Chip's Great Discovery
Riley peeked out the window just for a brief moment and believed she saw someone hid behind one of the large trees. "Aidan, did we hire new security for the embassy?"
"Check with Heero on that one...I'm just a runner for everyone else around here." He pounded on the stapler in hopes of getting out the last jammed staple from the holder.
"Well all right then." Relena's secretary dialed Heero's phone line and asked him the pertinent question, "Heero, did you hire new security for the embassy? If you did, there's one behind a tree out in the front."
Heero just listened in and peeked out through his window, "Hn." He then hung up on her.
"Heero?" she called onto the line. "Figures." She placed the phone back into its receiver. "I think Relena should have those vid screens hooked up just right about now."
Aidan called from the opposite room, "So he hanged up on you?"
"That's right." She filed some files into folders. "Happy?"
"Sure am."
"You have a twisted sense of humor."
"Geesh...I think I forgot to laugh. Now you know why I don't want to do runs for Heero..." He felt a tap on his shoulder and his face drained its color.
"And what were you saying?"
"Hello Mr. Yuy," he made a gulp noise down his throat.
"I need you to make copies of these files...they're the new security features." He tossed the stack on the Xerox machine and walked out onto the grounds.
"You got it, boss. Hey Riley, could you toss me a new stapler, mine just broke." In seconds, she sent the metallic apparatus towards him with a hard toss and he felt it crash into his chest. It knocked the wind out of him, "Gee, thanks," he felt a wheeze coming on.
Outside, Heero spotted the new intruder and saw him take a couple pictures overlooking in the direction of Relena's office. He snuck up on the poor soul, "May I help you?"
"Heh...I'm just admiring the rose bushes that's all." The photographer gave him a white lie.
"Unlikely." He pulled the camera off the man's neck and opened the film compartment. "Whatever you're doing, get out. Private property." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out something, but before he pulled forward, he saw the photographer run for his life, leaving his camera behind. All Heero pulled out was just his beeper signaling that Relena was leaving with Quatre for a lunch break. He picked up the camera and noticed it had the initials T.K. on it. "It's him again."
Une looked from her parking spot and noticed that photographer 1 had failed miserably, but she managed to take snapshots of Heero. He doesn't seem the type to propose to the ambassador...I don't know what Treize sees in him. Right then her radio picked up something about Relena and Quatre being at a local restaurant. Just perfect, and smiled to herself. She set her gear selector into the drive mode and rode off to the restaurant. In minutes she spotted the pair sitting in the back corner, sipping off glasses of water. She took her digital camera and honed in on the shot. Well we have some sort of hand holding...very interesting Ms. Relena. She remained there for some time and tried to focus in on Relena's left hands...at one point, she noticed the ambassador placing her hands on the table, but she failed to zoom in on the shot. Blast that girl, I almost had it. She decided to move closer to the likely couple and tried to listen in on their conversation.
"So when are you ever going to be married?" He asked at point blank range.
Relena choked, "Excuse me," she concealed the small ring on her hand. "I don't think I'll marry yet."
"Oh come on, I see that you drool over him." He kept badgering the situation.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She nibbled on some salad sprinkled with a light ranch dressing.
"You two have been acting strangely lately...come to think of it...for these past two years and even at your birthday party." He rubbed the edge of his chin.
"It's strictly business...I swear." She continued to nibble on her salad and tried to preoccupy herself with another subject.
"That's what they all say. Trowa and I are running bets that you two will be hitched some time soon." A smile played on his face.
Her face flushed slightly, "Well, you two are mistaken then." She continued to conceal the ring Heero had given her...she didn't want the secret to be out and have the papers around town to go on a feeding frenzy. "Well look at the time, lunch break is almost over." She pulled out her wallet and paid for the bill. "Shall we leave?"
"All right then, but mark my words, I believe I'm right." He grabbed Relena's money and gave it back to her. "Lunch is on me."
"But?" She carefully held her black leather wallet on the palm side of her left hand.
"No buts." The two then left the restaurant and headed back to the embassy.
Une got up from her spot and crossed Quatre off her list...the only name left was Heero's. Could it possibly be him? She returned to Treize's office, but kept the information to herself and waited for the right move to reveal everything. Right now, she wanted to play this game of cat and mouse to see how the drama plays out.
"You were out for awhile." His eyes lighted up with some suspicion.
"Yes, I was...just following a scoop that's all."
"And how did it go?" He was curious to find out what she was really doing.
"Fine," she smiled. "Nothing really to publish yet. Just FYI, photographer 1 failed to produce any pictures. Heero got to him."
"Acknowledged," he didn't look up from his stack of files.
"But there's one problem, the other photographers are refusing to sign up for the reconnaissance run of taking the pictures especially on Heero...if it's Quatre or Relena they'll do it anytime as long as Heero's not around."
"Understood." He scribbled something onto his yellow legal pad, "Well just have to do it the old fashion way, which is doing it ourselves."
"I'm already on it."
"Excellent...I knew I could count on you."
The weekend finally rolled over and the staff members left their posts for their mini vacation of just two days. Relena still went over a couple of files that she needed to work on, but decided she needed a small break. "Maybe Nataku's and Maxwell's Bakery is open right about now," she was thinking about getting a fresh espresso since her coffee machine finally broke down from over usage.
She decided to drive into the small town and parked her silver car out in front of the small bakery. She noticed that a flash came from a bush, but shrugged it off and walked into the bright room. "Hello there, Duo."
"What brings the Princess on a Saturday morning?" His eyes glowed from another win of defeating Wufei with the help from Chip.
"I would like a grande espresso, please." Her eyes showed a lack of sleep within the past few days.
"Ah, a need for a caffeine I see."
"That's right, my machine broke earlier this week. I can't stay away from caffeine too long...I don't know how could I survive through work."
"Well I'm right on it then." He went over to their coffee maker and started making the espresso.
"Great," she smiled to him and noticed a small toddler crawling around. "Is that Chip?"
"Sure is," the proud papa handed her the espresso and she was about to pay for it, "No no, it's on me." He didn't touch the money that she held in her hands.
Instead, she went over to the tip jar and placed the money there. "He's so big now...the last time I saw him was when he was born."
"Yup."
"They grow up so fast," she took a sip of the hot liquid. The boy started to crawl towards her and she placed her beverage on a high countertop. "And how are you today?" She picked him up and touched him on the nose. "Is he saying any words lately?"
"Let's see it seems like chocolate is his most popular word followed by mama and dada, but it seems like he's been mimicking words as of lately. It must be from my job." He chuckled out loud.
Relena continued to play with the child for awhile until another customer came walking in.
"Hello there, Heero. Let me guess, your usual I assume." Duo was already packing a raisin bagel with cream cheese into a bag along with a tall cup of regular coffee.
Heero stood in his tracks as he saw Relena in the bakery on a Saturday morning. "What are you doing here?"
"Getting some coffee, that's all." She was shocked to see him there too.
Chip started to blurt another word out, "Hee-ro," and looked to the Japanese bodyguard. He saw Heero smiling back for a brief moment, but he turned his attention back to Relena. He started fidgeting with something on her hand, "Oh."
Relena noticed it too and her eyes peered down to the little renegade. She tried to gently pull her hand back, but the boy had a tight hold on the small diamond. "Chip, can you give me my finger back?"
The boy nodded a playful no response and Duo went over to see what his mischievous son was up to now. "Come on Chip...let Relena's finger go...I'll give you some chocolate to play with." He started to pry at his son's tiny hands and noticed something shiny underneath the fingers. He blinked a couple of times and was shocked, "Is that an engage-"
Heero quickly covered the baker's mouth up, "Shhh...there's some reporters out there taking pictures."
"What?" Relena looked out of the window and saw some more flashes from a different spot.
Duo broke free from Heero's grasp, "So who's the lucky man?"
"Never mind," Heero cut him off.
"Ah...I think I might know who it is," and eyed the person standing next to him. "Well congrats, buddy."
"One word and you wish you were never here," he scowled.
"No need to be defensive." He picked up Chip from the counter and held him in his arms. "If it weren't for Chip to find the rock...this could have been a major secret."
"It would have been a major secret...maybe I should go cut off his mini braid." A glare came from his eyes.
"No one lays a hand on my boy." Duo then got on the defensive with a finger pointing towards the monotone bodyguard.
"Would you two stop it!" interjected Relena. "I think we have bigger problems right now."
The two turned their attention away from their argument and directed their heads to where she was staring. Wufei was fully armed in his arsenal of pastry bags along with two large bags of flour attached to his back. "Time for some payback! And look we have customers right here...they can be our witnesses to the final war!"
"Now Wu-man think what you're going to do...not a good time right now." Duo was backing towards the counter to drop his son in a safe corner, where hopefully no icing or flour or whatever other bakery substance would get him. And he then looked over towards Heero and Relena, "I think you two should find some cover now. This could get messy."
Heero pulled Relena off to the side, "Here we go again."
In seconds, the two bakers engaged in a full frontal assault of splattering flour and chocolate sauce at each other. Outside, onlookers came to stare through the windows to see this new battle and they all knew that Nataku's and Maxwell's Bakery was known for it's sporadic bakery battles that everyone enjoyed to see.
Duo reached into his back pocket and noticed he had just used his last pastry bag, "Not now."
"It looks like you're out of ammo," Wufei smirked and released the strawberry jam from one of his pastry bags. "Haha."
"I've been hit." Duo decided to put on some drama for the crowd.
Heero looked up from the counter and noticed Wufei was still preoccupied with Duo, "Come on, let's get going." He pulled Relena off the ground and was about to lead her to the back door.
"And where do you think you're going?" Wufei rearmed himself with icing bags and fired on the two with chocolate and flour.
"This is so not my day to be here," called out Relena from her floury demise, while Heero got the chocolate brunt. He then quickly grabbed a small pastry bag off the floor and struck the insane baker. A cheer from the crowd outside was heard.
"You can say that again." He tried to get up from the floor, but slipped on the chocolate.
Relena grabbed him and her hands began to become cakey. "This is just great," she tried to rub off the mixture of chocolate and flour from her hands.
"Never mind that let's just get out of here." He examined the situation and figured that the building was now surrounded with spectators and reporters...possibly "T.K." or his female subordinate. "Let's just make a run towards the front."
"Whatever you say...my car's just right here."
"Perfect."
"What about Chip?" Relena looked towards the child, who still hid under the countertop.
"I'll take care of him," Duo got up from his spot and walked over towards his son. "You two better shake on it...otherwise something could go wrong." He looked out the windows and saw the madness of reporters already swarming, trying to catch a glimpse of the two.
The two quickly ran out into the crowd, but didn't dare to stop for pictures. A blitzkrieg of lights went off as everyone saw their ambassador and bodyguard leave the scene.
"Let's just hope no one got a picture of the ring."
Heero took her keys and jumped into the driver's seat, but remained quiet during the ride. Yeah...hopefully.
TBC
Will the secret be leaked out to the public? How will Heero and Relena cover this mess now? Stay tune for more!
AnimeSiren - Thanks for all of your reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.