Pagan vs. Heero round 2
Pagan was feeling rather happy with himself lately. He'd thwarted Heero Yuy again the night before, having arranged to calmly walk by her door just as he made his final approach.
He longed to place his own cameras in the corridors near Miss Relena's quarters, but knew that she would never approve. She would consider it an invasion of her privacy. Being so closely watched by security, she once had told him, was bad enough. And that was for her own protection. Any more, and she was likely to feel like an attraction at the zoo.
Pagan was sure that Miss Relena would not enjoy thinking he was following her every move as well.
He sighed, and continued his inspection of the new gardener's work. Miss Relena had taken such a liking to Lily-of-the-Valley when she'd discovered it growing in the rear gardens, that Pagan had instructed it to be transplanted nearer the house. He could see the new man had not wasted any time; there were dozens of them in the rows by the patio, filling the air with their gentle scent. Perhaps he should arrange to have some in vases throughout the Palace? Certainly Miss Relena would enjoy one in her room.
Pagan froze, and frowned, his subconscious had picked up that something was wrong. He listened but heard nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly the birds did not sense anything; for they still chatted to one another, singing their happy tunes. Slowly he straightened himself, his gaze sweeping an arc across the gardens. Nothing odd there either. The new gardener was there, tilling the soil in preparation for more transplants.
Pagan examined the man. He had had to let the last one go, after he'd been caught taking pictures of Miss Relena. He'd sworn they were for his own use, but Pagan could not be so sure. Tabloids were always willing to pay big money for candid shots. It did not matter how innocent the subject matter, tabloids could insinuate anything.
However, this man did not seem to be paying any attention at all to the Palace. He seemed to be in his element, digging in the earth. And there was no sign of a camera hidden anywhere on his person. In fact, Pagan narrowed his eyes, there was no place on this man one could hide a camera. He wore no shirt; his tanned and muscled torso was exposed to the sunshine. He wore only an ageing pair of boots and a long pair of shorts; shorts which, as the breeze changed, Pagan could see hid nothing.
Narrowed eyes became a definite frown. This was unacceptable. He could not let his 'granddaughter's' sensibilities be offended. (His subconscious also told him he didn't want to see Miss Relena possibly ogling this man. He could only deny that she was growing up so long as nothing happened to shake him out of that belief. And he would not allow that to come to pass.)
Yes, the new gardener definitely needed a lesson on the proper attire to wear when on the Peacecraft estate. And now was the best time for that lesson.
As Pagan was traversing the paths between flower beds, however, the man in question looked up. And not at him. Pagan gritted his teeth and turned, expecting to see the very girl he was trying to protect. His brain worked to find a distraction before he could greet her, something to divert her attention from the half naked man behind him.
Only Miss Relena was not there. No one was. A little disoriented, Pagan turned back to the gardener, but the man was still intently watching something. He followed his gaze over to the Palace, up to the roof specifically, and there he saw movement. He squinted, focusing on the form clad in a mottled brown, perfectly matching that of the roof tiles. There, was none other than Heero Yuy, kneeling on the roof and attempting to swing over the eaves trough onto a balcony. Miss Relena's personal balcony.
Pagan was disgusted with himself that the gardener had seen Heero, while he hadn't. So much for the training he'd been doing, to hone his senses for this very purpose. He was also disgusted with Heero Yuy, for making his self appointed duties of protecting Miss Relena so difficult. Honestly, the roof?
Determined, once again, to hide his ire, Pagan cleared his throat rather loudly. "Ahem. Master Heero?"
No movement, but then again, Pagan had expected that. Heero never gave up immediately when caught. He liked to make you question yourself first, before he confirmed what you suspected.
"Master Heero, is there something wrong with one of the security cameras on the roof?"
Heero hid his smirk. "Malfunction," was all he said, then, "easily correctable."
"I see," intoned the butler, not fooled for a second. He knew exactly why the young man was up there, and exactly what it was his duty to prevent. "Is there anything you need?" He asked in a remarkably light tone of voice. "Tools or parts?"
Heero only shook his head briefly. No, he had all he needed.
After making a show of dismantling one of the security cameras, examining and adjusting it before rebuilding it, Heero took his leave. Both the gardener and our butler were stunned, however, when he did so by jumping directly to the ground. Relena's rooms were on the third floor, and there was another story above that before the roof began. Pagan had heard stories of the exploits of this young man, had been amazed and awed that anyone was capable of such things, but he had always taken the more extreme ones with a grain of salt. Yet this young man had just jumped more than fifty feet, and landed as though it were but five!
Pagan was incapable of speech as Heero calmly walked away. If this were his adversary, he needn't feel too poorly about not seeing him on the roof.
This reminded him of the gardener, and the little chat he needed to have with him. "Mister Brown," he began...
