Running the Place
Chapter 3
By BakaDaz
Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing. I don't...do I hafta say it? Man...I don't own Quatre, in real life, can't stop my dreams though...*ahem* Anyways, all these other characters I made up quickly and they belong to me, *eck* Except Mr. Benford, I don't like him you can have him! ;)
i9:15, the next day/i
Mr. Benford had been looking around for Quatre. He hadn't seen him at breakfast because he had gotten there late. He had gotten there late because he had had a fight with that maid Meg about cleaning his room again. Mr. Benford looked into the small living room, to not find him there. So, he went up a staircase. He wondered if Quatre had left and not told him about that, if so, that was not good and he thought that as being (say it with me) very rude.
Three doors down from where Mr. Benford was, poor Cheryl was having a time trying to get the towels on the top shelf of a closet, that she had to take upstairs. She reached for it, standing on her tiptoes, with her fingers stretched out, and she still couldn't reach it. Someone saying, "What are you doing?" startled her.
She looked over to the door where Geoffrey was standing looking at her amusedly as she was trying to reach the top shelf. Cheryl glared at him for smirking at her like that, thinking this was funny. "Geoffrey, I need help. Can't reach the top shelf."
"So I noticed," he mocked.
"Come on Geoffrey," she whined.
Geoffrey rolled his eyes. "I'm doing this only because you're my favorite cousin," he said as he walked over to her.
As Geoffrey lifted her up by her feet and stood up best he could with her weight, she replied, "I'll try not to remember that I'm the only cousin you have."
"Hey, just hurry up, will ya?"
"Alright," she growled. "Don't rush me." She reached over for the towels in the back, but could almost but not quite, reach it. "Push me a little," she hissed. Geoffrey pushed her, a little too hard, and she fell into the cupboard.
"Whoops..."
"Ow, I said a little!" she yelled as she reached for a towel nearby. Geoffrey smirked at her. "I can't believe you can fit in there."
"Don't make fun of me because I'm a little shorter than you," she snapped. She dropped a towel down and he caught it, setting it on the pile she already had, except the pile only had 3 towels on it. But, Geoffrey, like Cheryl, was startled at someone's voice coming from the doorway. He turned to see Mr. Benford looking at him oddly.
Geoffrey bit his lip and waved to him. "Uh...hi." Cheryl dropped a towel down, and since Geoffrey wasn't paying attention, it bounced off his head and landed on the ground a little unfolded. He glared up at her and she stifled a giggle.
"It's Mr. barbarian, isn't it?" she whispered. He tried to keep from laughing, but the look on his face showed that.
"What's so funny?" Mr. Benford asked him sternly.
"Nothing," Geoffrey replied. "Really."
Mr. Benford raised a brow. "Do you happen to know where Mr. Winner is?" Then he waited for him to say that he was somewhere else, but he didn't.
"Um...I think he's in a meeting downstairs," he replied.
"Oh, is he?" Mr. Benford asked surprised. "Where?"
"...In the meeting room," Geoffrey replied sarcastically.
"Not too bright, is he?" Cheryl hissed.
Geoffrey grinned.
"What is so funny, now?" Mr. Benford asked.
"Huh? Oh, nothing..."
Mr. Benford straightened his coat and started walking off, down the hall to the stairs so he could go find Quatre. After he left, Cheryl jumped out of the cupboard and started to leave the room, too.
"Cheryl, where do you think you're going?" Geoffrey asked her.
Cheryl turned and looked at him, with a rather angry look. "He better have a good reason for bothering Master Quatre's meeting, and I'm not joking."
Geoffrey pointed around. "What about this?" he asked her.
'Oh yeah...' she thought. After a moment of silence she looked up to him and smiled. "What did you say? You'll take care of it for me? Thanks, cuz!" she yelled as she ran out.
"What?! Hey, come back here!" he yelled after her, but knew it was no use. "How do I get myself into these things?" he mumbled.
Quatre was in his meeting room, which was conveniently on the first floor for visitors. He was in a nice business suit, having a conversation with four other men in the room. One man asked Quatre if he would be attending the meeting next week. Quatre frowned and hoped that Mr. Benford would be gone by then, and said that he'd try. But, it was his duty to attend every meeting he could.
Mr. Benford was listening through the door, which was closed. And ask the meeting came to an end; he hurried over to the wall, and pretended like he was waiting patiently. Which he wasn't.
Cheryl glared at him from a room diagonal from him. She looked surprised as the meeting room door opened, and she hid in the room. Quatre came out, talking to two of the men about the Preventers. He paused when he saw Mr. Benford.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Winner," the men said as they nodded to him. He nodded back and watched them go, before he turned to Mr. Benford. "Mr. Benford, I suppose you wanted to see me?" Quatre asked him.
Mr. Benford nodded. "Yes, I did. I was wondering..."
"Do you have any gray pupa?" Cheryl mocked in a snobby tone.
"How much do you pay your workers?"
"Huh?" Quatre asked confused.
"Well, they're always giving me a hard time, and I was thinking that maybe it's because they don't get paid enough?"
Quatre couldn't believe that Mr. Benford couldn't tell they were giving him a hard time because he was bossy, snobbish, and they didn't like him. (Keeps Quatre from falling over anime style) "Oh...well...I'll have a talk with them, then," Quatre said, not really sure on how he should have replied.
"Good, good," Mr. Benford replied. "But not too much now, you don't want to spoil them."
Cheryl glared and reached for the nearest thing by her, which happened to be a broom. "'Don't spoil them'? You're the only one in this household that's spoiled," she muttered. Holding onto the broomstick so she didn't do anything stupid.
Quatre looked up when he saw his secretary coming down the hall. She had a mixed look on her face. "What's wrong, Donna?"
Donna reached Quatre and whispered something in his ear. "Really?" he asked her. She nodded. He grinned.
"What's going on? It's very rude to whisper in public," Mr. Benford growled.
"I've...got to go, Mr. Benford," Quatre told him, and ran off. Mr. Benford raised a brow as he left, wondering where he was going. He looked over toward the secretary, but she merely looked back at him and silently walked off.
Quatre came into his office and looked around. No doubt, the man standing by his desk with his arms crossed, looking rather calm and patient was a friend of his. "Rashid," Quatre said happily as he came through the door. He hadn't seen his friend in a month or two.
"Master Quatre," Rashid replied in his deep voice. "You were right about the earth. I'm sorry."
Quatre frowned. "No, Rashid, don't be. I guess someone like me, born in outer space a secondary area from earth and had gone down to earth in a time of crisis would see it much different."
"Master Quatre. You know I have a sense of pride and it's very difficult for me to have said that."
"I know, Rashid, thanks."
"For what?" Rashid's arms fell to their sides, and he looked at him for a moment as Quatre sighed and fixed his collar on his business suit.
"The earth should be a place for peace, as should the colonies. And even though this is my home, I feel that the earth should go first. That's why Miss Relena has such a big impact on people."
Rashid nodded in agreement.
Quatre walked over and looked out his window, sighing. He started to go into a world of thought, when a knock at the door interrupted him. (Take a guess at who it is...)
"Mr. Winner," Mr. Benford's voice could be heard through his thinking. Quatre turned around and looked at him.
"Mr. Benford?"
Mr. Benford walked through the door, giving Rashid a look and turning back to Quatre. "Mr. Winner, you did not excuse yourself, you know."
"I'm sorry," Quatre mumbled. He should have remembered that too.
"That's quite alright. I'm just here to say that I am going to use that television again, so that is where I will be."
Quatre nodded. "Yes."
"If you need me," Mr. Benford added.
"Oh, yes," Quatre said. 'Emphasize on the word "if",' he thought.
Mr. Benford nodded to him as he left the room, giving Rashid another glance. As soon as he left Quatre sighed.
"Who's that?"
Quatre turned back to Rashid. "Someone who is staying with us. Sadly he looks down on other people and is the greatest person to be around."
"Why is he here?"
Quatre shrugged. "He was originally staying here just because he was passing through and didn't want to stay at a hotel. But now, he's been staying for quite a while..."
"Hm…"
There was a moment of silence for a moment before Quatre went over and slid into his chair. He pulled a paper out of his desk, grabbed a pen, and wrote something down. Rashid raised an eyebrow and looked at him for a bit. Then Quatre held the paper out to him. Rashid walked over and took the paper, skimming through it with his eyes.
"Master Quatre?"
"You wouldn't be able to do this for me will you, Rashid? I don't think I'll be able to make it to that meeting." Quatre frowned at what he was saying. But he knew he couldn't just kick Mr. Benford out. But he was too afraid to leave Mr. Benford here along with everyone else, in fear there'd be nothing left when Quatre got back. Besides, it would be impolite to do that.
"Yes, Master Quatre. I'll get to work on this now." Rashid went to the door and nodded to him. "Open or closed?"
"Open, please? I need the air to circulate in here." Quatre replied. Rashid nodded again and left the room.
Quatre ran his fingers through his hair (Oooo, I wanna do that) and went back to thinking. There had to be a way to get Mr. Benford out of his house and back to where he came from, before he hurts someone or someone tries to hurt him. He chuckled at the thought of all the maids chasing Mr. Benford out of the house with buckets and brooms and kitchen pots. Most likely someone would try to hurt him first.
"Master Quatre," someone hissed from the door. Quatre looked up and saw a girl with short brown hair and blue eyes looking at him. "Master Quatre, can I talk to you?"
It was Tasha. "Yeah, sure, come in…" Quatre pointed to the chair in front of his desk. Tasha came in and sat down in it. She looked at him for a moment. Her eyes like daggers, even if she tried not to show it, he could feel it and see the anger in her eyes.
"If that man says something about my cooking like he did this morning..." she says in a somewhat warning tone. "Master Quatre, you've got to do something about him."
"What am I supposed to do?" Quatre asked her, as if she had the answer. She didn't. Because all she did was shrug.
"Uh...Master Quatre," came another voice from the doorway.
Tasha turned around in her seat to see who was at the door. It was Cheryl. Quatre looked up to her. "Yes?"
"I agree with Tasha. I have no patience left with that guy. He's crazy." Cheryl came into the room as she spoke and stopped next to Tasha's chair, leaning onto the table.
"Cheryl, do you have any ideas for getting rid of him..."
"Kick him out!"
"...properly."
"You mean we can't kick him out?" she asked sadly. "But, Master Quatre!"
"What am I supposed to say? 'You get on our nerves could you kindly leave'?" His answer was two grins from Cheryl and Tasha. "No. I'm not going to do that."
Well, it seemed like more than Cheryl had been eavesdropping, because they all started popping into the room, agreeing with what the other two were saying. It started to get so loud, even in Quatre's rather large office; Quatre put his hands up and asked them all to calm down.
"What do you think?"
"Run him out!" Meg cried.
"Run him out?" Quatre asked her.
"Yeah, like, don't do anything he says and make him want to leave."
"And tell him to do things for us?" Cheryl asked cheerfully. She wanted to leave her coat on the 1st floor and have him climb up and down a couple floors to go get it. She grinned evilly at the idea.
"Yeah!" Meg said happily. Everyone in the room started talking about it.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." Quatre said. "You mean you want to teach him a lesson? Is that what you're getting at?" The girls all nodded and answered him with 'yes' and 'oh yeah'. Quatre looked over to Geoffrey who nodded at him, thinking it sounded like a marvelous idea.
Quatre sighed and thought about it. They could do that...couldn't they? And they could even get help from people who specialized in that sort of stuff. Slowly, but surely, a smile appeared on Quatre's face. Everyone saw it and got quiet. Last time Quatre got a look like that, everyone had to take showers to get paint out of their hair.
"Donna," Quatre said looking through the girls to find his secretary. Donna pushed pass some of the girls and went up to him. "Donna, could you get some of my friends on the line?"
"Some of your friends, Master Quatre?" she asked him. He had a smile on his face that gave her the answer to her question she was going to ask. "Ohh..." she said understandingly. She smiled back. "You bet, Master Quatre."
Quatre patter her on the shoulder. "Thank you, Donna. Tomorrow, alright?"
"Okay," she said, now quite cheerful. She pushed pass all the people again.
"Everyone," Quatre said, getting everyone's attention again. "Tomorrow, you can work less. But just for tomorrow. And don't start this until my friends get here and I ask you to." Everyone nodded and cheered Quatre on for being so brave. They all started scrambling out of the office discussing tomorrow. Quatre sighed as they all left. 'I hope I don't get a heavy conscience tomorrow,' he thought as they all left.
Yay! The end of chapter 3! I can tell that this story is going to be 5 chapters long. Can you guess which 4 guys are going to be in the next chapter? ...Um, if you said Goku, Gohan, Trunks and Vegeta...then you're wrong. If you said Duo, Heero, Trowa and Wu-man...then you are right! Good job, you've been paying attention.
P.S. I know this chapter wasn't very good, I wanted to get to the next chapter. I already know what I'm going to put, so watch for it soon!
