DISCLAIMER: I'm sure you've heard it all before. I don't own the characters, blah, blah, blah, I'm just borrowing them for a while, so on and so forth…
000000000000000000000000000
This is for coffee lovers everywhere!
000000000000000000000000000
The Preventor's, like any military organization, depended on running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, leap years included.
Like any organization run by a world government, it was given a yearly budget not to exceed except in emergencies.
The personnel who ran the Preventor's, on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, worked 90 percent of said days.
And, like most people required to work that kind of schedule, the relied heavily on coffee to get them through said days.
Very heavily.
Sadly, given the Preventor's yearly budget during peace time was at most... borderline.
This made the coffee purchased through the Preventor's budget borderline as well. That is, borderline within budget standards anyway.
Personally, by popular opinion, the coffee was worse than McDonald's coffee.
That's pretty damn horrible.
Mind you, Preventor Personnel had every opportunity to get, make, or bring in their own coffee to their work space.
No one did.
This was for two reasons.
One: No one wanted to have to pay for it out of their own pocket.
Two: No one wanted to become one of the 'coffee people.'
The 'coffee people' were people who made or brought in their own coffee. Good coffee.
Once word got out that you had access to good coffee, anyone and everyone would be coming to you for a good cup of coffee.
It was generally accepted that the chemicals in the tab water did a better job of waking someone up than Preventor's coffee did.
This sadly, wasn't much.
But one pilot had a secret. The best kept secret in the Preventor's for ten years running.
The best coffee the Preventor's would likely ever see.
Building the coffee machine unnoticed had taken him ten months, but it had all been worth it.
It started with fresh coffee beans imported direct from Colombia to a disclosed location under an alias of his.
Then, it was ground to perfection and adjusted to his taste with his own hands, made to just the right strength. It was a recipe he constantly improved upon.
It was his greatest achievement.
However, that secret became unclassified as of one week ago.
This was much to his disappointment…
…and great annoyance.
He'd been called to lady Une's office early that morning for a semi emergency. In his hurry, he'd left his coffee sitting on his desk unsupervised.
Duo had then walked into his office looking for him concerning the call to Lady Une's office. Spying the coffee sitting on his desk, and in desperate need of caffeine, he'd snatched the coffee up in an instant.
The word got out in under an hour over the whole base.
He had found the best coffee ever. Duo was not one to lie after all.
People had come to his office all day asking for a cup of coffee. People he had never seen or met in his life.
A lot fewer people came asking for the coffee the next day. Incidentally, people were no longer curious at his insistence of bullet proofing his office spaces.
000000000000000000000000000
Lady Une stood a few doors down from his office, wondering to herself how she was going to pull this off.
She had a meeting in half an hour, meaning she had half an hour to wake up.
And just down the hall was the best coffee ever.
Duo had worked at the Preventor's for eight years now, and she knew he didn't lie. They both knew the truth had much more bite to it.
She glanced at her watch. Twenty five minutes, not including the five minutes it would take to get to the boardroom.
She didn't have time to waste. If the first attempt didn't work, then she would try another. The only thing she was certain of was that she was getting a taste of that coffee before the meeting started. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Knocking briefly on his office door, she walked in without being asked to enter.
Being General had its perks.
He was sitting behind his desk. A coffee cup was in his hand! Yes! But as she walked up to his desk, she saw that it was empty, though steam still rose from the bottom.
Just missed it! Drat!
She glanced at the cheap coffee pot sitting in the corner; cheap Preventor's coffee sitting next to it. A decoy she now knew.
"I don't suppose I could simply convince you to give me a cup of coffee?" She asked with a sigh. "I'd be willing to compensate you for it." She bargained.
He gave her a cool gaze before uttering a long grunt. "Hnn." Often used by him in contemplation of something, but also as a polite way of saying no.
"I could pull rank on you." She threatened half heartedly, giving him a glare.
He gave her an equal glare in response before adding, "It would never hold."
He was right too. No one knew the military jurisdiction of the Preventor's than him.
She sighed again. "It was an empty threat anyway." She mumbled.
He seemed to have heard her however, as he smirked in response.
She would wipe that smirk off his face…
It was time to pull out the big guns.
Taking off her glasses, she rubbed her eyes and acted as though she were rubbing the back of her neck. Subtly undoing the bun in her hair, letting it cascade down her back.
She leaned forward on his desk, showing just a hint of cleavage.
"Please?" She asked softly, giving the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.
He actually began to fidget for a moment.
Hot damn. She hadn't actually expected to get a reaction out of him. She hadn't used that trick since high school!
She still had it! Oh, yeah!
However, he kept his emotions tightly locked. Although she did see emotion flash through his eyes, she just couldn't identify what it had been. She had her suspicions, but…
Grunting in frustration, she grabbed him by the collar of his uniform and jerked him forward.
He had a gun pulled half way out of its holster when she forcibly invaded his mouth with her own, where she locked him for a good ten seconds before releasing him.
She took a breath and licked her lips thoughtfully. "Wow. That is the best coffee ever made!"
Buttoning her blouse, she placed her glasses back on and quickly placed her hair back into a bun. And with a self satisfied smirk, she marched out of his office.
She remembered him commenting to her how he'd been lost his entire life.
At that point, she doubted he had ever looked so lost in his entire life either.
000000000000000000000000000
Heero looked down at his empty cup of coffee.
A cup of coffee every morning for Une was a small price to pay for one's emotional sanity, he decided.