. He did not like the look Hilde had in her eyes. Then he watched for the first time in his life as he was placed on the receiving end of his own puppy-eyed stare. Damn. She was just as good or even better than him.
“But, Duo sweetie, I thought you always say it can’t be that bad and to just suck it up because we won’t be there that long anyway.”
“But . . . But, this is different.” He whined. “You’re used to wearing this shit. I’m not.”
“Now, I wouldn’t say ‘used to it’ I would say it’s more like ‘deals with it’.” She said with a triumphant smirk.
“But, it’s not fair. I have enough already to deal with. I don’t want to have to deal with this too.”
“Aw. But, Duo.” She said with a pouty lip. “You always complain it takes me forever to get ready so I figured you would want to know everything it takes to become beautiful. Beauty takes time you know.”
Duo was starting to turn pale, but Hilde did not appear to notice. Instead, she was counting out on her fingers all that she needed to do to get him ready. “Let’s see. We have to do your hair and you’re make-up. You’re lucky you went to the salon yesterday because otherwise we’d have to get your nails done too. Then once all of that is done, we’ll have to get you dressed.”
Duo was white as a ghost. ‘This is not happening.’
“Let’s see it shouldn’t be too hard to get you into that dress, but those stupid pantyhose will be another story.” She paused for a second. “I guess I can just put socks on your hands that should keep you from ripping them.”
“Excuse me, but I am not putting socks on my hands. Have you totally gone bonkers on me or something?”
Hilde continued pacing and thinking out loud. “Yes, the socks could work.” Then she stopped. “Oh crap.”
“What now? It can’t be that bad, can it?” He asked with a pleading look in his eyes.
“No, it’s not that bad, but I’m sure that you’re not going to like it.” She walked over to her dresser drawer and pulled out a small piece of lingerie.
“What’s not to like? Personally I think you look great in black lace.” He said but then he got a closer look at what she was actually holding up.
“There is absolutely no way in hell that you are getting me into that. I may have to endure everything else, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to endure that as well.”
***
“It’s official. You’ve completely cracked.”
“Heero, it’s not as bad as you think it is. Besides, I thought men liked seeing women wear these.” Relena said with a smirk.
“Seeing them and wearing them are two totally different things.” He said and continued to glare at her from across the room.
“Yeah that’s true, but you’re still going to have to wear them.”
He shook his head.
“Heero, it is just underwear for crying out loud!” She yelled, finally having enough. They had been arguing over everything from the dress down to the shoes, and just when she thought they were finally getting somewhere, they ended up right back at square one. It was exasperating to say the least.
“That is not underwear. That can barely even be called a scrap of fabric. How can you even wear that . . . that.”
“It’s called a thong, Heero.” She said sarcastically.
Heero huffed. “I know what it is. But, I’m not wearing it and that’s final.”
Relena sighed. “You can’t wear normal underwear with that dress, Heero. The panty lines will show.”
“Well, then pick out another dress. You’ve got, what, a thousand of them?”
“That’s not going to make a difference.”
“Well, don’t they make some kind of seamless shit nowadays? Couldn’t I just wear that instead?” He asked getting desperate for any way out.
“Been there. Done that. Didn’t work.” She answered getting tired of answering questions. “You’re only other option is to go commando, which I doubt you’ll want to do.”
“Why?”
“Going commando in a dress is different from going commando in pants, especially when the slit down the front of the dress goes above mid thigh. You’d have to be extra careful all night to not give everyone a free show.”
Heero was silent and looked like he was actually considering his options. Relena waited patiently while he made up his mind.
“Well?” She finally asked.
He didn’t say anything. He just grabbed the ‘scrap of fabric’ from her then stormed off toward the bathroom. Heero turned to face Relena when he got to the door. “Never breathe a word of this to anyone.” He slammed the door behind him.
Relena mischievously smiled at the closed door. “Why Heero, what on Earth would make you think that I’d do such a thing?”
<>
Half an hour later in Hilde’s room:
Not long after Heero had stormed off into the bathroom, the other girls came barging into Relena’s room, dragging in a very reluctant Duo, and declaring that they wanted to help each other fix hair and make-up for the night. Relena gladly left them to deal with Heero. She just hoped that he would not give anyone else a hard time. As she turned to leave, she noticed the pleading look both boys gave her. It was almost enough to make her feel sorry for them. Almost.
Now, she sat on Hilde’s bed bored out of her mind. Sure it was nice to not have to deal with Duo and Heero at the moment, but they still had two more hours until it was time to leave. And since her and Hilde were technically guys, they did not need half as long to get ready, which left them with nothing to do at the moment.
Relena looked over at Hilde. Her friend was digging around her room looking for anything to cure their boredom.
“Will you stop moving around so much? You’re even starting to make me nervous.” Relena said.
“Sorry Rel, I just have a hard time sitting . . .” She stopped then got a mischievous gleam in her eye as she glanced back at Relena.
“What?” Relena said cringing at whatever just popped into her friend’s head.
“How would you like to get back at those two for the hellish afternoon they just gave us?”
“Well, they are men which makes them stubborn by nature. So I can’t really fault either one for that, but finding a way to irk a nerve in soldier boy would be very entertaining. Besides, we’re women. We are not supposed to make it easy on them.” Relena would love to give Heero a small taste of his own medicine, but she hesitated in agreeing to anything because Hilde’s idea of medicine rarely came in small doses.
Hilde’s gleam turned devilish and Relena once again almost felt sorry for Duo.
“What do you have in mind?”
Hilde held up a small bottle that she retrieved from her make-up drawer. Upon closer inspection, Relena noticed it was bright red. She smirked. Now this was something worth getting in to. “Have I ever told you that sometimes I love the way you think?”
“It’s a gift. I know.” Hilde said and nonchalantly blew on her fingertips as she swiped her right shoulder.
Relena giggled. Oh. This was going to be fun.
“So which color do you want?” Hilde asked.
“What are my options?”
“Well, let’s see I have red, blue, orange, purple. Okay let’s just say I have about every color in the rainbow then some.”
Relena thought for a second then her eyes lit up. “Green.”
“Green?”
“Well yeah, I figure Heero would appreciate the gesture more if it matched his favorite shirt. You know he can be very anal sometimes, and I wouldn’t want to upset him over such a simple oversight.”
Hilde tossed her the green bottle and Relena caught it easily. “And, you say I can be devious.”
Relena winked. “I’ve learned from the best.”
Hilde laughed. “Hey, don’t give me all the credit.”
Relena laughed too. “So what will be your color of choice?”
“Well.” Hilde began in her best impression of a southern belle from long ago. “Now that you mention it. Since black is his signature color. I think I’ll just have to go with that one.”
Relena could only laugh harder, which made tears come down her face.
“Come on.” Hilde said trying to get Relena to calm down. “We need to get this done before dumb and dumber come back. We don’t want them to find out about our little surprise for them just yet.”
Relena stopped laughing and got a quizzical look on her face. “Which one is dumber?”
Hilde scratched her head and pondered the thought. “Hell if I know. It’s a toss up, if you ask me.”
Relena deciding to get a little more serious wiped the few remaining tears from her eyes. “Okay. But, I think I’m gonna go lock the door just in case.”
“Good idea.”
Relena quickly locked the door before she went over to sit by Hilde on the floor. They then took off their shoes and proceeded to create two of the most colorful pairs of feet on the entire Preventer force. Yes, life often times proved very entertaining indeed.
~~~To Be Continued~~~
Yes! I’M FINISHED! FINALLY! Sorry for the delay. I had a little case of the dreaded writer’s block for a couple weeks. I knew what I wanted to do, but it just wasn’t coming out right. Anyways, Thank you Rose for all your help. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. I also want to take this opportunity to thank one of my reviewers. The toenail painting session was actually her idea. Well, I don’t think it came out like she wrote in her suggestion, but I loved the idea of the girls painting Heero and Duo’s toes so I had to put it in the fic. So, thank you Camigro. ^_^ Well, that’s all for now. Bye! Carebear
