Ten Things
Chapter 3 – The Way You Drive My Car
Alternative Title – Adventures in a Pink Limousine
By: Eternal RoseQuatre and Duo continued to pound on Heero's door until, at length, the door was thrown open. Duo immediately found himself staring down the barrel of Heero's gun. The highly predictable and extremely commonplace event helped all of them to relax. Even in situations of personal stress, Heero Yuy never seemed to alter… After all, he had only threatened to shoot Duo, not actually carried through with it.
"Heero?" said Quatre, patently ignoring the weapon pointed at his braided friend. "Do you want to go to the park with us for a picnic?"
"Sure." Heero replied in his usual, calm, monotonous voice. The gun immediately vanished into spandex space. Before Heero could change his mind and vanish back into the laptop, Duo walked around behind him leaned against the doorway. From there, even if Heero did try and get back into the room, Quatre and the others would manage to subdue him, Duo was certain!
"That's great!" Quatre exclaimed warmly. The three began to walk swiftly down the corridor, down the stairs, and into the main hallway. "Just wait here a moment – I'll go and get the others."
"Hn." Heero answered. The blue eyed pilot walked over to the wall, leaning casually against it. Duo, not to be distracted, followed him across the room.
"So…" he started. "When are you going to tell her?"
"What?"
"That you love her." Duo saw Heero start to reach for his gun again, and immediately grabbed his wrist. With remarkable dexterity, Heero rotated his own hand and flipped the other pilot onto his back.
"I don't really see what business it is of yours." Heero remarked dryly. "What happens between myself and Relena is none of your concern."
"Hah! You admitted it!" Duo rejoiced, springing back to his feet. "That's twice now! So what are you going to do, keep denying it? You're the one who's always saying to live life according to your emotions. Why don't you take your own advice?"
Heero's gun made an immediate reappearance. BANG! A single report echoed through the room. Duo remained motionless, unflinching in the face of what had and would for others mean instant death – a bullet from the gun of the famed assassin Heero Yuy.
"What was that?" Relena exclaimed, rushing into the room. The gun immediately disappeared again, and Heero began to glare at Duo with such intensity that the braided one could literally feel the heat pouring from his friend's eyes.
"Nothing." Duo remarked. Relena looked skeptically back and forth between the two of them. Heero schooled his eyes away from hers, his expression bland as ever.
"If you say so." Relena replied. She turned to head back to the kitchen, calling over her shoulder, "I'll just go and get the luncheon from the kitchen. Pagan had to go to the office for me to retrieve some papers I'd forgotten, so I'm afraid you'll have to deal with me driving for the day."
She had vanished from the room before either of them could protest. Heero and Duo exchanged glances quickly, each plainly reading a desire to avoid this situation at all costs. Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei entered the room one by one as their comrades continued to stand quietly in the hall. Quatre immediately shot a questioning glance at Duo, who slightly shook his head in response. Heero, of course, missed nothing – and was reaching for his gun just as Relena returned.
"Ready?" She asked cheerfully, a large basket resting upon her arm.
"Let me carry that onna." Wufei said immediately, stepping forward to take the bundle from her. Women were weaker than men – it was unjust for her to be forced to carry the basket while the men had nothing. However, Relena mistook the direction from which he was coming… and wound up dumping everything into Heero's arms.
"Well, let's go!" Relena exclaimed, and promptly began leading the way to the limo. Her car keys jangled in her hand as she smiling unlocked the front door. The pilots, being naturally intelligent, all immediately dove for the back seat. Heero deposited all of their lunch supplies in the trunk, and moved around to the side of car, pulling up on the handle of the door.
"Hn." He remarked. The door wasn't opening. The window opened painfully slowly, and Duo's head appeared before him.
"It isn't fair to force Miss Relena to sit all alone in the front of the car." Quatre called from the other side of the vehicle. "So we decided that the last person to the car ought to sit with her. I'm sorry, Heero."
"Besides," Duo said, "it's definitely safer if you're sitting next to her. Anyway, haven't you just been longing for some alone time with her?"
The glare on Heero's face began to deepen, and the window magically sped up to the top quickly. It went so fast that no one doubted the reason for it's rise. After all, being on the opposite side of bullet proof glass from an angry 01 was always a good idea.
With tremendous reluctance, Heero moved to the front door of the car and opened it. Face impassive, he seated himself next to Relena in the front of the shockingly pink car, bracing himself for a wild ride…
~* 1 Hour Later *~
"Really Heero, I was doing fine all by myself! I didn't need your help." Relena glared at him, her eyes flashing with a fierce determination that was rarely forced to make its presence known.
"I wasn't aware that it was legal to turn left on a red light in the Sanq Kingdom." Heero said dryly. Relena fumed, grabbing things from the trunk and throwing them at the other pilots to carry and set up. The trip had been, needless to say, more than a little eventful. In addition to making a left on red, Relena had run three stop signs, swerved to avoid colliding with a cat in the middle of the road, and nearly taken the door off of a parked car.
"You didn't need to grab the wheel!" She yelled. "I'm a big girl, Heero Yuy, and I have had a great deal of experience driving. I know what I'm doing."
"So you meant to take out that mailbox?"
"Heeeerrrrrrrooooooo!!!!!!" Her trademark whine had never failed her, and it wasn't about to start now. The pilot in question walked quickly after the others to help unpack the lunch, thus avoiding any further conflict with the blonde.
"I suddenly understand why Pagan is always there to drive Miss Relena around." Quatre remarked quietly to Trowa. They had all been thrown about for the entire ride, all praying that Heero would somehow maintain control of the car – for they were quickly certain that Relena couldn't. Trowa nodded sagely.
"Maxwell, remind me again why we allowed that onna to drive in the first place?" Wufei said to Duo.
"Because!" Duo said. "Look, if we keep forcing Heero and Relena together than maybe one of these times they'll actually work things out. All right, so letting her drive probably wasn't the greatest idea that I've ever had, but what can I say – I'm a little tight on new ideas. It took forever for Relena to get her courage up to act – and then after the incident, even I doubted that they might be right for each other. But I know this – we've gotta get them together, no matter what! It wouldn't be just of us to leave them to their own devices. I mean, think about it. Heero still is terrible about this whole thing, and he's had years to work on it! They need us, and – Oh, Hi Heero! Have fun?"
Heero had come upon them swiftly, and was now glaring as hard as humanly possible at Duo. He sat down gracefully on the picnic blanket, never erring from his unwavering look of anger at Duo. Duo suddenly became mildly afraid. He had been pressing his luck with Heero all day, and pushing it further probably wouldn't help, but – something needed to be done!
"Relena!" Duo called, as she headed quickly towards them. He slid slightly to his left, opening a space between himself and Heero. "Why don't you come and sit here for now?"
"My apologies Duo, but I do not believe that would be the best of ideas at the moment, as Heero and I seem to have different opinions about my driving abilities, among other things." She responded after considering it a moment. Relena looked about the circle quickly, but found that the other pilots had all somehow shifted into a tight pattern, leaving only the one space between Heero and Duo. With a sigh, she seated herself in the middle.
"So…" said Duo after a moment of strained silence. "What's for lunch?"
~* Several Hours Later *~
"Injustice!" Wufei exclaimed as he climbed dizzily from the back seat of the pink limousine. "Injustice!"
"Did he really repeat that, or did I just think he did because my head is still spinning?" Duo remarked dazedly. "Ugh. I can't feel my stomach. I think it got lost somewhere around that last curve."
"I agree." Quatre replied. Trowa, true to form, said nothing – but even he looked a little green around the edged. As horrific as the trip to the park had been, the return had been almost worse. Relena had blatantly refused to allow Heero to help her drive, and… well… Conflict in the front seat did not make for safe turns.
"Are there any driving schools around here, you think?" Quatre continued. "I would be more than happy to supply the cost for the necessary lessons."
"Seriously, Q-man." Duo sat on the steps with a thump. "That definitely just spoiled a really spectacular meal."
"Injustice. I will take my revenge on the weaklings. Injustice."
Heero walked from the car to the pilots, looking at all of them in mild disdain. He seemed to think about saying something, but then thought better of it. From the passenger side of the car, a voice called after him.
"Heero Yuy, I demand that you release me from this seat this instant!" Relena's voice soared with anger. The seatbelt had been wrapped about her body, effectively tying her hands to her sides and preventing her from getting free. "How dare you do this to me? To my car?"
"Do you think they have a two for one discount at that driving school?" Duo asked, goggling openly at where Relena was seated.
"I wouldn't know." Quatre answered simply. "I wouldn't know."
~* End Chapter 3 *~
AN: Well then, not much to say this time 'round. *lol* I actually did all of this with a study hall, aren't you proud of me? (Homework?? Why would I do a crazy thing like that?) Anyways, I'm about to go start another chapter – I'm still in study hall – so I'll have to leave you all hanging.
~* hugs *~
~Rose