Almost Paradise
By Arimi
Author's Notes: Here is the first chapter of Almost Paradise. Sorry for the wait!
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is the property of Sunrise & Sotsu Agency. The author claims no ownership for the characters portrayed in this work.
Chapter 1: Disillusioned
The dinner party was supposed to have been a simple affair between the leaders of the colony and their families and the visiting Vice Foreign Minister, Relena Darlian. However, the 'family' of these leaders also seemed to include all their extended families and quite a few corporate leaders.
Relena stood off to the side of the hall, in which the function had been moved to when everyone was unable to fit in the parlor. She was exhausted, and the pain from her black stilettos was increasing every minute, and she knew that she would have a very bad blister if she didn't remove them soon. She wore a long black halter dress, and her hair was down, reaching mid back. She had had it up in a complicated bun, but had taken it down when the weight from it being piled on top her head began to annoy her
She had originally hoped that the affair would have been a quiet one. Her work had become even more stressful, and she had hoped that the dinner party would have offered a temporary escape from the stress that had been building up steadily.
She had thought that maybe her job would have become easier as the years go by, and the relations between the Earth and the colonies got more friendly, and she had even been considering leaving the position and return to her education, which had been put off due to the war and her involvement, but now with all the arguments in the senate, and the upcoming election of a new President, now would definitely not be the right time to leave the position open.
"Miss Relena?"
Relena turned to see Roger, her 'date' for the evening, looking at her with a somewhat worried expression.
"Yes, Roger, what is it?"
"I was wondering if you were cold," he said, "it has been a bit chilly the past few evenings," he said.
"I am fine," she said.
Roger was a nice, ordinary guy. He was in charge of public relations for Relena, and he often accompanied her on her trips to the colonies. She knew that he had been attracted to her since he started, but she had always rejected his advances, and it had been only after much pleading and begging that she had allowed him to escort her to this function. She had made it clear however, that the affair would be totally platonic, and that he shouldn't expect anything following it. He had been disappointed, but he was used to it, and Relena hoped that it would signal him to move on to someone else.
"Can I get you anything? Another glass of whine, or how about an appetizer? The calamari is really superb."
"No thank you," she said, "I am fine, in fact I think I will be leaving soon."
"Oh, shall I call Brett, that way you won't have to call a limousine?"
She sighed; she was hoping that he would have gotten the point, but obviously Roger had not been paying attention.
"No, I think I will be walking home tonight," she said.
"Oh, but you mustn't, who knows who will be out on the streets at this time, you must take the limousine it is much safer."
"I will be perfectly fine," she said, "there hasn't been a threat to me in 6 years, and crime rates are at an all time low."
"Well if you insist, but let me accompany you," he said.
"No, Roger. I want to be alone," she said, "I know that you are worried, but don't worry nothing is going to happen. If it will make you feel better, I will call you right when I get to my hotel room."
"Very well, but please take my coat, you don't need to catch your death out there," he said.
She didn't have the heart to refuse him, so she took it and wished him good night, and as an after thought kissed him on the cheek. She walked away from him, and out the door.
Roger had been right, it was a little chilly outside, and she was for once thankful for Roger's worrying. The streets were dimly lit, and the entire colony was silent, but it was a comfortable silence. And she felt herself begin to lapse into her thoughts without any fear of disruption
Ever since the threat from Mariemeia six years prior had been diffused, there had been no major threats to general peace, and the main problem to face now was a few economic issues that were leftover from the years of war, and military spending.
And it wasn't too long before questions of her competence began to mount. The general public wasn't too concerned, but those within the political circle began to bring her uncompleted education, and her abilities to question, and she had been spending most of the past months trying to defend herself from the allegations.
She knew she was young, she knew she needed a college degree, but she couldn't help but feel that they didn't understand why she was doing what she had been doing.
When she was little she had never imagined holding the job her father had. If people asked her when she was little what she wanted to be, she would have told them that she wanted to be a singer or a reporter. And she was beginning to feel a little resentful that she was even holding this job.
Now that she looked back on it, she could see that she had been thrown into it, and she hadn't really understood all the implications. She had been fifteen, her father had died, and people had instantly put her in a position in which she had no options, and a position where she didn't know of enough to say no.
'I was so naïve,' she thought, 'I didn't know how much it would take over my life. I didn't know how much pain it would cause.'
She kept walking, and noted that her hotel was only a block away, and she was glad because now her feet were killing her, and she stopped to take off the shoes.
It was so quick that for a moment she couldn't comprehend what was happening, but it came to her when she felt the barrel of a gun pressed to her forehead, and an arm reaching around her pulling against a strong body.
"Give me everything you got," a voice said, from behind her, and she detected the slur in the words, and the smell of alcohol that assailed her nostrils.
"I don't have anything to give you," she said.
"Don't mess with me lady, I know a goldmine when I see it," he said.
"I don't have anything on me," she said, her panic beginning to rise.
She was becoming claustrophobic in his arms, and his smell was beginning to make her stomach turn, and she tasted the edge of the vomit in her mouth.
She closed her eyes shut, and waited for the man to pull the trigger. She thought, 'out of all the ways that I almost died, I had to die like this.'
She was suddenly pushed forward, when the man was jerked away, and the gun fell to the ground, and thankfully did not go off. She stumbled to the ground and she heard the sound of voices behind her.
She turned, and could not distinguish either one, although, she was sure that the one who was being gripped by the other had been her attacker. Her attacker was whimpering, and after a few moments he was released and scampered off. Her savior turned to her and she grabbed the gun from the ground and cocked it straight towards the man.
"Who are you?" she asked uncertain, "reveal yourself, and I won't shoot."
(AN: It isn't who you might be thinking it is, I am not too cliché. ^_^)
The figure laughed.
"You're a bit more flighty than I thought you would be," he said.
He stepped under the nearest streetlights, and revealed a tall man of about 5'9, with dusty blonde hair, and a pair of glasses, which sort of his bright green eyes.
"What do you mean 'thought me to be'," She said.
"Well I have heard of you, and you are totally different than what I thought."
She took that to mean that he had seen her on television or in the paper.
"Well the media, doesn't tend to show all of a person, you should believe everything you see," she said.
"What are you talking about? I heard about you from Superman," he said.
Relena lifted her eyebrow in disbelief.
"Superman?"
"Oh, he works for me, very weird guy if I do say so myself, he seems to know a lot about you, though."
"So this guy is a stalker," she said.
"I don't know," he replied, "but then again I am definitely not the sharpest tool in the box."
She looked at him, and finally she dropped the gun.
"Well thank you for saving me," she said.
"No problem, I am always one to save the damsel in distress," he said, "by the way my name is Ned Daley."
"I assume you already know my name from this Superman Guy."
He nodded.
"Do you want a ride home," he asked, "I mean I doubt you will meet anybody else, but I don't want to have to feel responsible if something did," he said.
She nodded, not in too much of a hurry to go through that experience again.
"You know, maybe you could come and meet Superman, the way he talks, I think he would love to meet you."
She smiled.
"You make me out to be as some sort of pop star," she said, as she began to follow him to a beat up truck that was in a nearby alley.
"Well are you?" he asked.
"Of course not," she answered.
He took her back to the hotel, and even looked at the lobby in awe when he escorted her in.
"You must be real high maintenance," he commented.
"No not really, I never stay that long in a hotel room, but I guess they feel I would be offended if they didn't give me star treatment," she said.
He told her that he would leave her at the elevator; he figured that muggers and fiends didn't congregate in this place.
"Thanks again for your help," she said.
"No problem," he said, "hey tomorrow I have lunch off tomorrow, you can come by say hi to Superman, and I can show you around."
She smiled at him, "you know what tomorrow will be lovely. I mean it is the least I can do for you saving my life, besides I am a little curious about this Superman character."
"Yeah he owes me a few," he said, smiling.
He took out a business card and handed it to her. She looked at it and realized that it was the address to a car garage.
"You're a mechanic?"
"Yup, very rewarding job, I live there too, so does Superman," he said.
She nodded.
"I will see you noon tomorrow then," she said.
"Noon it is," he said.
He gave a slight bow to her and walked away. She smiled, he seemed like a very nice guy, and a great conversationalist to boot. It would be a welcome change from most of the other people she spent time with.
She was actually smiling when she reached her room. She quickly called Roger when she got in, and assured him that she was okay (she was definitely not going to tell him what had happened) and she cleared her schedule for the next day.
She fell asleep quite easily, and for once she didn't dream.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Ned arrived at the garage at 2 a.m. and found his apartment mate and coworker asleep on the couch in the living area overlooking the garage with the paper from the day before resting on his chest, the picture of the woman he had saved on the cover.
He chuckled, as he saw the expression on the guy's face. His coworker was intense even in his sleep. A mangy cat that had always hung around the garage was laying on top of blue sports car, that had recently been given a new battery. Ned removed a blanket from a closet and cover the man with it, and then headed to his own room. He would wait until tomorrow to tell the guy about what happened.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Ned was up bright and early next morning, as he scrambled through his kitchen, empting the sink, and generally picking up the mess that had been collecting for months.
His coworker walked in and looked at Ned strangely, but didn't comment, instead he got his glass of coffee and left almost as quickly as he had come in.
"Hey Superman, I bet you could never guess what happened to me last night," he called out.
"Would it have something to do with why your cleaning the kitchen," his coworker answered.
"Yup, we have a visitor today."
"Oh really."
"Yeah, a pretty distinguished one too. She wants to meet you," Ned said.
The coworker walked in and looked at him strangely.
"Why?"
"Well, I told her about you, and she was curious," Ned said, "I saved her from a mugger last night, a bad one, but he had a gun."
"Really."
"Well anyways, I figured you would want to meet her."
"Why would you think that?"
"Well, it isn't everyday, you get to meet the Vice Foreign Minister, besides you have all those pictures of her, I figured that you would want to meet her," Ned said.
The coworker's face paled considerably, and Ned began to worry. He never knew the guy could look like that.
"Hey are you okay?"
The coworker looked at him, and nodded, but Ned could tell he was shaken. Maybe his coworker's interest in the girl was not what he had thought it was.
"Did you tell her my name?" he asked.
Ned shook his head.
"No," he said.
The coworker nodded.
"I have things I need to do, what time is she coming?" he asked.
"Noon. We have a person coming at 11:30, but it should be done in less then a half an hour."
He nodded.
"I sort of guaranteed that you would be here," Ned said, "don't bail out on me."
"I won't."
The coworker left the room and headed to his own. He turned to the bulletin board just over his dresser. He took down the single picture on it and he touched gently, almost reverently.
It had been six years.
And he began to feel regret all over again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Relena was a half an hour early. She had gotten out of her morning meeting with the Colony Commissioner early, and decided that she had no where else to go. The entrance to the garage was in an alleyway, she went cautiously into it. The waiting area was empty, and no one was behind the counter. She saw a sign that said ring the bell for assistance so she did.
She stood, and tapped her fingers against the counter, waiting for someone to beckon her call, hoping that she hadn't come too early.
She heard footsteps, and soon the door behind the counter, and she looked up to say hello to who it was, when she froze. Her heart literally stopped pounding.
It had been six years. Six years since she had gazed into those eyes. Six years since she had begged him to stay. Six years since she had moved on. And those six years suddenly faded away, and she was sixteen again.
"Hello Relena," he said. She looked at him, and gave a deep breath.
"Hello Heero."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
To be Continued..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Aren't I evil! Please review, the next chapter should be out soon, a lot sooner than it took for this chapter to be done.
Please review, I don't like getting no feedback (it makes me feel lonely)
Anyone else know of the band Something Corporate? I get to see them in two days, I can't wait!! Well until next time.
Author's Notes: Here is the first chapter of Almost Paradise. Sorry for the wait!
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is the property of Sunrise & Sotsu Agency. The author claims no ownership for the characters portrayed in this work.
Chapter 1: Disillusioned
The dinner party was supposed to have been a simple affair between the leaders of the colony and their families and the visiting Vice Foreign Minister, Relena Darlian. However, the 'family' of these leaders also seemed to include all their extended families and quite a few corporate leaders.
Relena stood off to the side of the hall, in which the function had been moved to when everyone was unable to fit in the parlor. She was exhausted, and the pain from her black stilettos was increasing every minute, and she knew that she would have a very bad blister if she didn't remove them soon. She wore a long black halter dress, and her hair was down, reaching mid back. She had had it up in a complicated bun, but had taken it down when the weight from it being piled on top her head began to annoy her
She had originally hoped that the affair would have been a quiet one. Her work had become even more stressful, and she had hoped that the dinner party would have offered a temporary escape from the stress that had been building up steadily.
She had thought that maybe her job would have become easier as the years go by, and the relations between the Earth and the colonies got more friendly, and she had even been considering leaving the position and return to her education, which had been put off due to the war and her involvement, but now with all the arguments in the senate, and the upcoming election of a new President, now would definitely not be the right time to leave the position open.
"Miss Relena?"
Relena turned to see Roger, her 'date' for the evening, looking at her with a somewhat worried expression.
"Yes, Roger, what is it?"
"I was wondering if you were cold," he said, "it has been a bit chilly the past few evenings," he said.
"I am fine," she said.
Roger was a nice, ordinary guy. He was in charge of public relations for Relena, and he often accompanied her on her trips to the colonies. She knew that he had been attracted to her since he started, but she had always rejected his advances, and it had been only after much pleading and begging that she had allowed him to escort her to this function. She had made it clear however, that the affair would be totally platonic, and that he shouldn't expect anything following it. He had been disappointed, but he was used to it, and Relena hoped that it would signal him to move on to someone else.
"Can I get you anything? Another glass of whine, or how about an appetizer? The calamari is really superb."
"No thank you," she said, "I am fine, in fact I think I will be leaving soon."
"Oh, shall I call Brett, that way you won't have to call a limousine?"
She sighed; she was hoping that he would have gotten the point, but obviously Roger had not been paying attention.
"No, I think I will be walking home tonight," she said.
"Oh, but you mustn't, who knows who will be out on the streets at this time, you must take the limousine it is much safer."
"I will be perfectly fine," she said, "there hasn't been a threat to me in 6 years, and crime rates are at an all time low."
"Well if you insist, but let me accompany you," he said.
"No, Roger. I want to be alone," she said, "I know that you are worried, but don't worry nothing is going to happen. If it will make you feel better, I will call you right when I get to my hotel room."
"Very well, but please take my coat, you don't need to catch your death out there," he said.
She didn't have the heart to refuse him, so she took it and wished him good night, and as an after thought kissed him on the cheek. She walked away from him, and out the door.
Roger had been right, it was a little chilly outside, and she was for once thankful for Roger's worrying. The streets were dimly lit, and the entire colony was silent, but it was a comfortable silence. And she felt herself begin to lapse into her thoughts without any fear of disruption
Ever since the threat from Mariemeia six years prior had been diffused, there had been no major threats to general peace, and the main problem to face now was a few economic issues that were leftover from the years of war, and military spending.
And it wasn't too long before questions of her competence began to mount. The general public wasn't too concerned, but those within the political circle began to bring her uncompleted education, and her abilities to question, and she had been spending most of the past months trying to defend herself from the allegations.
She knew she was young, she knew she needed a college degree, but she couldn't help but feel that they didn't understand why she was doing what she had been doing.
When she was little she had never imagined holding the job her father had. If people asked her when she was little what she wanted to be, she would have told them that she wanted to be a singer or a reporter. And she was beginning to feel a little resentful that she was even holding this job.
Now that she looked back on it, she could see that she had been thrown into it, and she hadn't really understood all the implications. She had been fifteen, her father had died, and people had instantly put her in a position in which she had no options, and a position where she didn't know of enough to say no.
'I was so naïve,' she thought, 'I didn't know how much it would take over my life. I didn't know how much pain it would cause.'
She kept walking, and noted that her hotel was only a block away, and she was glad because now her feet were killing her, and she stopped to take off the shoes.
It was so quick that for a moment she couldn't comprehend what was happening, but it came to her when she felt the barrel of a gun pressed to her forehead, and an arm reaching around her pulling against a strong body.
"Give me everything you got," a voice said, from behind her, and she detected the slur in the words, and the smell of alcohol that assailed her nostrils.
"I don't have anything to give you," she said.
"Don't mess with me lady, I know a goldmine when I see it," he said.
"I don't have anything on me," she said, her panic beginning to rise.
She was becoming claustrophobic in his arms, and his smell was beginning to make her stomach turn, and she tasted the edge of the vomit in her mouth.
She closed her eyes shut, and waited for the man to pull the trigger. She thought, 'out of all the ways that I almost died, I had to die like this.'
She was suddenly pushed forward, when the man was jerked away, and the gun fell to the ground, and thankfully did not go off. She stumbled to the ground and she heard the sound of voices behind her.
She turned, and could not distinguish either one, although, she was sure that the one who was being gripped by the other had been her attacker. Her attacker was whimpering, and after a few moments he was released and scampered off. Her savior turned to her and she grabbed the gun from the ground and cocked it straight towards the man.
"Who are you?" she asked uncertain, "reveal yourself, and I won't shoot."
(AN: It isn't who you might be thinking it is, I am not too cliché. ^_^)
The figure laughed.
"You're a bit more flighty than I thought you would be," he said.
He stepped under the nearest streetlights, and revealed a tall man of about 5'9, with dusty blonde hair, and a pair of glasses, which sort of his bright green eyes.
"What do you mean 'thought me to be'," She said.
"Well I have heard of you, and you are totally different than what I thought."
She took that to mean that he had seen her on television or in the paper.
"Well the media, doesn't tend to show all of a person, you should believe everything you see," she said.
"What are you talking about? I heard about you from Superman," he said.
Relena lifted her eyebrow in disbelief.
"Superman?"
"Oh, he works for me, very weird guy if I do say so myself, he seems to know a lot about you, though."
"So this guy is a stalker," she said.
"I don't know," he replied, "but then again I am definitely not the sharpest tool in the box."
She looked at him, and finally she dropped the gun.
"Well thank you for saving me," she said.
"No problem, I am always one to save the damsel in distress," he said, "by the way my name is Ned Daley."
"I assume you already know my name from this Superman Guy."
He nodded.
"Do you want a ride home," he asked, "I mean I doubt you will meet anybody else, but I don't want to have to feel responsible if something did," he said.
She nodded, not in too much of a hurry to go through that experience again.
"You know, maybe you could come and meet Superman, the way he talks, I think he would love to meet you."
She smiled.
"You make me out to be as some sort of pop star," she said, as she began to follow him to a beat up truck that was in a nearby alley.
"Well are you?" he asked.
"Of course not," she answered.
He took her back to the hotel, and even looked at the lobby in awe when he escorted her in.
"You must be real high maintenance," he commented.
"No not really, I never stay that long in a hotel room, but I guess they feel I would be offended if they didn't give me star treatment," she said.
He told her that he would leave her at the elevator; he figured that muggers and fiends didn't congregate in this place.
"Thanks again for your help," she said.
"No problem," he said, "hey tomorrow I have lunch off tomorrow, you can come by say hi to Superman, and I can show you around."
She smiled at him, "you know what tomorrow will be lovely. I mean it is the least I can do for you saving my life, besides I am a little curious about this Superman character."
"Yeah he owes me a few," he said, smiling.
He took out a business card and handed it to her. She looked at it and realized that it was the address to a car garage.
"You're a mechanic?"
"Yup, very rewarding job, I live there too, so does Superman," he said.
She nodded.
"I will see you noon tomorrow then," she said.
"Noon it is," he said.
He gave a slight bow to her and walked away. She smiled, he seemed like a very nice guy, and a great conversationalist to boot. It would be a welcome change from most of the other people she spent time with.
She was actually smiling when she reached her room. She quickly called Roger when she got in, and assured him that she was okay (she was definitely not going to tell him what had happened) and she cleared her schedule for the next day.
She fell asleep quite easily, and for once she didn't dream.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Ned arrived at the garage at 2 a.m. and found his apartment mate and coworker asleep on the couch in the living area overlooking the garage with the paper from the day before resting on his chest, the picture of the woman he had saved on the cover.
He chuckled, as he saw the expression on the guy's face. His coworker was intense even in his sleep. A mangy cat that had always hung around the garage was laying on top of blue sports car, that had recently been given a new battery. Ned removed a blanket from a closet and cover the man with it, and then headed to his own room. He would wait until tomorrow to tell the guy about what happened.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Ned was up bright and early next morning, as he scrambled through his kitchen, empting the sink, and generally picking up the mess that had been collecting for months.
His coworker walked in and looked at Ned strangely, but didn't comment, instead he got his glass of coffee and left almost as quickly as he had come in.
"Hey Superman, I bet you could never guess what happened to me last night," he called out.
"Would it have something to do with why your cleaning the kitchen," his coworker answered.
"Yup, we have a visitor today."
"Oh really."
"Yeah, a pretty distinguished one too. She wants to meet you," Ned said.
The coworker walked in and looked at him strangely.
"Why?"
"Well, I told her about you, and she was curious," Ned said, "I saved her from a mugger last night, a bad one, but he had a gun."
"Really."
"Well anyways, I figured you would want to meet her."
"Why would you think that?"
"Well, it isn't everyday, you get to meet the Vice Foreign Minister, besides you have all those pictures of her, I figured that you would want to meet her," Ned said.
The coworker's face paled considerably, and Ned began to worry. He never knew the guy could look like that.
"Hey are you okay?"
The coworker looked at him, and nodded, but Ned could tell he was shaken. Maybe his coworker's interest in the girl was not what he had thought it was.
"Did you tell her my name?" he asked.
Ned shook his head.
"No," he said.
The coworker nodded.
"I have things I need to do, what time is she coming?" he asked.
"Noon. We have a person coming at 11:30, but it should be done in less then a half an hour."
He nodded.
"I sort of guaranteed that you would be here," Ned said, "don't bail out on me."
"I won't."
The coworker left the room and headed to his own. He turned to the bulletin board just over his dresser. He took down the single picture on it and he touched gently, almost reverently.
It had been six years.
And he began to feel regret all over again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Relena was a half an hour early. She had gotten out of her morning meeting with the Colony Commissioner early, and decided that she had no where else to go. The entrance to the garage was in an alleyway, she went cautiously into it. The waiting area was empty, and no one was behind the counter. She saw a sign that said ring the bell for assistance so she did.
She stood, and tapped her fingers against the counter, waiting for someone to beckon her call, hoping that she hadn't come too early.
She heard footsteps, and soon the door behind the counter, and she looked up to say hello to who it was, when she froze. Her heart literally stopped pounding.
It had been six years. Six years since she had gazed into those eyes. Six years since she had begged him to stay. Six years since she had moved on. And those six years suddenly faded away, and she was sixteen again.
"Hello Relena," he said. She looked at him, and gave a deep breath.
"Hello Heero."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
To be Continued..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------
Aren't I evil! Please review, the next chapter should be out soon, a lot sooner than it took for this chapter to be done.
Please review, I don't like getting no feedback (it makes me feel lonely)
Anyone else know of the band Something Corporate? I get to see them in two days, I can't wait!! Well until next time.