NOTE
This in a sequel, people which means there's a fic out there before this one that you should read first in order to get this one. However if you are too lazy to do that or don't want to then here is a brief summary so you won't be completely lost. In the original fic Rome and Paris, an alternate universe type thing Noin and Heero are actually siblings named Rome and Paris. Through a series of events everyone else finds this out while Rome and Paris are being threatened by an unknown bad guy later revealed as their cousin Cecil. Cecil is killed though and while both Rome and Paris are injured they're alive and well. Original characters you should know about are Julian (a good cousin) Sue Ling (his assistant and bodyguard) and Asia (Quatre's secretary). Some of this will still be confusing but in that case you'll just have to read the original lol.
Plotting A Plan
Quatre Winner sat behind his desk and brooded as he stared at the letter sitting on his desk. The contents of the letter had been enough to send shivers down his spine and he left cold even though it was still summery warm outside his office. He'd called the guys to his office because he'd promised them he would and frankly he wanted their help. He felt way too over his head at the moment and he knew that he could count on his friends to yank him out and figure out how to keep him up. Hearing a knock on his door Quatre looked up and called out enter, watching Asia open the door as his four best friends trooped in, taking seats on the couches Quatre had had put in his office to give it a more welcoming appearance. Waiting till Asia had closed the door behind her Quatre sighed then picked up the letter. "I got another one and it's bad. Really bad."
"How bad?" Trowa wanted to know, concern on his face though only his friends could see it or knew where to look for that matter.
"A week ago I had a business lunch with one of my advertising executives, Emily Gardens. My..the letter writer mentioned it, saying all these terrible things like calling an Emily a whore and things like that. She also said that she was going to make an example of Emily. Of what happens to anyone who tries to take me away from her. I called Emily at work...she wasn't there. She's in the hospital right now for an extreme allergic reaction to almonds. The thing is she knows about it and no one can figure out how finely diced almonds found there way into her dinner at a restaurant yesterday."
"Holy Cow." Duo said with a surprised then really worried look. "You think this psycho somehow managed to get in and tampered with this Emily's food?"
"I talked to Emily's secretary and she said that Emily goes to that restaurant all the time, that it's her favorite. The cooks there know she's allergic to almonds and she's always sure to ask the waiters about them whenever she's ordering something she's never had before since her reaction to them is so severe." Quatre said with a guilty and sorry look. Logically he knew this was none of his fault, that he'd done nothing wrong but that didn't stop the little voice in his head that said this was his fault. That Emily was in the hospital, her family and friends suffering because of him.
"I know that look and stop thinking that right now or we'll have to hurt you." Paris ordered with a dark look in his eyes. Quatre would blame himself for just about anything if you gave him half the chance. "None of this is your fault so don't you dare think that it was. You couldn't have known that she was having you watched or that she'd do something like this as a result."
"Well it's pretty safe to say that this is a stalker and not a shy admirer now." Trowa said calmly though this was bugging him too. He knew that Quatre was going to blame himself no matter what they said and he hated to see Quatre beat himself up over things that he couldn't have foreseen or prevented. "We've had no leads on the paper and even less from having Quatre watched to see if we could spot someone following him. Whoever this person is they're good and well organized."
"So the question remains how the hell are we going to find this wacko?" Duo said with a hot look, fired up and ready to beat this bitch up for putting such a miserable and hurt look on Quatre's face. "I mean odds are she's only gonna get worse before she gets better."
)
"And that no female is going to be safe around me. I mean my god the most physical contact Emily and I had at that lunch was shaking hands and passing each other the salt and pepper." Quatre said as he tried his best not to slump in his seat. "It's like she views every available woman near me as a threat to her."
"Which may be the key to all this." Trowa said with a thoughtful look on his face as he weighed the pros and cons of the idea. "It seems to me that we need to catch her doing something along the lines of what she did to this Emily before we can prove she's really done anything wrong. Sure the letters would be enough to give her a slap on the wrist but if we can't prove she's been deliberately hurting people then she's not really going to pay, much less get the help she needs."
"But how are we supposed to catch her in the act if we don't even know who she is?" Wufei wanted to know though he had a feeling he knew where Trowa was going with this. "Unless of course we knew who she was going to strike." Wufei said slowly, watching Trowa as the two shared a look of understanding.
"'But how would we know that...unless we made sure that she had a definite competitor." Duo said slowly, answering his own question. "If there was someone who was a real threat to her happily ever after then she'd go after that person and we'd be waiting to nab her for it."
"Are you talking about getting some poor woman to play bait?" Quatre said, his eyes going wide with horror at the very thought. "There is no way I'm letting you guys do that. I'm not going to have some girl risk her life like that."
"To really push her though they'd have to seem like they were beyond close, lovers at the very least." Paris said, the four completely ignoring Quatre who continued to forbid them to do this. "And they'd have to spend a lot of time together which isn't easy with his schedule and workload. The media will pick up on it of course which will help but that won't be enough if there isn't plenty of zing to it."
"Not to mention she's libel to be suspicious if Quatre suddenly turns up with a lover since she's been watching, not to mention studying him. She knows too much about him to think that he'd casually take a lover and we need her mad enough to be rash, to not think things through thoroughly." Wufei pointed out logically as they hashed out the plan and its flaws. "It would be best if we could use someone with some sort of connection to Quatre. A woman she knows he has contact with on a regular basis and therefore has had the chance to get closer to him."
"There isn't one like that." Quatre said as le leapt on the comment, thinking if he could prove enough flaws they'd drop it. "It's true that I have plenty of female employees but I don't spend much time in the company of any of them. As for female friends I have those two but most of them are married, involved with someone or past history has shown we didn't suit."
"You mean when push comes to shove you really have no social life or luck with the ladies, Q man." Duo said dryly. "But there has to be someone."
"There isn't. The only female I spend huge chunks of time with is..." Quatre began then stopped but it was too late.
)
"Asia. You spend more time with Asia then you do sleeping or eating." Paris said as a slow smile crossed his face as the plan took shape. "And she's with you all the time, knows you better then anyone else and to top it all off she's a babe. Perfect."
"You are not using Asia as bait and that's final!" Quatre practically yelled, surprising everyone in the room since Quatre hardly ever raised his voice, especially without an apology right after. But he was serious and he wasn't sorry. There was no way he was going to let them risk his personal assistant/secratary be used as bait for some twisted maniac who would do lord only knows what to Asia is she ever got her hands on her. "I won't allow it."
"Using me as bait for what?" Asia wanted to know from the doorway, having been about to come in and offer the guys coffee. She'd been about to knock when she'd heard Quatre's loud declaration and since they were talking about her she thought it only fair that she be allowed to open the door and eavesdrop to see what they were saying about her. "Because I should state now that I absolutely hate fishing and think it's inhumane."
"It's nothing, absolutely nothing. And you know you should knock." Quatre said, his feathers thoroughly ruffled as he sent the guys looks that said to keep their mouths shut.
"Well it's you so it's not like I could ever walk in on you doing something inappropriate." Asia pointed out as she wandered into the room, taking a seat on the arm rest of one of the couches like she owned the place. "I mean if I ever walked in here to find you even kissing someone I'd die from the shock. Now what is it you don't want these guys telling me, Boss man?"
"This is why people think I was crazy for hiring you. You treat me like I'm the employee instead of the other way around." Quatre muttered under his breath darkly. "And it's not important."
"Asia, I take it you know how to handle yourself in dangerous situations right?" Duo said as he sent her a just ignore Quatre look.
)
"You mean like Paris in the morning when he hasn't had any coffee yet?" Asia said with a cheeky grin then did her best not to chuckle at the look on Quatre's face. Her boss was way too stressed about something. "And yes I can handle myself in most any situation I find myself in. I kick ass real good and I'm pretty handy with a gun if need be. Why? Am I going to be a plant somewhere? Undercover mission?" Asia asked, her eyes brightening at the very idea. "Tell me, tell me." Asia demanded as she practically vibrated with eagerness.
"Actually we'd need you to pretend to be Quatre's lover so that we can catch a crazy stalker who's after him and has shown herself to be violent." Duo replied bluntly even as Quatre sputtered out a protest. "Interested?"
"A stalker? Someone..is stalking Quatre?" Asia demanded to know as her blue eyes went as big as saucers. "Violent...she hurt you?" Asia said as her eyes went even wider with panic and she was out of her seat and at Quatre's side in a moment, looking him over anxiously as she tugged him closer. "What did she do? Why didn't you tell me? How bad are you hurt? Damn it say something!"
"I'm okay, Asia. It wasn't me she hurt." Quatre said softly, touched that she would worry about him but then again she tended to know when to worry and when to yell at him. Sometimes she did both just for the hell of it too. "And I don't want you doing this so don't worry about it. Then again..why hasn't she gone after you? I actually hug you and we're way closer then Emily and I."
"Emily? Who the hell is Emily? And are you saying she's going after your girlfriends? I thought I knew all your girlfriends..if you can even call them girlfriends since you treat them like your sisters half the time." Asia said looking both confused and worried at the same time. This was so very confusing.
"I do not treat them like my sisters and Emily Gardens. Remember I had lunch with her a little while ago. A business lunch which unfortunately wasn't viewed as such." Quatre said with a sigh even as he tried to figure out why she hadn't been a target. Not to mention that all these little digs about his relationships with women were getting more then a tad annoying. "Why weren't you a target?"
"Because you'd never date a girl like me if I were the last woman on the planet and it was up to us to repopulate the world." Asia pointed out logically with a wide grin on her face while Quatre's jaw looked ready to hit the carpet. "Okay, okay so maybe you'd guilt yourself into it. But seriously if this stalker knows you then she knows that I'm no threat simply in that I don't date guys like you and you don't date girls like me. I mean look at it this way, Quatre. If I saw a guy I was dating talking to a mousy bookworm type lady I'd be a lot less likely to get territorial and possessive then say if he was talking to a blonde bombshell with a huge rack. Just like if she saw you with me she'd see a businessman with an employee, nothing more. Hell you spend over a quarter of your life in my company and never once has there even been a whiff of gossip about us being a couple. I mean come on, think about it."
)
"She has a point, guys. There is no way Quatre could bag someone like Asia." Duo said with a sad look on his face. He'd just gotten a great idea and now he just had to make Quatre fall into the trap.
"What do you mean I couldn't ever get a girl like Asia? Why couldn't I?" Quatre demanded to know getting insulted even if it wasn't the time or the place for it. So okay he wasn't a stud like Duo but he could get girls thank you very much.
"Well because you're just too nice." Paris said picking up on where Duo was going with this. "I mean if they were looking for the poster boy for Victorian male ideals then you'd be perfect for it. You're just too damn goody goody for girls like Asia. You wouldn't know what to do with a girl like her either for that matter. Come to think of it I'd imagine they'd scare the hell out of guys like you. If there were guys like you which I've yet to meet."
"I am not a goody goody." Quatre argued, starting to get more then a little worked up about all this. They were his friends damn it. They were suppose to be on his side. "And Asia's a great girl, any guy would be glad to have her for a boyfriend."
"And yet you've never made a move on her." Trowa pointed out, doing his best not to smirk at the look on Quatre's face. Obviously the idea had never come into Quatre's pure, choir boy mind. "Face it, Quatre. You wouldn't know how to properly pick up a girl if your life depended upon it. There is no way you'd ever be able to convince anyone you were involved with Asia even if you made it your life's work. There are just some things you can't do and this is definitely one of them. We were idiots to even think you two could pull it off."
"I could to." Quatre argued as he fell oh so neatly into their trap. "There is absolutely no reason why I couldn't get a girl like Asia if I set my mind to it."
"And I could too pull it off if I wanted to though admittedly only someone of my talents and character could pull it off." Asia added with a huff, not even realizing that she was not only locking the door behind them but sealing it shut.
"Then it's settled. Provided of course that Asia is willing to play along with our little plan." Duo said with a grin while Quatre gapped at him like a fish, slowly realizing that he'd been played and walked blindly into the trap they'd set for him. "It'll be dangerous though so if you don't want to do it that's fine too. Odds are you'll be safe but as in everything there's just no guarantees."
"I'll do it." Asia said with a shrug, her agreement only making Quatre gap more. She considered Quatre a good friend, like a brother sorta and she wasn't going to just sit around while some crazy bitch made his life a living hell. The only one that was allowed to mess with Quatre's head was her and she'd never been good at sharing. She'd show that bitch exactly what happened when someone got it into their head to cause problems for a friend of hers. "I've been wanting to turn him into a normal man for months now and this is my chance. Plus it should be fun and someone needs to take care of him. If this stalker goes after him she's going to have to get through me first and no one hurts my boss man but me."
"I am normal." Quatre said in a horrified voice, his mind centered on Asia's offhanded comment.
"No you aren't. Normal guys don't go to the opera, wear pink and consider a kiss on the mouth a big step in the relationship." Asia said dryly, amused when Quatre's color went up. "But don't worry, no drastic changes. Luckily for you my hair appointment got rescheduled for tomorrow so you won't have to be going around with a girl with white and black hair like I planned. Guess I'll go for just black, try to look more the part of your girl. But don't think I'm going to change my style, no guy is worth becoming like all those senators and politicians women. I mean for god sakes pastels?" Asia said with a shudder just thinking about it.