Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews again. Disclaimers go as usual.
Without further ado, here's chapter 10!! ^^
*****
The Doughboy
"Oh, Heero," she whispered. He nodded in response. The two stood in a pink rose garden and it was nightfall. In the background, some music was heard and Heero began to waltz with her. The smell of the freesia along with pink roses overwhelmed Heero and his senses. Relena had placed her head on his shoulders and allowed Heero to lead her in the dance. The two continued to waltz until the music had stopped. By that time, clouds began to appear in the low horizon and the smell of rain was apparent. "It looks like it's going to rain. We should head back now before the downpour. Everyone's probably wondering what happened to us." Relena then began to walk towards the park's exit, but Heero gently jerked her back towards him.
"Stay for a little longer." His eyes were filled with the feeling of desire. With an instant, Heero enveloped Relena with his arms and looked into her blue eyes, searching within her soul. His warm embrace lulled her into a trance of romance. The two stood there, as it seemed time stood still for the two lovers. The winds began to pick up and the pink roses began to sway in the wind. The smell of rain was getting closer.
"Heero, I think we should go now." She looked pleadingly into his Persian eyes.
"Relena.just wait." he whispered under his breath. He moved closer to her and felt her warmth against his chest. His lips moved closer to hers and he felt her pulse quicken.
A couple of raindrops began to fall on their faces, but that didn't deter Heero. He continued to kiss her until they both gasped for air. He kissed her again and Relena just melted in his embrace, as he continued. Right then, a sudden downpour came across the two lovers, drenching Relena's light lilac printed dress and Heero's white shirt.
She pulled him away for one brief moment and looked into his eyes, and saw the man that she had fallen in love with. She saw him standing there with water running through his hair and his breathing rapid. She looked into her own heart and realized what she wanted, the desire to be next to him throughout time.
"Heero."
The two became locked again with each of them kissing and caressing one another. This time none of them stopped to take a breather. With the rain continue to fall, the two managed to find shelter under a gazebo, where it kept most of the rain out.
Heero had gently laid Relena on the cold marble floor and for a while, the two kissed and Heero began to unzip her lilac dress. As for Relena, she felt his warm hands roam around her back and she began to undress him. The two looked into each other's eyes and saw their future unfold.
In the distance, voices were heard calling out their names. "Ms. Peacecraft are you out here?" It was Riley calling in the distance. She was followed by Aidan, who wasn't too far behind from her and he called out for Heero. "Hey, Riley, let's get back to the party. We're going to be missing the delicious food."
"I'm not leaving until I find the two of them. If you want, you can run back and look like a fool in front of all of the guests." With that, Riley kept walking throughout the rose garden in hopes of finding the renegade couple, while Aidan became silent on their little scavenger hunt.
"Why do they have to spoil the moment?" whispered Relena. "Oh, Heero." She looked into his eyes as they began to kiss again.
"Beep.beep.beep.."
"What?!? NO!!! It was just getting to the good part!" Relena found herself on the floor of her bedroom, wrapped up in her white blanket. She got up and slammed her snooze button again, in hopes of catching a few more z's, and she then fell back onto her bed. For the next few minutes, pictures from the night before toyed with her mind. She was about to fall asleep for the second time but "BEEP BEEP!! BEEP!!" Her alarm rang obnoxiously again, but with a louder tone than a normal alarm.
"Not again, I guess it wasn't meant to be." She peeped from her covers and saw the fluorescent green digits show 5:30A.M. After a couple of minutes of moaning to herself, she finally got up and started her usual morning routine of taking two cups of coffee.
*****
Across town, Duo and Wufei were already up and running about in their little bakery with their ovens all-baking away either filled with golden brown croissants, chocolate fudge brownies, and éclairs. While in two brass pots filled with cooking oil, doughnuts were being made.
Duo noticed that Wufei wasn't his "usual" self because he knows that Wufei's workstation table was a little messy. "Hey pal, what's up with your messy table? You usually have a pet peeve about disorganization." He then held up a questionable object, which was a pair of feminine pantyhose.
Wufei quickly grabbed those out of Duo's grasp and lashed out at him, "Can't a guy a be a little messy at times. Even, if I'm Mr. Punctual to you, it doesn't mean I always have to live by the book."
"I think you're evading the subject at hand," giving him a questionable look. "I always thought that you practiced what you preached!"
"Never mind. End of subject."
With that, Duo went back to Wufei's table and noticed the flour patterns on it. He also began to stare at Wufei's neckline, which had a little red mark on it.
"It looks like someone had a little too much fun in here." quipped Duo.
"I think the same can be applied to you at Hilde's."
"Whatever, I'm going to work on that cake right now." He then ran over to his table and minded his own business for the day. After mixing the ingredients, a yellow batter began to take shape and he then dumped it into the baking pan. He then set the oven and placed the tray inside.
An evil grin was plastered on Wufei's face as he looked towards the direction of Duo, "That fool, he doesn't know what he's in for. He didn't even re-measure his ingredients especially the baking powder and flour. He doesn't even know that I switched the powder with baking soda, since they all look the same!!! Hehehe!! I finally got him where I wanted him to be in the first place, turning this bakery into a mockery. I'll show him."
"Anything wrong, Wufei?"
"Oh nothing, just nothing." He went back to his folding of his dough to prepare a batch of French bread.
*****
Two streets over and down a couple of blocks, Heero was already up and the first thing he did was in the surveying of his kitchen sink. Within the metal indentation, the water was a translucent pink/red and along the sides of the sink, tiny bubbles lined up the edges. He thought to himself whether he should throw his shirt away since it looked like was already a lost cause to salvage anything, but curiosity got the best of him.
After searching through his cabinets and drawers, he managed to find a small plastic whisk that he never knew that he had in the first place. He cautiously stepped towards the sink afraid that something would pop out of it and arched his right arm ever so slightly and plunged the whisk into murky pink water. Bubbles began to form violently again.
"This is some strong detergent."
For a minute, the fizzing continued and abruptly subsided. With that as a good sign, Heero began to search for his elusive "pink" shirt and after rotating the whisk from side to side, he finally snagged it and lifted the whisk up along with the shirt. Right in front of him, a shower of pink drained away and revealed a white shirt. If anyone knew about his fiasco at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery, they wouldn't have known that it was the same shirt that he had worn on that day.
After giving it a close inspection, he finally tossed the shirt in the washer along with his other laundry, and began his usual routine. Before he headed out for the day, he grabbed the laundry detergent bottle along with a cup of hot java that he had started to brew in a coffee maker from the night before.
On his way to the embassy, Heero quickly made a brief stop at the bakery. When he steeped in, he saw Duo working at the counter.
"It's.it's you from yesterday."
"I just came here to order two dozen doughnuts and that's it."
Duo obeyed and collected a variety of doughnuts. In a kind gesture, he decided to pay for the doughnuts himself in hopes of making amends with Heero from the previous day, even though Heero was his hat murderer. "Here, it's on the house. Compliments of Shinigami's and Chang's bakery." He then bagged the two pink boxes and handed it to Heero.
With a look of confusion, Heero murmured a small thanks under his breath and left with the goodies. The bells chimed their usual sound as he headed out.
As he saw Heero leave, he called out towards him, "I hope you didn't forget about the cake you ordered!"
Heero peered through the window of the bakery and glanced towards Duo, affirming his response and then silently walked away.
"That guy sure gives me the creeps, that stare of his, it's enough to give anyone the goose bumps." He then shuddered as he said that and looked towards both of his arms and noticed that tiny bumps were starting to appear.
As Duo was looking toward his arms, a stranger appeared in the bakery, even though the bells didn't chime at all. "Um.excuse me sir." The person called out as he waited for a response from Duo. He then cleared his throat again and said in a louder voice, "A-hem! Excuse me, can you please help me?"
With that, Duo looked up at a man holding a notebook in his hand.
*****
It was now 8:00 in the morning and everyone was already there at the embassy except for one person. Relena was already in her office, typing away as usual and she noticed it to. "I wonder where he could be?" She then looked through her personal phone book and found his number and was about to call when a blond haired boy interrupted her.
"Morning, Relena. Isn't this a fine day?" His face shown a slight grin on it.
"All right Quatre, what are you up to now?"
His face just dropped. "You mean me? I greeted you with a good morning and this is how you treat me with a suspicious look. I just thought you might want to know about this."
A newspaper was tossed to Relena. The headlines read, "Upcoming Gala at the Peacecraft Embassy Set for the Spring."
"You mean the headlines. I already know about this and besides you already told me about it a month ago."
"Not the headlines, turn to page 20 that talks about the city's briefs. Notice something."
"No, not really. Quatre are you just wasting my time because if you're, I'm."
Her eyes scanned toward a brief column, "Witnesses reported that during this week, one of Ms. Peacecraft's top security guards (unknown) was caught in a crossfire at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery for no apparent reason. No one was injured except that the bakery was left in a strawberry jam mess along with the security guard. Please see photo on the next page."
"I'm waiting." replied Quatre as to what Relena was going to say to him.
Relena ignored him and turned towards the next page in the newspaper and there it was. A 4x3 in photograph of Heero hailing a taxi in broad daylight with a couple of pedestrians looking on. Someone clearly made the effort to get a photo of Heero in the newspaper. She lashed out, "Do we know who took this?"
"Not really, I've already called the editor of the local newspaper and he completely refused to answer any of my questions. So what are we going to do, if someone else starts writing a story like this?"
"I think we should let Heero know about this, I think he deserves to know. Because knowing him, he might track down this so-called journalist and rip him to pieces. As for the public, we could say that he was just helping to prepare a meeting with Canadian diplomats, and that's why he was in the bakery. He was making food arrangements."
*****
Heero continued to walk down a street that led towards the embassy since he didn't want to take the risk of hailing a taxi and meeting the same driver from the previous night. He then noticed that from time to time, passer- bys began to snicker at him.
He then passed a mother and a child, and the child said, "Mommy. Look it that's man in the picture from today."
His mother then scolded at him, "You shouldn't stare at strangers. It's not polite." But then, she didn't heed her own warning and looked at Heero, "I think you might be right, honey. Come on let's go, before you attract attention." The two walked off and entered a pottery store filled with fancy expensive plates.
"What's going on?" Heero surveyed the area around him and noticed that everyone was staring at him. He continued to walk towards the embassy with the bag in hand.
Ten more minutes had passed and Heero was at the last leg of his journey, in which he was walking towards the back entrance of the embassy. Trowa was parked outside, reading the daily newspaper and looked up from the column about the "unknown security guard."
"Morning."
"Morning, Trowa. What are you reading?"
"Just nothing. The usual such as the briefs and headlines."
"Aren't the headlines on the front page?"
Trowa looked back towards his newspaper and quickly changed the page showing a picture of Heero and his pink shirt. "I guess I might have wandered off a little. Everyone's wondering where have you been all throughout this morning."
He looked up from his newspaper and noticed that Heero already had entered. "I guess he doesn't know what he's in for. Oh well..." He continued to read until he was needed.
Inside the embassy, everything went quiet once Heero had stepped in. He continued to mind his usual business as he was making his way towards the staffs' lounge located on the first floor. He passed a couple of staff workers including the fifteen-year-old boy, who was reading the same exact newspaper that Trowa was reading. Heero had noticed the same page number that everyone was reading around him.
"This is getting very strange." He gave everyone a cold stare to ward off any pondering my minds in their morning reading. Once that was done, everyone scampered back to their respective offices in running the embassy.
He finally arrived at the staffs' lounge and to his amazement, he found Aidan there all to himself. He was waiting for his morning breakfast that consisted a doughnut from Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery and a small cup of black coffee. Right beside him, the same issue of the newspaper that everyone else was reading was next to him. "I've been waiting for a long time for my breakfast you know. So, what did you get this time? More strawberry jelly doughnuts or powdered ones?"
"Quit, it Aidan. You'll get your turn. Since you're here, you might as well round up everyone else for their breakfast." He then laid out the 24 doughnuts on a platter, while Aidan shouted out in the hallway that Heero had finally come in their breakfasts. "That boy sure doesn't get the picture, does he?"
Aidan then returned from his yelling and said to Heero, "You might want to look in today's issue of the newspaper, it has a great picture of you in it."
"What do you mean?"
"I think it has an excellent profile of you in it, that's all." He then slapped the newspaper in front of Heero.
With that, Heero began to flip through the headlines and sports sections. He finally ended up in the city briefs and noticed something strange about it, the one column describing the bakery and the "incident" from yesterday. He noted one line, "Please see the next page."
He then turned towards the next page and noticed that his photograph was there in vivid colors depicting his pink shirt that was covered in strawberry jam. At the same time, all the staff members were hanging around the door to see his reaction, and for a while, Heero stood there in shock as he face became expressionless and his hand clutched the paper viscously. "Who did this?" he said in a cold voice. He looked towards Aidan, who seemed to instigate everything and he was sweating profusely.
"Don't look at me!! I was trying to break the shock to you." He saw Heero clenched the newspaper tighter in his hands and he immediately ran out of the room. "Someone help me, please!!"
He ran out into the crowded hall, while a vengeance filled Heero tried to run after him but nearly collided into Relena in hopes of breaking the fight up.
A shocked Relena exclaimed, "What on the earth are you trying to do, Heero?"
"I was trying to get some sense into him. And why is there a picture of me in today's newspaper?"
"You finally found out," she meekly said.
He nodded in response with a stern gaze in his eyes. A sight that was different from her dream earlier this morning.
"I was about to warn you, but I guess Aidan beat me to it. I don't know who took the picture and Quatre has tried talking to the editor in chief, but he keeps refusing to answer any of questions."
"This would explain why everyone was giving me a "funny" look this morning when I was walking here."
"Why didn't you call Trowa or hail a taxi?"
"I didn't want to trouble any one."
Silence then filled the area for a while. But Heero quickly changed the subject and talked about the laundry detergent that she had given me for some unknown reason. "I used your laundry detergent last night and it worked like a charm. I left the bottle in the staffs' lounge." The two continued to talk as they headed towards the lounge.
Aidan looked on as the two walked away and he saw Riley just down the hallway, "Hey Riley," he called out to her.
"What's going on? I just walked in here and I heard screaming coming from you."
"You should take a look at this." He handed her the newspaper and showed the picture of Heero from his bakery run.
"Oh my god. How's Heero taking the news?"
"Not so well. He chased after me for showing him the paper."
"It serves you right for opening your big mouth all the time." She then walked away from him before Aidan could apologize for his actions from the previous night.
*****
Back at the bakery, Duo was still staring at the unknown person before his eyes and felt something was terrible weird about him. "So what can I do for you?"
"I'm a reporter from the local newspaper here. And I was just wondering what really occurred here on the previous day? I heard that one of Ms. Peacecraft's security detail was here on some business."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The reporter became agitated, "Look, have you seen today's newspaper yet?"
"Not a chance. I've been working here since 7:00 this morning, while my so- called partner is somewhere in the kitchen working away on his share of the work."
"Well, here." He showed a clipping of the column and then showed a picture of Heero drenched in strawberry jam as he was hailing a taxi in broad daylight.
"Oh you mean him. Yeah, he came by here yesterday. He ordered a cake that's all I can say."
"Do you know who it was for?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss anything to the public. Can't you mind your own business and leave us alone."
Wufei then popped out from the kitchen, in which he was listening the conversation between Duo and the reporter ever since it began.
"What's the problem here, Duo?"
"This is a reporter from the local newspaper here and he wants to know what a customer ordered here yesterday."
"Really, who do you think you are trying to barge into our business!"
"Look, I'm just getting a couple of facts down. Can't either the two of you help me?" He even showed the same clipping that he had shown Duo earlier and Wufei then realized he was talking about the strawberry jam incident.
"What will you do if we do leak out the information to you and your news company?"
"You'll get good publicity from this, I swear."
"Yeah right," the two scoffed in unison.
"If you want anymore details, I'll give you this one. It was a birthday cake, and so can you leave us alone now. We need to get back to work. Fair enough?"
"Fair enough. Do you mind if I can take a look around the premises for just a couple of minutes?"
Wufei responded, "Help yourself. You just can't go to the back kitchen that's all."
"Thanks." For a couple of minutes, the reporter snooped around the front area of the bakery, while the two bakers headed into the kitchen and peeked periodically through their kitchen window to see what he was doing.
"Why did you do that Wufei? I thought you didn't want to disclose anything that our potential customers purchased here. Don't tell me that you're in it for the money?" He looked towards Wufei's expression on his face and noticed his eyes lighted up like Christmas lights with green dollar signs floating in the air somewhere. He waved his hand in front him and he didn't even receive a response from him. "All right, he's now in it for the fame and fortune." He shook his head, "I might as well start cleaning this bakery up because I think masses of people will eventually come here just to snoop."
"You might as well."
With that, Duo headed out to the front where the reporter was still looking around. Unknown to him, he had left one important sheet of information on a counter and somehow the reporter became very interested in the sheet of paper. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Oh yes, yes indeed. Thanks for your cooperation."
"No problem."
The reporter then left with a grin on his face. "I'm going to blow this story right out into the opening."
With the reporter gone, Duo began to clean the windows and counters as his cake was still baking in his oven until he heard a commotion in the kitchen.
"Duo, you better get your butt in here!!" he screamed.
A mass of yellow started to take shape as Duo walked in with his eyes bulging out of his sockets in shock.
"My cake!!!"
TBC
*****
How was that for chapter 10? I'll try to update as regularly as I can, but chemistry is really driving me crazy right now. All I can say is that more chaos is going to erupt and things are getting a little more complicated between Heero and Relena. Your comments are always greatly appreciated and stay tune for more upcoming chappies!!! Ciao for now. ^_^
*****
The Doughboy
"Oh, Heero," she whispered. He nodded in response. The two stood in a pink rose garden and it was nightfall. In the background, some music was heard and Heero began to waltz with her. The smell of the freesia along with pink roses overwhelmed Heero and his senses. Relena had placed her head on his shoulders and allowed Heero to lead her in the dance. The two continued to waltz until the music had stopped. By that time, clouds began to appear in the low horizon and the smell of rain was apparent. "It looks like it's going to rain. We should head back now before the downpour. Everyone's probably wondering what happened to us." Relena then began to walk towards the park's exit, but Heero gently jerked her back towards him.
"Stay for a little longer." His eyes were filled with the feeling of desire. With an instant, Heero enveloped Relena with his arms and looked into her blue eyes, searching within her soul. His warm embrace lulled her into a trance of romance. The two stood there, as it seemed time stood still for the two lovers. The winds began to pick up and the pink roses began to sway in the wind. The smell of rain was getting closer.
"Heero, I think we should go now." She looked pleadingly into his Persian eyes.
"Relena.just wait." he whispered under his breath. He moved closer to her and felt her warmth against his chest. His lips moved closer to hers and he felt her pulse quicken.
A couple of raindrops began to fall on their faces, but that didn't deter Heero. He continued to kiss her until they both gasped for air. He kissed her again and Relena just melted in his embrace, as he continued. Right then, a sudden downpour came across the two lovers, drenching Relena's light lilac printed dress and Heero's white shirt.
She pulled him away for one brief moment and looked into his eyes, and saw the man that she had fallen in love with. She saw him standing there with water running through his hair and his breathing rapid. She looked into her own heart and realized what she wanted, the desire to be next to him throughout time.
"Heero."
The two became locked again with each of them kissing and caressing one another. This time none of them stopped to take a breather. With the rain continue to fall, the two managed to find shelter under a gazebo, where it kept most of the rain out.
Heero had gently laid Relena on the cold marble floor and for a while, the two kissed and Heero began to unzip her lilac dress. As for Relena, she felt his warm hands roam around her back and she began to undress him. The two looked into each other's eyes and saw their future unfold.
In the distance, voices were heard calling out their names. "Ms. Peacecraft are you out here?" It was Riley calling in the distance. She was followed by Aidan, who wasn't too far behind from her and he called out for Heero. "Hey, Riley, let's get back to the party. We're going to be missing the delicious food."
"I'm not leaving until I find the two of them. If you want, you can run back and look like a fool in front of all of the guests." With that, Riley kept walking throughout the rose garden in hopes of finding the renegade couple, while Aidan became silent on their little scavenger hunt.
"Why do they have to spoil the moment?" whispered Relena. "Oh, Heero." She looked into his eyes as they began to kiss again.
"Beep.beep.beep.."
"What?!? NO!!! It was just getting to the good part!" Relena found herself on the floor of her bedroom, wrapped up in her white blanket. She got up and slammed her snooze button again, in hopes of catching a few more z's, and she then fell back onto her bed. For the next few minutes, pictures from the night before toyed with her mind. She was about to fall asleep for the second time but "BEEP BEEP!! BEEP!!" Her alarm rang obnoxiously again, but with a louder tone than a normal alarm.
"Not again, I guess it wasn't meant to be." She peeped from her covers and saw the fluorescent green digits show 5:30A.M. After a couple of minutes of moaning to herself, she finally got up and started her usual morning routine of taking two cups of coffee.
*****
Across town, Duo and Wufei were already up and running about in their little bakery with their ovens all-baking away either filled with golden brown croissants, chocolate fudge brownies, and éclairs. While in two brass pots filled with cooking oil, doughnuts were being made.
Duo noticed that Wufei wasn't his "usual" self because he knows that Wufei's workstation table was a little messy. "Hey pal, what's up with your messy table? You usually have a pet peeve about disorganization." He then held up a questionable object, which was a pair of feminine pantyhose.
Wufei quickly grabbed those out of Duo's grasp and lashed out at him, "Can't a guy a be a little messy at times. Even, if I'm Mr. Punctual to you, it doesn't mean I always have to live by the book."
"I think you're evading the subject at hand," giving him a questionable look. "I always thought that you practiced what you preached!"
"Never mind. End of subject."
With that, Duo went back to Wufei's table and noticed the flour patterns on it. He also began to stare at Wufei's neckline, which had a little red mark on it.
"It looks like someone had a little too much fun in here." quipped Duo.
"I think the same can be applied to you at Hilde's."
"Whatever, I'm going to work on that cake right now." He then ran over to his table and minded his own business for the day. After mixing the ingredients, a yellow batter began to take shape and he then dumped it into the baking pan. He then set the oven and placed the tray inside.
An evil grin was plastered on Wufei's face as he looked towards the direction of Duo, "That fool, he doesn't know what he's in for. He didn't even re-measure his ingredients especially the baking powder and flour. He doesn't even know that I switched the powder with baking soda, since they all look the same!!! Hehehe!! I finally got him where I wanted him to be in the first place, turning this bakery into a mockery. I'll show him."
"Anything wrong, Wufei?"
"Oh nothing, just nothing." He went back to his folding of his dough to prepare a batch of French bread.
*****
Two streets over and down a couple of blocks, Heero was already up and the first thing he did was in the surveying of his kitchen sink. Within the metal indentation, the water was a translucent pink/red and along the sides of the sink, tiny bubbles lined up the edges. He thought to himself whether he should throw his shirt away since it looked like was already a lost cause to salvage anything, but curiosity got the best of him.
After searching through his cabinets and drawers, he managed to find a small plastic whisk that he never knew that he had in the first place. He cautiously stepped towards the sink afraid that something would pop out of it and arched his right arm ever so slightly and plunged the whisk into murky pink water. Bubbles began to form violently again.
"This is some strong detergent."
For a minute, the fizzing continued and abruptly subsided. With that as a good sign, Heero began to search for his elusive "pink" shirt and after rotating the whisk from side to side, he finally snagged it and lifted the whisk up along with the shirt. Right in front of him, a shower of pink drained away and revealed a white shirt. If anyone knew about his fiasco at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery, they wouldn't have known that it was the same shirt that he had worn on that day.
After giving it a close inspection, he finally tossed the shirt in the washer along with his other laundry, and began his usual routine. Before he headed out for the day, he grabbed the laundry detergent bottle along with a cup of hot java that he had started to brew in a coffee maker from the night before.
On his way to the embassy, Heero quickly made a brief stop at the bakery. When he steeped in, he saw Duo working at the counter.
"It's.it's you from yesterday."
"I just came here to order two dozen doughnuts and that's it."
Duo obeyed and collected a variety of doughnuts. In a kind gesture, he decided to pay for the doughnuts himself in hopes of making amends with Heero from the previous day, even though Heero was his hat murderer. "Here, it's on the house. Compliments of Shinigami's and Chang's bakery." He then bagged the two pink boxes and handed it to Heero.
With a look of confusion, Heero murmured a small thanks under his breath and left with the goodies. The bells chimed their usual sound as he headed out.
As he saw Heero leave, he called out towards him, "I hope you didn't forget about the cake you ordered!"
Heero peered through the window of the bakery and glanced towards Duo, affirming his response and then silently walked away.
"That guy sure gives me the creeps, that stare of his, it's enough to give anyone the goose bumps." He then shuddered as he said that and looked towards both of his arms and noticed that tiny bumps were starting to appear.
As Duo was looking toward his arms, a stranger appeared in the bakery, even though the bells didn't chime at all. "Um.excuse me sir." The person called out as he waited for a response from Duo. He then cleared his throat again and said in a louder voice, "A-hem! Excuse me, can you please help me?"
With that, Duo looked up at a man holding a notebook in his hand.
*****
It was now 8:00 in the morning and everyone was already there at the embassy except for one person. Relena was already in her office, typing away as usual and she noticed it to. "I wonder where he could be?" She then looked through her personal phone book and found his number and was about to call when a blond haired boy interrupted her.
"Morning, Relena. Isn't this a fine day?" His face shown a slight grin on it.
"All right Quatre, what are you up to now?"
His face just dropped. "You mean me? I greeted you with a good morning and this is how you treat me with a suspicious look. I just thought you might want to know about this."
A newspaper was tossed to Relena. The headlines read, "Upcoming Gala at the Peacecraft Embassy Set for the Spring."
"You mean the headlines. I already know about this and besides you already told me about it a month ago."
"Not the headlines, turn to page 20 that talks about the city's briefs. Notice something."
"No, not really. Quatre are you just wasting my time because if you're, I'm."
Her eyes scanned toward a brief column, "Witnesses reported that during this week, one of Ms. Peacecraft's top security guards (unknown) was caught in a crossfire at the Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery for no apparent reason. No one was injured except that the bakery was left in a strawberry jam mess along with the security guard. Please see photo on the next page."
"I'm waiting." replied Quatre as to what Relena was going to say to him.
Relena ignored him and turned towards the next page in the newspaper and there it was. A 4x3 in photograph of Heero hailing a taxi in broad daylight with a couple of pedestrians looking on. Someone clearly made the effort to get a photo of Heero in the newspaper. She lashed out, "Do we know who took this?"
"Not really, I've already called the editor of the local newspaper and he completely refused to answer any of my questions. So what are we going to do, if someone else starts writing a story like this?"
"I think we should let Heero know about this, I think he deserves to know. Because knowing him, he might track down this so-called journalist and rip him to pieces. As for the public, we could say that he was just helping to prepare a meeting with Canadian diplomats, and that's why he was in the bakery. He was making food arrangements."
*****
Heero continued to walk down a street that led towards the embassy since he didn't want to take the risk of hailing a taxi and meeting the same driver from the previous night. He then noticed that from time to time, passer- bys began to snicker at him.
He then passed a mother and a child, and the child said, "Mommy. Look it that's man in the picture from today."
His mother then scolded at him, "You shouldn't stare at strangers. It's not polite." But then, she didn't heed her own warning and looked at Heero, "I think you might be right, honey. Come on let's go, before you attract attention." The two walked off and entered a pottery store filled with fancy expensive plates.
"What's going on?" Heero surveyed the area around him and noticed that everyone was staring at him. He continued to walk towards the embassy with the bag in hand.
Ten more minutes had passed and Heero was at the last leg of his journey, in which he was walking towards the back entrance of the embassy. Trowa was parked outside, reading the daily newspaper and looked up from the column about the "unknown security guard."
"Morning."
"Morning, Trowa. What are you reading?"
"Just nothing. The usual such as the briefs and headlines."
"Aren't the headlines on the front page?"
Trowa looked back towards his newspaper and quickly changed the page showing a picture of Heero and his pink shirt. "I guess I might have wandered off a little. Everyone's wondering where have you been all throughout this morning."
He looked up from his newspaper and noticed that Heero already had entered. "I guess he doesn't know what he's in for. Oh well..." He continued to read until he was needed.
Inside the embassy, everything went quiet once Heero had stepped in. He continued to mind his usual business as he was making his way towards the staffs' lounge located on the first floor. He passed a couple of staff workers including the fifteen-year-old boy, who was reading the same exact newspaper that Trowa was reading. Heero had noticed the same page number that everyone was reading around him.
"This is getting very strange." He gave everyone a cold stare to ward off any pondering my minds in their morning reading. Once that was done, everyone scampered back to their respective offices in running the embassy.
He finally arrived at the staffs' lounge and to his amazement, he found Aidan there all to himself. He was waiting for his morning breakfast that consisted a doughnut from Shinigami's and Chang's Bakery and a small cup of black coffee. Right beside him, the same issue of the newspaper that everyone else was reading was next to him. "I've been waiting for a long time for my breakfast you know. So, what did you get this time? More strawberry jelly doughnuts or powdered ones?"
"Quit, it Aidan. You'll get your turn. Since you're here, you might as well round up everyone else for their breakfast." He then laid out the 24 doughnuts on a platter, while Aidan shouted out in the hallway that Heero had finally come in their breakfasts. "That boy sure doesn't get the picture, does he?"
Aidan then returned from his yelling and said to Heero, "You might want to look in today's issue of the newspaper, it has a great picture of you in it."
"What do you mean?"
"I think it has an excellent profile of you in it, that's all." He then slapped the newspaper in front of Heero.
With that, Heero began to flip through the headlines and sports sections. He finally ended up in the city briefs and noticed something strange about it, the one column describing the bakery and the "incident" from yesterday. He noted one line, "Please see the next page."
He then turned towards the next page and noticed that his photograph was there in vivid colors depicting his pink shirt that was covered in strawberry jam. At the same time, all the staff members were hanging around the door to see his reaction, and for a while, Heero stood there in shock as he face became expressionless and his hand clutched the paper viscously. "Who did this?" he said in a cold voice. He looked towards Aidan, who seemed to instigate everything and he was sweating profusely.
"Don't look at me!! I was trying to break the shock to you." He saw Heero clenched the newspaper tighter in his hands and he immediately ran out of the room. "Someone help me, please!!"
He ran out into the crowded hall, while a vengeance filled Heero tried to run after him but nearly collided into Relena in hopes of breaking the fight up.
A shocked Relena exclaimed, "What on the earth are you trying to do, Heero?"
"I was trying to get some sense into him. And why is there a picture of me in today's newspaper?"
"You finally found out," she meekly said.
He nodded in response with a stern gaze in his eyes. A sight that was different from her dream earlier this morning.
"I was about to warn you, but I guess Aidan beat me to it. I don't know who took the picture and Quatre has tried talking to the editor in chief, but he keeps refusing to answer any of questions."
"This would explain why everyone was giving me a "funny" look this morning when I was walking here."
"Why didn't you call Trowa or hail a taxi?"
"I didn't want to trouble any one."
Silence then filled the area for a while. But Heero quickly changed the subject and talked about the laundry detergent that she had given me for some unknown reason. "I used your laundry detergent last night and it worked like a charm. I left the bottle in the staffs' lounge." The two continued to talk as they headed towards the lounge.
Aidan looked on as the two walked away and he saw Riley just down the hallway, "Hey Riley," he called out to her.
"What's going on? I just walked in here and I heard screaming coming from you."
"You should take a look at this." He handed her the newspaper and showed the picture of Heero from his bakery run.
"Oh my god. How's Heero taking the news?"
"Not so well. He chased after me for showing him the paper."
"It serves you right for opening your big mouth all the time." She then walked away from him before Aidan could apologize for his actions from the previous night.
*****
Back at the bakery, Duo was still staring at the unknown person before his eyes and felt something was terrible weird about him. "So what can I do for you?"
"I'm a reporter from the local newspaper here. And I was just wondering what really occurred here on the previous day? I heard that one of Ms. Peacecraft's security detail was here on some business."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The reporter became agitated, "Look, have you seen today's newspaper yet?"
"Not a chance. I've been working here since 7:00 this morning, while my so- called partner is somewhere in the kitchen working away on his share of the work."
"Well, here." He showed a clipping of the column and then showed a picture of Heero drenched in strawberry jam as he was hailing a taxi in broad daylight.
"Oh you mean him. Yeah, he came by here yesterday. He ordered a cake that's all I can say."
"Do you know who it was for?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss anything to the public. Can't you mind your own business and leave us alone."
Wufei then popped out from the kitchen, in which he was listening the conversation between Duo and the reporter ever since it began.
"What's the problem here, Duo?"
"This is a reporter from the local newspaper here and he wants to know what a customer ordered here yesterday."
"Really, who do you think you are trying to barge into our business!"
"Look, I'm just getting a couple of facts down. Can't either the two of you help me?" He even showed the same clipping that he had shown Duo earlier and Wufei then realized he was talking about the strawberry jam incident.
"What will you do if we do leak out the information to you and your news company?"
"You'll get good publicity from this, I swear."
"Yeah right," the two scoffed in unison.
"If you want anymore details, I'll give you this one. It was a birthday cake, and so can you leave us alone now. We need to get back to work. Fair enough?"
"Fair enough. Do you mind if I can take a look around the premises for just a couple of minutes?"
Wufei responded, "Help yourself. You just can't go to the back kitchen that's all."
"Thanks." For a couple of minutes, the reporter snooped around the front area of the bakery, while the two bakers headed into the kitchen and peeked periodically through their kitchen window to see what he was doing.
"Why did you do that Wufei? I thought you didn't want to disclose anything that our potential customers purchased here. Don't tell me that you're in it for the money?" He looked towards Wufei's expression on his face and noticed his eyes lighted up like Christmas lights with green dollar signs floating in the air somewhere. He waved his hand in front him and he didn't even receive a response from him. "All right, he's now in it for the fame and fortune." He shook his head, "I might as well start cleaning this bakery up because I think masses of people will eventually come here just to snoop."
"You might as well."
With that, Duo headed out to the front where the reporter was still looking around. Unknown to him, he had left one important sheet of information on a counter and somehow the reporter became very interested in the sheet of paper. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Oh yes, yes indeed. Thanks for your cooperation."
"No problem."
The reporter then left with a grin on his face. "I'm going to blow this story right out into the opening."
With the reporter gone, Duo began to clean the windows and counters as his cake was still baking in his oven until he heard a commotion in the kitchen.
"Duo, you better get your butt in here!!" he screamed.
A mass of yellow started to take shape as Duo walked in with his eyes bulging out of his sockets in shock.
"My cake!!!"
TBC
*****
How was that for chapter 10? I'll try to update as regularly as I can, but chemistry is really driving me crazy right now. All I can say is that more chaos is going to erupt and things are getting a little more complicated between Heero and Relena. Your comments are always greatly appreciated and stay tune for more upcoming chappies!!! Ciao for now. ^_^