Mission: Sabotage
Heero hid his identity under a denim blazer and dark glasses. After the bakery nightmare, he couldn't go in public looking like Relena's bodyguard, since with every step he took, a couple of citizens would ask questions about him and her. He eyed the familiar sign of the bakery and remembered how it started with Relena wanting a breakfast for her staff members. He entered the familiar door and saw Duo placing more donuts into the display cases.
The cheery baker looked up and noticed the customer standing near the far off display cases filled with small cakes and pictures of wedding cakes. "So you're back again."
"What's it to you?" He continued to stare into the display case filled with tasty cookies and small cakes.
"Nice shades you have there...it looks like under ops or something."
"Funny." He tried to make the conversation short. "I need a favor from you."
"Ask away," he fidgeted with one of the signs on the wall.
"I need to use your bakery one of these days."
"I don't see why not," he rubbed his chin, "Wufei took off this week leaving me to run the place," he smiled.
Better make sure there's no structural damage. "How does Wednesday night sound to you?"
"Sounds all right, I need to stay a little late that night anyhow...someone ordered three dozen chocolate chip cookies."
"I see." He looked at his watch and noted that phase two was about to begin on Relena's side.
"Does this have to do with Treize's declaration about you two being engaged?"
"Yes, it's more or less called payback."
"Ah. Well let me know if I can be of service in this mission of yours," he went to the opposite part of the bakery and started to wipe down the windows, since business was slow during the mid-afternoon.
Heero thought about it and his plan seemed to be changing every minute, "You might be able too." He looked at the pictures of the wedding cakes and saw something there. "Do you think you can create that white three-tiered cake by Wednesday night? I'll reimburse you for it."
"I think I could," Duo brought up a small black catalogue with numerous scribbles already made. "It looks like May and June are packed with weddings." He sounded like he was giving Heero a hint on how to schedule wedding dates. "Nope, I'm not book for this week...everything's a go for the cake."
"Good. I'll see you Wednesday night." He walked out of the bakery and tried to blend in with the rest of the people strolling down the streets. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number linking to Relena's office, "Commence phase two."
"All right, I'm on it." She shuffled some papers in her hands, while she cradled the receiver in her neck and shoulders.
"Don't be alarm to see a wedding cake on Wednesday night, it's going to be a white three-tiered cake." He waited a response from her.
"You didn't have to go all out on this, you know that."
"I know, but we're dealing with Treize and possibly Lady Une here. I don't want to take any chances."
"Very well then," she heard him close the connection down and she dialed Treize's work number that Quatre dug up. She heard the rings go by on the other line and she adjusted her skirt while she waited.
"Hello, Treize speaking," a deep masculine voice sounded on the other end.
"Hello, Treize, Relena Peacecraft here. I was just wondering if you would like your inside scoop to be held this Wednesday evening at Nataku's and Maxwell's Bakery? I'm sure you're familiar with the place by now." A hint of sarcasm was in her voice as she toyed with him in trying to lure him into the trap. "How about seven thirty?"
"Sounds fine." He entered the time and location onto his palm pilot with a little urgent icon, so he wouldn't miss the important appointment. "Will Heero Yuy be there as well?"
"What kind of person do you think I am? Of course, he'll be there...he's part of my security detail." She tried to elude the man on the other end.
"Not your fiancé?" He toyed with the question in his mind.
She brushed him off, "Save those questions for Wednesday evening, Mr. Krushenada."
"Very well then, I'll look forward to our interview." He looked towards Une, who sat quietly at her office desk with a receiver in her hands, spying in on their conversation.
"Good day." She closed the connection and prepared herself for their likely meeting in the bakery.
"It seems like they took the bait," replied Une, who dropped the receiver back into its holder. "That declaration of yours worked perfectly."
"Ah yes, but we'll see how Wednesday evening plays out." He had a pensive look on his face with his brow slightly furrowed. He was at a lost for words as to why the bakery was their meeting's location and not the embassy.
"Maybe she wants to show you their possible selections for their wedding cake," Une's voice brought him out of his train of thought.
"Could be."
88888
Wednesday night rolled around and Duo added the final touches to Heero's false wedding cake. He pulled a package of pastel candy flowers from a cabinet and clustered the blush colored flowers around the rim of the bottom layer. He shifted his focus to the middle and top layers. "He should be happy with this...it's my masterpiece." He wheeled the cake into the corner of the kitchen and cleaned up for the night.
The bells on the front door jingled announcing an arrival for his seven thirty appointment. Duo rushed out to the front and saw Heero and Relena stand in the middle of the room right under the cupcake shaped chandelier. "Right on time."
"Is everything set?" Heero looked to see if Treize and Lady Une were in the vicinity.
"The cake's finished...it's in the back right now." He spun around and entered through the kitchen's door. In minutes, he wheeled the metal cart with the three-layered wedding cake. "Is this okay?"
Relena stood in awe to see the cake for the first time. "It's beautiful." She knew she had to get the shock over quickly because she didn't want Treize or Lady Une to get a clue that their wedding plans haven't even been finalized yet.
"Well I'll leave the two of you alone then," before he left Hilde entered through the front door with Chip. "Hey babe, what are you doing here?" He looked at his watch and figured that she would be home at this hour.
"I was just in the city and thought I would stop by." She greeted Relena and Heero. "Am I interrupting something?" She looked over the setup that Duo created and saw the wedding cake on the cart. Her mind did the rest in connecting the puzzle and her blue eyes honed in onto Relena's left hand and saw the jewel shimmer slightly under the light. "You're...engaged...I thought the rumors were false." A shocked look glazed over her face.
"Guilty as charged," she smiled to herself.
"And who is the lucky fellow?" Her eyes widened with curiosity.
"Yes, do tell us who is this lucky fellow..." Treize appeared out of thin air with Lady Une walking in back of him. He held his small legal pad in his hands ready to take shorthand notes, while he signaled to Une to start the recording her mini cassette player.
Sweat drops started to line on her forehead, "Well you're looking right at him." Everyone turned their eyes to the stoic bodyguard, even Duo blinked a couple of times and played along with the game that Heero was playing. "That's right...you all can gasp as much as you want."
"How did you keep this under wraps for these two years?" his eyes held an investigative look.
"Simple...we chose not to disclose our plans to the public. I don't want reporters chasing after me all the time." She looked straight into his eyes. "And with Heero there, it was easy to have reporters become disillusioned."
"Point taken," he jotted a couple of more notes down onto his pad. "And what do you have to say, Heero?" his eyes darted to the bodyguard in the corner.
"Nothing...it's a private matter." He folded his arms around his chest and narrowed his eyes in trying to shrink Treize's ego down.
"A man of few words...I like that." He set his focus back onto Relena, and he was about to say something, but his attention diverted to the cake. "So tell me, who was the one that actually chose the cake?"
"It was a joint decision," Relena quickly interjected telling him a little white lie.
"I see." His eyes flickered at the response and noticed something didn't add up. Heero's keen eyes also noticed a change in Treize's assault of questions. "So tell me, Heero, is the cake chocolate or vanilla?"
Good thing he examined the details from Duo's mini presentation, "Vanilla," he placed his hands in the back pocket and waited for the next question. "You don't really trust us, do you?"
"I'm just trying to get the facts...that's all. The citizens have the right to know." He scribbled the mini conversation onto his pad...the lead could be heard scratching onto the thin paper. "When is your wedding by the way?"
The blood on their faces quickly drained and they knew they were stuck. Duo realized the situation and took Chip from Hilde's protective arms. He placed the little toddler on the floor and the boy started to crawl towards the two newcomers.
"Chip, don't you want your chocolate sauce?" Duo tapped the red plastic bowl on the floor and the boy quickly crawled towards the sound.
The boy giggled out loud and pushed the light bowl towards the newcomers again. "Cho-cola-te."
Une seemed amused for awhile and watched the boy lick the chocolate sauce. She looked towards Treize as if she wanted to have some children of her own and knew her biological clock was ticking. She scooped the boy in her arms and walked over to Treize along with the tape recorder that now dangled precociously on a thin wire from her wrist.
"So when is your wedding?" Treize pressed the matter even more and knew that the boy was a distraction to gather their thoughts.
Chip saw the man ahead of him and scrunched up his face, he didn't like it that the man wasn't paying any attention to him. His violet eyes saw something sparkle against the woman's wrist and made an attempt to grab the object. He started to wail and pointed to the small electronic device and Une quickly raised her left wrist to the boy's eye level. A small ohh escaped from his lips. He grabbed the object with his sticky fingers and started to fidget the numerous complex buttons on it.
"You shouldn't do that," she yanked the machine from the boy's tiny hands.
"What now?" Treize turned around unaware what had just occurred until he saw the mini tape spill out of it's tiny compartment. "The tape!"
"It was an accident, Treize," she put the boy down on the floor before Treize could react fully, since he was running on a deadline. "We have the info that we need and we should leave now."
"No we don't...they're still evading the issue. Something doesn't add up here and I'm going to find out if it's the last thing that I..."
A sound escaped from the kitchen as everyone was caught off guard. Before they knew it, the Asian baker appeared on the scene, "What's this?" Fire shown in his black eyes and knew that he couldn't trust his partner any longer.
"Hi there, Wu-man." Duo placed his hand on the back of his head, trying to lighten his mood, but was met with a spray of whip cream. He coughed the light substance from his mouth and knew this wasn't a good sign again.
"Get out!" He started firing at random and saw the little tot on the floor.
"Oh no you don't," Hilde picked a handful of the wedding cake and aimed it at the crazy baker. She raced over to her son's side and picked him up, evading the wrath of the mad baker. She instinctly ran to the kitchen and got out of the bakery.
"Damn woman! Your son has caused me this much grief!" He wiped away the white frosting from his eyes and eyed his next two targets...the pesky reporters. "You know...you reporters have some nerve to keep coming back here...you're starting to get on my nerves all of you."
Une noticed that he was gunning Treize due to the notepad in his hands, "Treize the notes!" She lunged towards him and pushed her boss away from the oncoming slew of chocolate sauce. She felt the sticky substance on her back and a laugh escaped her lips...she couldn't remember the last time she actually had a good laugh. Treize was taken aback from the sound coming from her and never really heard her laugh at all. "How are the notes?" She pulled herself off of him.
"They didn't survive," he pulled the pad from him and saw the lead was already smeared with chocolate. "Oh well." He threw it aside and tried to get up from the slippery floor. He got his footing and helped Une off her feet. The two noticed that Wufei was rearming his stock of pastry bags, "I think that's our cue to leave."
"You better leave or else...feel the wrath of strawberry jam now...muhahaha!"
With that cackle from Wufei, the two quickly disappeared into the city streets and never looked back. And now, the crazy baker shifted his attention to the remainder of his victims in the bakery. "Oh look now...the tables have turned," he smirked and held a pastry bag to the small group in front of him.
"What are you on, man? You've been whacked lately." Duo tried to grab one of the empty pastry bags on the ground. "Did you get bit by a rabid dog?"
"Funny...enough chit chat...it's time to settle the score."
Relena had enough of these two bickering entrepreneurs and looked for Heero's and hers mock wedding cake.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to stop this before this gets more worse between the two." She pulled away from Heero and slipped around the counter and found her target. She moved the cart into position and grabbed a fistful of cake in her hands. "Three can also be in this game," she hurled the ball of cake towards the mad bakers.
"Now who did that?" Wufei wiped a splotch of white frosting from his face. As for Duo, he looked in amazement that Relena threw the cake, he wouldn't have taken her to be a regular bystander at all from now on. Instead a thought passed through his mind, I betterstay clear from her when's mad.
"It was me...nitwit." She rearmed her hand with more cake.
"She got you there, Wu-man." A laugh escaped from him.
"A nitwit..." a stunned look came across the mad baker. "Who do you think you are WOMAN?"
"For your information, I'm just a regular customer that keeps coming here! And all I'm greeted with chocolate sauce and flour." She held her hand with confidence and prepared to launch another fistful of cake, "I'm not afraid to launch more of this cake! By the looks of it, you're about to run out of chocolate."
"Heh, that's what you think." He was about to reload his pastry bag when she threw the cake ball close to his hand.
"Shouldn't you two draw a truce instead?"
"Not until I give one last fight," he made one last battle cry.
Relena placed her free hand on her forehead, "When will these two grow up?"
"I think they never will," replied Heero. He grabbed a fistful of cake himself and threw it at the two warring bakers. "It looks like four can get into this game now."
By that time, all four of them were in an all out dodge ball of cake and chocolate sauces. Relena hid behind one of the glass displays that had an array of sauces on it caked with flour. She peeked up only to see a scene of chaos with Duo trying to stop the mad baker, but he was met with a floury demise. Wufei turned around and saw Relena's location.
"Where's Heero? Not here to protect you...eh?" He was about to squirt chocolate sauce at her, but she still held a fistful of cake. A splotch landed on his eyes again and she quickly ran to the corner. "It looks like I cornered you finally...muhahaha!"
"Guess again, Wufei." Heero stood behind him armed with a bag full of strawberry jam, "Revenge is so sweet."
The two went head to head in an all out assault of sauces. It looked like Heero had the upper hand, but then when he was about to reach for his secret cache of flour, he noticed it was missing from his back pocket.
"Looking for this?" He swung a bag full of flour. "Goodbye, Heero."
"Heero look out," Relena ran to his side and pushed him out of the way from the barrage of chocolate. The two landed on the ground with a thud.
"Shouldn't I be protecting you instead?" He wiped some of the chocolate off her back.
"Yeah...but it seems tables have been turned," she wiped a couple of stray hairs from her face. "I never had this much fun before," a chuckle escaped from her lips.
The two got up from the floor and found Duo behind a glass case. Before long, the three formed a new alliance and saw Wufei trying to reload his arsenal with more pastry bags. Duo moved the remnants of the cake into place, while Heero managed to corner Wufei. The three then grabbed fistful of cake into their hands, forcing Wufei to surrender.
"What do you say now...how about a truce? By the looks of it, we can pummel you with cake for the next ten minutes." Relena was about to launch the cake ball from her hands.
"All right, all right! I give in," a stubborn Wufei placed his hands in the air.
Outside the bakery, onlookers gathered at the front windows and all of them shouted for joy when the last final war finally ended. Duo came out to greet their fans and offered free goodies on the house, as a quick diversion to let Heero and Relena pass through the backdoors. Even Wufei went out with boxes full of donuts, cookies, and cupcakes.
"See it's not painful to surrender, isn't it Wu-fie?" He gave a cookie to one of the onlookers.
"Don't you ever call me that again!" he scowled.
Hilde emerged with Chip in her hands a moment later and saw the two men covered from head to toe, "It looks like the final war is over."
"Sure is, he finally surrendered."
"Good and now you two won't mind if I take Chip home. I'll see you later," she teased him with a kiss.
Back at the Herald, Treize and Une looked at the mess they were in. "It looks like this night was a disaster," Une was trying to get a stain out from her white silk blouse.
"Well not quite," Treize went over to her, "the notes are still somewhat legible and we do know that Relena is engaged to Heero."
"True." All of sudden, she grabbed the notes from him and tore them to little pieces.
"Why did you do that for?" He quickly gathered the sticky confetti.
"I think it's time we stop chasing a story and let them have their privacy." An image of Chip's eyes was embedded in her mind...she wanted a family of her own. "Let's get out of this business and move on." Her eyes held a sincere look in them for once and a softness he hadn't seen for a long while.
"All right then, let's start now." The move took her by surprise, figuring he wasn't the one to stop working.
The two left their resignation letters in their office and immediately called one of their copy editors to run the paper. But before their departure, Treize drafted one more article and gave it to Une for final approval, since it was short notice for the others. He concealed it in an envelope and slated it for press release in the morning's paper.
"That should do it. Let's go now." He led her out the door with both of their belongings in a cardboard box.
TBC