Knight with Shining Eyes
)
The next day
"You'd think if I had to develop a crush on a guy the least I could've done was fall for someone with some intelligence." Eve muttered as she watched the two assassins march Quatre, Noin and Relena into the clearing. Relena had been giving a big speech today and both Noin and Quatre had decided to come along for support. If they'd wanted to be of any help they should have stayed home so that the one on the right wouldn't have felt it necessary to point a gun into her head to keep the other two moving. The assassins were taking them to the caves obviously and it was just as obvious from the way their captors were dragging their feet that they'd guessed that too. And where the Hell was Darius? He was supposed to be watching Noin.
"Move along you two or your precious princess gets it." One of them shouted with annoyance ringing in every syllable. "We don't have all day."
Buddy this is going to be your last day on earth, Eve thought as she pulled out her silencer and fitted it onto the end of her gun. Taking aim she waited until there was a clear shot then fired two shots in rapid succession. Instantly the one holding the gun to Relena's head dropped to the floor dead as a doornail. Trained soldiers still Quatre and Noin had the other on the ground and unconscious seconds later. Eve watched as Quatre looked up at her as oppose to looking at the one she'd shot. How in God's name had he known exactly where to look? It was like they had a coming meter for each other, Eve thought with a frown.
"Night, look out!" Quatre yelled just as she sensed the several darts that had been hurled her way in a pattern designed to make it impossible for all of them to miss no matter how she moved. Dodging all but one Eve felt the zing as one pierced her flesh and instinctively winced even though she felt no pain. Next came the sound of shots and then silence. Struggling to keep her eyes open as her eyes began to water and sting Eve saw a man standing over her with a dart gun in his hand. Holding up her gun she gave a slight gasp as she watched him weave before her then sink to the ground, blood flowing from the side of his head. Raising an eyebrow Eve grabbed one of the other darts from the ground and twisted off the top to see what was strong enough her powerful immune system couldn't kick it. Spilling the contents onto her hand Eve smelt the concoction, identified the substance and knew she was sunk. With a crash she fell to the ground with the world spinning around her.
)
"Night, are you alright?" Quatre said running onto the ridge she'd been standing on to find her flat on her back with her eyes tightly closed.
"Hell no." Eve said from the ground as she threw away the empty dart that had landed beside her. "He managed to hit me with one of those things." Eve watched Quatre bend down before her and pick up the discarded dart. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Noin and Relena watching her from a slight distance, Noin with a gun ready if necessary.
"What did they inject you with?" Quatre said softly throwing the dart away to come closer, completely disregarding the fact that she was a dangerous assassins who moments ago had killed someone right in front of him. Staring into his eyes Eve couldn't help smile before closing them again against the searing pain.
"You know something, Blue Eyes. I doubt you've even heard of half the stuff they injected me with." Eve finally said with something close to a chuckle as she tried to sit up but that wasn't happening and she laid her head back down.
Rather surprised by her grin Quatre felt himself grinning back. She was going to be okay then. Whatever they'd hit her with wasn't anything to worry about. Or at least from her attitude but then again she never made any sense to him. "You're okay then? Do you need a doctor or something?"
)
"Well I'm going to be paralyzed from the waist down for a couple of minutes and I'm going to kill my partner when he gets here but other then that I'm just peachy. Now if they'd all hit me..well know that would be a different story. Unfortunately for me it appears that I owe you a debt, Mr. Winner." Eve said as she set her gun down beside her thigh so that she could use her hand to brace her body as she attempted to get up again. "Don't try to call it in."
"You're the one that killed the man holding a gun to my head. Why did you save us?" Relena asked stepping forward with a determined look on her face. The girl half lying on the ground wasn't in any condition to do anything and didn't seem to mean them any harm for the time being at least. The girl had shades over her eyes but Relena was willing to bet she'd be very pretty if she wasn't wearing them. Judging from Quatre's obvious concern and actions, he thought so too which both pleased and worried her.
"I seemed to be making it a habit of saving your ass, Minister." Eve said sarcastically as she began to get a bit nervous. Darius should have been here by now, where was he? If he was somewhere goofing off she was really gonna hurt him bad.
"Are you sure you don't need to see a doctor?" Quatre said drawing her attention back to him sharply at the word doctor.
"Wouldn't be of much use, my body's defenses would just annihilate whatever they gave me, Winner. Besides I really don't feel like ending up dead today either." Eve said, her hatred of doctors plain. She hated them right up there with Oz in fact. After all what were doctors but scientists testing on whatever they could to make money off the suffering of others? If people weren't sick they wouldn't make money after all. Sometimes she wondered if perhaps there weren't more cured out there that simply were available to the public because of the cutbacks in doctor's paychecks.
"What should we do then?" Relena said wanting to help her savior, thief or not. It was the least she could do.
Reading Relena's expression correctly Eve couldn't help but smile at her, catching everyone by surprise since it was a genuinely nice smile. "How did someone like you ever become the most important political force on earth and in the colonies? And no there's nothing you could do for me except leave me here so that my partner can come get me without having to worry about you guys being here."
)
"Wouldn't it make more sense for you to kill us now that we've seen your face?" Noin said stepping in front of Relena protectively. They'd all been thinking it, she might as well say it and get it over with.
"Like I keep telling people if I want someone dead they end up dead before they can even scream. If I wanted any of you dead I'd have let those people get you. Besides, you warned me about the scientists and I owe you for that." Eve said gruffly, a bit peeved that they kept thinking she was some murdering maniac. Knowing someone's face wasn't a big deal either since a face was easy enough to change as it was.
"Those men were scientists?" Quatre said with a slightly protective voice that had gone soft. The kind of voice I could listen to all day, Eve thought before she thought better of it. Quatre meanwhile was concerned and curious as to who the scientists were and what they had wanted before they'd been scared off or taken out.
"Yup, they must have been tracking me and figured in the commotion I'd be distracted enough to not notice them till it was too late." Eve said trying to move her foot without much success. She could bend her toes but that was it. "I've killed enough of them that they've realized a head on assault is suicide plain and simple."
"Why were the scientists after you?" Relena asked walking around Noin so that she was standing in front of Eve, blocking the sun since the girl kept looking away from it even with the shades. "Are they after revenge or something?"
"They hunt me because they want to chop me up into little pieces and experiment on me so that they can learn from the Project's mistakes ands take up where they left off. There's quite a large bounty on my head right know for just samples of my blood. It's real hard to find good doctors these days." Eve said with a bitter smile. "After all every terrorist, every would be world dictator needs an army and what better army then Night Hunters where the experimentation has already been done and is a work in progress. Every year at least five groups make a shot at bagging us and end up in body bags if they're bodies are ever found. As you might have guessed we don't want to be lab rats again even if they have the decency to kill us first this time around, Minister."
"But that's horrible." Relena said looking quite upset at the idea. Why had she not been made aware of any of this? Dumb question. She doubted only one percent of the population was even aware the hunters still existed and what they were capable of.
Look at her Eve thought with a touch of regret of how she herself had use to be so naive. So full of optimism and moral righteousness. I use to be just like her and look at me know. We're like night and day. "You're right but if it will make you feel any better they very rarely look anymore and those who do have slim luck when it comes to finding us. These guys just got lucky..for a bit."
)
"Noin? Where the Hell are you? Peacecraft's about ready to have my head on a platter." Came a voice that echoed off the rocks and grabbed their attentions
"That's Darius's voice." Noin stated looking over the ridge to see him looking for her and making a big show out of it too.
"You three go ahead, I'll be on my feet in a couple of minutes. I'm afraid that if you're still here when I can stand I probably will have to kill you." Eve said motioning with her head towards the way they'd come. Actually she wouldn't but they really didn't need to know that. After all she did have a reputation to uphold. She was one bad ass bitch and proud of it.
"But what if more of the scientists are waiting for us to go so that they can get at you? I'm not leaving you here by yourself and that's final. Noin, take Relena and Darius, head back to the others. I'll stay here till she can walk then I'll follow you. Understand?" Quatre said, his voice broaching no argument.
"Are you sure, Quatre?" Noin said ignoring Darius's calls.
"I'm sure, Noin." Quatre said nodding firmly.
"All right, Quatre." Relena said and turning around began walking back down the ridge and with a last searching look was followed by Noin. Soon the two were alone and Eve was not at all pleased with the change.
)
"You should have gone with them, Blue Eyes." Eve said when they were out of sight leaving her sorely tempted to call out to them to come take the idiot blonde off her hands. The last thing she needed right now was to have to worry about him and this weird connection they had. Plus if the scientists did come back Blue Eyes would be in the way which would be a serious problem not that he would think he was in the way. He'd think he was helping like most idiot guys who stuck their noses in where it wasn't needed. "I'd be very happy if you went with them." Eve added hoping that Quatre's manners would forbid him to deny her request.
:Sorry but I'm not going anywhere until you can walk, Night. There's nothing you can say or do about it at the moment." Quatre said sitting down so that he faced her. "You're down for the count for the time being and I aim to stick around till you can properly kick my ass for not leaving with the others."
"Why are you doing this, Quatre?" Eve said watching him closely since she knew she'd be able to read the honesty of his words better that way. Not that he was the type to lie overly but he was still a politician in a sense. She didn't understand this enigma that was Winner and she couldn't understand why that was. There had been no mention that he was such a pain in the asses in any of his profiles.
"I'm staying because I have no intention of leaving you out here on your own when you can't protect yourself." Quatre said in a voice usually reserved for his nieces and nephews. Damn but she was exasperating sometimes.
"I have my gun and my blades thank you. Now what do you say you go before I use you as a target. I never miss." Eve added just for an extra kick to her words. She would never hurt him but he didn't need to know that now did he?
"If you wanted me dead you would have done it already." Quatre said shooting her words back at her with a sweet smile that was meant to reassure. Just then there was a rustle in a nearby bush and pushing her out of the sounds direction Quatre got in front of her and pulled his gun that he hadn't had a chance to use earlier. Normally he never carried but with everything that had happened he'd promised Heero that he would. Waiting for several seconds Quatre gave a sigh of relief when he saw a rabbit running away in the other direction. "I think it was just the rabbit. Sorry"
"I'll go with that. Now would you mind helping me up please?" Eve said lying on the ground having lost her balance when Quatre had put himself in front of her. A part of her was flustered and pleased that he'd been all set to protect her while another, more sensible part called him various forms of the word idiot.
"Sorry." Quatre said but instead of pulling her up onto her hands he got behind her and sitting down pulled her into his lap.
)
"What the Hell do you think you're doing!" Eve said though she had to admit his lap was a hell of a lot more comfortable then the ground.
"This way you don't have to use your arms to hold yourself up." Quatre said not about to admit that he had also done it because he wanted to hold her, especially since she couldn't do too much damage at the moment though she was probably going to give him Holy Hell when this was all over. "Besides this is more comfortable then sitting on the ground isn't it?"
"Then maybe I should shoot you and have you stuffed into my permanent bean bag chair then huh?" Eve said unconsciously snuggling closer despite her words as she relaxed against him. "Then you can be my permanent chair and I can punch you into the shape I want you."
"But you love my eyes too much to kill me remember?" Quatre said teasingly, rather liking the way she was cuddling against him without even realizing it. It was nice to feel needed even if the person needing you would rather shoot herself in the head then admit it. So this is what Relena went through, Quatre thought with a smirk on his face.
"I could always cut them out and then shoot you." Eve said with a touch of laughter in her voice since it was pretty obvious she wasn't serious about the whole chair thing. Besides how gross was that? In fact she was almost starting to enjoy her predicament as stupid as that was. There were worse places to be then outside on a beautiful day in the lap of one fine specimen of the male species though. Who smells really nice too, Eve thought with a small smile. He smelled like the outdoors actually.
)
"Something tells me my eyes are safe for now then. So mind telling me why we always meet after or before gun fire?" Quatre said with a teasing note to his voice as he tried to distract her from threatening his person or someone else's. "It's beginning to seem like a trend with us or is it just me?"
"Maybe you should take it as a sign that I'm a danger to your health." Eve said saucily, not about to let herself be distracted so easily. After all when it came to her life there usually really was trouble waiting around every corner.
"Or maybe the fates are trying to tell us something else entirely." Quatre said wrapping his arms around her waist, bring her closer.
"Are you flirting with me. Winner?" Eve said turning her head slightly to get a better look at his face which gave away nothing that he didn't want her to see for the moment. So he could be a real politician when he wanted to be, Eve mushed to herself absently. Hiding behind kind eyes and a smile when Lord only knows what's going through his head.
"And if I am?" Quatre said looking down at her with the same unreadable expression he used whenever his sisters were pumping him for information on his none existent love life. Well he was sorta getting one now but it was pretty messed up and would only worry them more. Come to think of it though it might make them stop encouraging him to find a girl..
"Then I have to say that you've got the worst taste in women I have ever seen, Blue Eyes. I'm not good to eat at all and will give you plenty of cavities." Eve said with a smirk even as a small sigh of regret for the both of them escaped her lips. If only this were another time and place. When she still believed in love conquering all and prince charming, a white knight upon a golden steed.
"From where I'm sitting I have great taste in women." Quatre said with a smile as he laid his chin on top of her head, liking the smell of her hair. It was sort of fruity and familiar but for the life of him he couldn't remember where he recalled it from. She hadn't been using this kind of shampoo the last few times they'd met. Pushing the thought aside Quatre continued his argument. "Or at least they are in the kissing department. Or should I say you are."
)
Shaking her head because she couldn't think of anything else to say Eve simply allowed him to keep holding her and stared off the ridge at the view, praying that her legs would snap back real soon before she lost her head and stared believing the lines he was feeding her. Quatre allowed her to think about what he'd said and instead concentrated on the feel of her in his arms and the way she fit perfectly in them. "You can go now." Eve said finally after she decided that it was time she left.
"Can you move?" Quatre said reasonably as he loosened his hold on her waist, willing to let her go if she could get up and move on her own. He didn't want to but he wasn't stupid enough to think she'd listen to him and stay put for a bit. Especially to stay put in his arms.
"Yup." Eve said standing up and carefully moving away from him, concentrating on her walking so that she didn't weave or stumble. "Thanks again, I guess we're even now."
"Do you have to go?" Quatre asked before he thought better of it. For a while there he'd been more happy and just plain alive then he had felt in a long time simply from being in her company. She was like a live wire, shocking everything around her to life and he was growing to love the feeling. She made him feel younger, more energized even after a long day that had made him feel older then time its self. Plus she was really improving his dreams though he'd imagine she'd belt him one if she ever had an idea of how he thought of her when he was fast asleep. He was still a young man after all even if he wasn't in Duo's league.
"Are you asking me to stay?" Eve said cocking her head to one side. She was already beginning to feel a bit light headed but she didn't want to admit that she wasn't up to it either.
"Yea, I'm asking you to stay. You don't have to talk or do anything. Just sit here and enjoy the view with me."
"Well I.. I guess I.. .could....I'll stay until my legs are steadier." Eve said walking back over to sit beside him. "Just to enjoy the view though. No funny business."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."