By : Angel of Venus_l3 (angelofvenus_l3@yahoo.com)
CHAPTER ONE
Quatre Winner scanned the computer screen for a few minutes and began to type furiously on the keyboard. He paused for awhile to glance at the open folder next to him before turning back to the computer. Sighing, he continued his work, not realizing how late it was. A few stacks of papers laid on his desk, almost blocking his view and a few folders laid scattered on the book shelves which he had hastily flipped through a moment ago.
It had been almost a year since their last battle and neither the pilots could believe how long that they had been living in a world where weapons were no longer needed. At first it was quite strange for them to live day by day without holding a gun but after quite some time, they got used to it and had became accustom to their basic needs in life as mere teenage boys.
Now turning eighteen, all of them had full time jobs working at the Preventers Headquarter. Unlike the others, Quatre had to devote most of his time running his father's businesses. He didn't want the Winner companies to be taken over by anyone other than his family members and seeing how he was the only male heir in the family, he decided to monitor the companies himself. He had to make sure everything run smoothly but it was obviously harder than he thought. As if that wasn't enough, he was still playing an important role in the political development of the space colonies. Without realizing it, he had spent all of his time in politics and his companies than at home and had immediately felt the pressure of being the Winner heir. It was just like getting the pilots to get along but this was worst since it involved thousands of workers from different companies in different colonies.
Suddenly, the phone rang, startling the blonde Arabian. Quatre paused to pick up his cell phone and answered hesitantly, not even looking at the number on the phone. His eyes were still locked on the screen as he struggled to balance the phone on his shoulder. "Hello?" he mumbled, barely audible.
"Yo, Kat!" the voice on the phone greeted. Quatre recognized who it was immediately.
"Duo, hi," he replied wearily. "What's the matter? You burnt the kitchen again?"
Quatre could hear Duo chuckling on the line. "No, no, nothing like that. We're all watching some horror film Trowa rented from the video store. I'm just calling to ask you when are you coming back. It's already 1.45 in the morning."
Quatre's eyes widen in surprise. He took a quick glimpse at his wrist watch and tried to hide a groan. Not again, he silently moaned.
He glanced at his computer screen and then at his work papers which seemed to take up most of the space on his desk. Obviously it will take him more than just a night to finish his reports and proposals.
"Kat? Are you still there?" Duo inquired from the phone line.
Quatre swallowed a few times and managed a reply, "Yeah, still here." He tried to sound casual and relax, not wanting his friend to worry about his exhausted condition. However, as hard as he tried, he couldn't hide the weariness in his voice. "Listen, I think I'm gonna be here all night...."
"Again?" Duo exclaimed. "But I doubt that you even have any dinner. Do you have that much papers to do?"
"Yeah, sort of. I better get started on my project proposals now, Duo. Tell the others not to wait up, okay?"
Duo paused on the other line but finally gave a reply, "Sure, man. Just don't work too hard okay?"
Too late, Quatre silently added to himself. "Yeah, sure thing, Duo."
"I'll talk to you later, then. Bye." After Quatre hung up, he quickly focused on his report, scribbling furiously on the folder. He continued his work for a few more hours and by the time he was half way done, it was already 5.35 in the morning. He still had a few more work papers to check and project proposals to make. However, he couldn't possibly stay in his office the whole night like last time. His friends had been worried about him and had gave him a few hours of lecture about 'sleeping on the job'. It was actually a pun Duo had made but neither Quatre nor the other pilots thought it was funny.
Quatre decided to spend a few more minutes before he head back home. He flipped through the folder, sighing in frustration at his workers' mistakes and made a few corrections on them. Suddenly, he felt a throbbing pain in his head. The pain was light at first but soon, it became intense.
"Not again," he muttered as he shut his eyes tightly, trying to block out the pain. He tried to focus on his papers but he couldn't get any of the words to make sense. Sighing, he decided to call it a night and gathered his files and slowly made his way out of his office. He just hoped that he would be able to focus on the road when he drove back home.
As soon as Quatre reached his mansion, he parked his car and fiddled with his house key. It was a miracle he didn't get into any accident, he thought. He was lucky that the road was empty since it was way passed midnight. Normally his chauffeur would have drove him home but today Quatre had insisted he drove on his own. He didn't want to make his driver wait up for him the whole night and it took him a lot of efforts to get rid of his bodyguards. The pain still throbbed in his head and he had to struggle to find the right key to open the door.
The whole house was dark and he assumed his friends were already asleep. Quietly, he tiptoed to the kitchen and tossed his files on the kitchen table. After pouring himself a glass of water, he hastily grabbed a tiny bottle of aspirin which he had hidden in the cabinet and unscrewed the lid. He took out three pills and gulped it down with water while rubbing his temple.
"You're up early," a voice stated. Quatre choke and sputtered on his drink. When he recovered, he turned to find Wufei frowning at him. He couldn't tell what the Chinese man was thinking but he assumed that he's probably going to make some kind of remark about him not being able to handle the pressures at work.
Wufei's eyes darted from Quatre's worn out face to the bottle of aspirin. Quatre looked away and ran his fingers through his blonde hair nervously. He was hoping none of his friends found out that he had been downing on aspirin but since Wufei had already seen the bottle, it was useless to deny or hide it.
"Wufei," he murmured, still not looking at the Chinese man. "I didn't know you were up…"
"Kat, you need to relax," Wufei intruded as he took a sit next to his tired friend. Quatre finally shifted his eyes to meet the Chinese man's black ones.
"How many of this pills did you take?" Wufei inquired gently. He took the bottle and studied the label.
"One."
Wufei narrowed his eyes as he glanced at Quatre, obviously not believing him. Sighing, Quatre answered wearily, "Three."
"Since when?" he continued.
Quatre paused but seeing Wufei's piercing eyes, he decided to go with the truth, "Since last month, two or three pills a day for four days a week." Wufei took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He studied his friend's face.
Quatre's usual bright blue eyes were now dull and had visible dark circles under them. His face looked worn out and exhausted. His wavy blonde hair was disheveled and limp. He had loosen his tie and the two top button on his shirt was left undone. Wufei knew Quatre had been taking his father's businesses seriously and had often came back home looking all tired and worn out but he had never seen Quatre so exhausted before. At least, not lately. Quatre closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, not even bothering to hide the pain on his face. He couldn't, even if he wanted to. Wufei began to worry and immediately realized that Quatre was having more than just his usual-after-work headache.
"Kat, are you having a migraine?" he asked in concern, which startled Quatre since Wufei had never showed any sign of worry before. Quatre slowly opened his eyes and was about to answer him until he heard footsteps trotting close by and before long, Trowa and Heero entered the kitchen. Like Wufei, both of them were still in their robe. Quatre managed a shaky smile as a greeting and blinked a few time to get a better focus for the pain was beginning to blur his vision.
"Kat, are you okay?" Trowa asked, concerned written on his face. Quatre nodded his head frantically but his action made his pain even worst.
"I…am…great," he stuttered, closing his eyes again and gritted his teeth. The three pilots exchanged worried glances. Heero grabbed the tiny aspirin bottle and read it. He then glanced at Wufei, as though asking him a question.
"Three," Wufei replied. "Since last month, two or three pills a day for four days a week."
Trowa shook his head disapprovingly and he took the bottle from Heero to read it. Quatre sighed wearily.
"Look, I'm just having…..a small headache and you guys…don't have to…"
Heero raised his hand as a sign for Quatre to stop. "Let's just get you back to bed," Heero replied.
Quatre shook his head slowly and muttered, "Can't….got work…to submit…proposals…directors…." He pointed a shaky finger to the folders on the table but Heero hardly glanced at them or hear him.
"Quatre, it's Sunday," Wufei stated, sneaking a worried glance at Trowa who returned his gaze.
"Still…" was all Quatre could say. Heero gently helped Quatre to get up. Quatre made some protesting noises but Heero didn't acknowledge him.
When they reached his room, Heero led Quatre to his bed. The tired blonde slowly sat on the bed and yawned exhaustedly.
"Thanks, Heero," he managed with a small smile.
"Get some sleep," Heero advised, but to Quatre, it sounded more like an order. "I'll call your secretary and tell her that you're not coming for work on Monday morning."
"Heero, I have a lot of work to do…" Quatre protested weakly, still feeling the pain in his head. He could hardly prevent his voice from trembling.
"Look, you'll be gone for only a day, I'm sure your personal assistants and secretaries can handle your job during that short period," Heero replied firmly. "So don't worry. Just get some sleep and relax a little. I'll call a doctor…"
"No," Quatre cried out but then winced in pain. "No doctors.…"
Heero sighed. "Alright, I won't call a doctor but right now, just get the rest you deserve. If you need anything, call us. We'll just be outside." Quatre wanted to protest but Heero's tone left no room for argument.
Slowly, Quatre laid on the bed and closed his eyes. It seemed as though it had been a while since he felt the soft mattress under his skin and the cool, calm surrounding of his room, instead of the stuffy office and the hard desk which was always surrounded with stacks of papers and folders. Before long, he felt into a heavy, deep slumber.
"So, you really think a vacation is what he need?" Trowa inquired, helping himself to a chocolate cookie from the large plate of cookies on the coffee table. Duo nodded his head affirmatively.
"Of
course," he exclaimed.
"Quatre has been cooped up
in his 'business' world or
to be more specific, his stuffy old office for quite some time now and that's not healthy at
all. He needs to
get out of
his systems once in
awhile and relax. I mean, come on, have you seen him work this hard in
the war? Of course not. This business thing has finally gone up
to his head and look at
him now. He's even downing on
pills, for crying out loud! The remedy for the poor boy is
a nice, long,
uninterrupted vacation. Oh, we should send him to
one of those cool, exotic islands far away where there's a
nice view of
the sun, cool, clear,
crystalline water and
a lot of
extremely, hot, gorgeous
babes. That way we
can all have some fun…"
The other three pilots rolled their eyes and groaned. "Obviously we
will be tagging along on
this trip," Wufei muttered, sipping his coffee.
"Of course!" Duo exclaimed, smiling gleefully at the thought of hot sun, hot sand and hot babes.
Heero took another cookie and lightly munched on it. "I suppose we could use a vacation, too," he replied softly. "I guess I could get off work for a couple of days… Relena kept telling me to take some time off work and have some fun instead of doing reports and missions."
"Me, too," Wufei muttered. "Sally has been bugging me to take a day off once in awhile to enjoy 'life', whatever she means."
"It clearly means she needs at least a day off away from you and your justice ramblings," Duo quipped, chuckling. "Now, that's vacation."
Wufei cast Duo a glare but Duo easily shrugged it off. "Trowa? How about you?" he inquired.
Trowa looked thoughtful. "I guess I can make it if you guys plan everything out for next week. I'm already free by Wednesday until the weekend but I can take a few extra days off. We've been trying to talk our manager into letting us have a few days off from work and it seems to be working. Catherine is already in Bahamas with her boyfriend."
"Great!" Duo exclaimed, clasping his hands together. "Then, it's settle! We'll go next week but don't any of you guys tell Quatre about it, yet. Let's just make it a surprise for him."
"He'll be surprise alright," Wufei mumbled, taking a short sip of his coffee. "And as a bonus, it'll come together with a heart attack or a stroke." He paused to set the empty mug down on the coffee table and asked, "But the question is…would he allow himself to go on this vacation?"
Trowa contemplated his thoughts and replied, "Yeah, you're right. He's probably too busy to take even an hour off. How is this plan going to work?"
"Simple," Heero stated with a smirk. "If he refuse to come on his own will, we'll have to force him then. It's very easy to drug him or if you prefer something a little challenging, we can just knock him out with our bare hands. It's not that hard, you know, especially in his present condition."
Duo, Trowa and Wufei raised their eyebrows as they watched Heero casually sipped his drink.
"Wha…how's that challenging if he's so easy to be knocked out?" Wufei asked with a frown.
Heero shrugged and replied thoughtfully, "That's why I said A LITTLE challenging."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Princess!! Wait up!!" Andrite yelled as he struggled to catch up with the blonde royalty who was running ahead of him. The girl looked over her shoulder and grinned mischievously as she realized he was catching up with her. Minako giggled and quickened her pace. She run along the hallway, almost knocking over a servant and immediately apologized in the process. Andrite was practically panting now since he has been chasing the princess for the past one hour and a half and he hardly gotten anywhere near her. Minako has been really well-trained, he realized and if she took her training anymore seriously, she would easily defeat him in their weekly weaponry battle, not that she hadn't a couple of times.
"Andrite, why don't you just give up?" she exclaimed, still running through the hall. Her voice shook slightly from the run but he knew Minako still had a lot of energy in her. Andrite groaned as he felt his legs weaken.
"Because….it's my…job…to watch…over you…Get…back here….this…instant…!" he stuttered, gasping for breath. He could hear Minako giggling at him and as much as he love to tackle her to the ground and teach her a lesson, he couldn't and had to stop to catch his breath.
He watched the princess disappeared from view and slowly shook his head. "Not again," he muttered under his breath. His heart was still pacing and it took a long moment for him to breath regularly. Since they were toddlers, they had been playing chase around the palace garden for several hours but he didn't thought they would continue the 'tradition' even though they were old enough to outgrown that game. She was always running around the palace and causing chaos in the servants' quarters and even several years had passed by, she was still as energetic as usual, though not as playful as she used to be.
That was because most of her time was spent on helping the development on the colonies and other planets which most planetary leaders were required to. Most of the Venusian generals and advisors had been very persistent about that and they had immediately expose her to various environments since she was four which was exactly when the Venusian king and queen had passed on during one of the war with Mars. However, with the help of her generals and several planetary leaders who opposed the war, they had worked together to stop the battles and had managed to form a planetary unification with Mars and later on with the other planets several years later which Minako was currently involved.
Being so young, Minako hardly had any recollection of her parents and that was also the reason why she had been so engrossed in helping other planets in rebuilding the damages the war had caused. Especially the one regarding the Earth and space colonies. With all the trainings she had gone through, she'd managed to take over her kingdom by the time she was fourteen, although it wasn't official yet.
"Hyperactive, isn't she?" Andrite spun around and found another general smirking at him with amusement in her eyes.
"You think?" he muttered, barely audible to her ear.
Alya tossed her long, red hair aside and let out a chuckle. "Looks like she's improving a lot in her 'sneaking out' skills," she said unison. "Figures the pressure was a little too much on her. You should cut her some slacks…"
"Well, if she keeps on pulling this stunt, I can assure you she won't be getting any slacks cut from me," he replied back solemnly. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a princess to find."
Before Andrite could leave, he felt Alya's firm hand gripped his arm. Andrite looked at her and frowned.
"Ally, do you mind?" he asked, motioning his head to her grasp. Alya didn't pull her hand away, instead she held it even tighter.
"Andy, just leave her alone for now," she said softly.
Andrite scowled at her and replied, "I don't want to encourage this kind of behavior and I certainly do not want this habit to repeat again after her next birthday which is due in a few months time and you know what that means. I just hope she realize her duty as the only heir to the Venusian throne in time for her seventeenth birthday."
"Andy, she's just like her mother," Alya murmured, letting out a small smile. "So full with spirit and always spreading optimism among others and in spite of her playful stunts, she possessed her father's intelligence and seriousness somewhere behind that mischievous smile of hers."
Andrite frowned at her, raking his dark hair back with a frustrated sigh. "Ally, what are you trying to say?"
"What I'm trying to say is don't worry so much about her," she stated casually. "She has been well-trained since she was four and that is long enough for her to realize how important her duty is to her kingdom. And you certainly can't blame her for pulling those pranks or playing these childish games. You know what it's like to be sixteen and holding such a big responsibility that normal teenagers don't. I guess the reason she's always sneaking out is because of the increasingly amount of work she was assigned to do and the overwhelming pressure that came along with it. Come on, you've got to admit that we had been a little 'pushy' on her for the last couple of years…."
Andrite took a moment to compose his thoughts, realizing how much Alya's words seemed to make sense. "So what do you want me to do? Burn away the work papers and tell the kingdom she refuse to take the throne?"
Alya frowned at him but managed to remark, "I was thinking a month or two of vacation without any supervision from us but your suggestions sound so much better." Andrite couldn't help but let out a chuckle. Alya forced out a smile at him.
"Well, since the matters regarding the planets' unification and the rebuilding of the Earth is finally settled, I'll think about it," he stated. "But don't get her hopes up too high just yet. I might just tag along with her on this vacation if I want to."
Minako smiled as she trotted along the shoreline, enjoying the combined feelings of the warm sand under her toes and the cool seawater which washed over her feet. The water glistened under the bright sun and the cloudless sky was amazingly in a beautiful shade of blue. It's been awhile since she had enjoyed such a view, she realized. She loved the noisy atmosphere of the children's happy laughter and their excited shouts. Most of the teenagers were playing at sea while most families had their picnic at the sandy area, making sandcastles with their children and playing volleyball. Everyone was having their typical day-at-the-beach-fun.
She felt the cool breeze blowing her long, blonde hair and billowing her wrapped, blue skirt. She had a slightly oversized white shirt on over her yellow bikini top which was pulled over the skirt. Her clothes blended in completely with the other Venusian there and none of them would have any idea that she was a princess, considering how strict and overprotective the generals had been for past couple of years. She was only allowed to attend certain functions, though not quite as often and sometimes if her presence was needed, Andrite would send a representative to fill in her shoes. In spite of her unusual situation which unable her to move freely, she was already well-known for what she had done, her leadership qualities and of course, the rumors of her beauty was naturally the talk of the planet, even though no one other than those working in the palace, several royalties and very little politicians had seen her.
Minako had complained several times to the generals that she was getting rather sick of being locked up in the palace but Andrite had patiently told her that she would be 'revealed' when the time comes for her to take the throne which meant, on her seventeenth birthday only then will the kingdom be introduced to their princess. It was actually one of the traditional Venusian customs which she can't go against.
But even so, Minako had took her own initiative to visit her kingdom secretly once in awhile, dressed in casual clothes instead of her usual long gown. The best part about her disguise was she was able to make friends from various places which was a big change since she had been mixing around with her generals, royalties and politicians in her life. Of course, she couldn't tell her friends who she really was for it would obviously caused a chaos among them.
A few children ran passed her, giggling and laughing among themselves. Minako smiled at them and watched as they hurried to their parents ahead of her. Suddenly, she felt someone's gaze on her. She slowly turned her head and found a beautiful girl sitting on the blanket in the distance. The girl had her sunglass on so Minako couldn't exactly see her eyes. She wore a bright red two piece swimwear that would obviously attract guys' attention and her straight, long, blonde hair fell loosely at her sides. Even though she had her sunglass on, Minako could tell she was looking directly at her.
The girl noticed her stare but didn't acknowledge her. She seemed to be studying her, Minako realized in puzzle but decided to ignore it. For a moment there she wanted to go up to her and ask but decided against it as she realized how long she had been out. Andrite won't be very happy with her when she gets back but she didn't want to make it worse by staying out later than she intended. Slowly, she began to make her way back to the palace.
The girl watched as Minako trotted to another direction. If Minako had turned back, she would have realized the sly smile the girl was trying to hide from her view. "Looks like the search is over," she murmured, examining Minako's figure from the distance.