Declaration
A day passed with Relena looking at the newspapers to see if anything leaked out from the bakery fiasco on that early Saturday morning. So far, so good. She thought she was in the clear, but when she saw Treize's paper on her executive desk, her face turned pale white. Her picture was on the center page with the picture of her hand covered with Wufei's arsenal of flour and chocolate, but the ring was there as broad as daylight. It jutted out of her hand, yet the single diamond solitaire glistened with the chocolate mess.
She fell into her seat and placed her hands on her forehead, she could already feel a headache coming on and before long, the first phone call rang in her office. Damage control...think Relena...the rings started to drive her crazy and after seven of them, she picked up the phone. "Hello, Relena Peacecraft speaking..." with agitation in her voice.
"Did you see the morning the paper yet?"
"Yes, Quatre, I did." A sigh of relief escaped from her lips.
"And what did I tell you." Pride filled his voice on the other end.
"Never mind that right now...we have bigger problems to deal with. The media will be on this soon if not already," she rummaged through her drawers to find a bottle of aspirin.
"Ummm...I think you should look out your window right now." He managed to drive through the row of news vans with reporters setting up their telecasts.
She did what she was told and to her amazement, she saw a row of reporters already lined up to get a possible glimpse of the newly engaged ambassador. She immediately closed her blinds and went back to her desk. "Where are you now?"
"Close to the back gates, I'm pretty sure I saw the other staffers as I was pulling up." He pulled his keys from the ignition and quickly entered the barrage of reporters with his cell phone still in his hand.
Relena could hear the reporters screaming out their questions in all directions. She heard some muffled replies coming from him along the lines of "no comment." "Did you see Heero yet?"
"No not yet," he entered through the first set of doors. "I'm on my way to your office." He closed the connection and in five minutes, he was there in one piece with a dazed look on his face. "I've never seen a feeding frenzy like this before." He went over to a small stand and poured himself a glass of water. "If it took me fifteen minutes to get through all of that out there, it's going to be rough for the others." He gulped all of his water practically in one swallow, "How did you get here so fast?"
"I arrived here at six," she got up from her seat and sat on her desk, "there was practically no one here."
He saw her play with the ring on her left hand. "So when did he ask you?"
"Two years ago after my birthday celebration on the premises."
"And you hid this from all of us for these two years?" a shocked look came on his face.
"Yup." She felt the two years of keeping the secret bottled up was worthwhile and thrilling at the same time. "It was hard to keep a straight face at times..." she smiled and went back to work.
Quatre picked up Treize's paper and read the article, "Did you know they want an inside scoop from you?"
Her ears perked up, "What?"
"There's a little declaration right here," he pointed to the small paragraph under the main article.
"When will it all end?" She felt her headache intensify.
Outside on the embassy's grounds, Riley and Aidan arrived hand in hand with Aidan being more boisterous about his employer. Riley tried to coax him out from revealing inner secrets about Relena by elbowing him in his stomach. "You're just inflating the situation."
"So," he continued to speak with several reporters. "By tonight, we'll be somewhat famous," he grinned.
She was getting fed up with his antics and with a sudden move, she pulled on his ear and yanked him from the press. "You're so arrogant!" she stammered. She went through the doors and let the heavy object slam onto his foot.
"Why did you do that for?" He hopped on his right foot, while trying to tend to his other.
"Ohh, the nerve of you..." She quickly left his side and walked to her mini office in front of Relena's.
Meanwhile, Aidan still hoped on one foot for awhile by the door and saw Trowa enter. "Don't tell me you saw all of that?"
"Indeed I did." The limo driver stared down Aidan. "You should be ashamed of yourself." He left the runner to think back on his actions, while he himself wandered throughout the embassy grounds, trying to access the situation of a possible get away for Relena. He peeked out one of the glass windows that showed the back entrance already being blocked. His green eyes scanned the view and he saw Heero surrounded by a swarm of reporters with their flashes.
"Are you the potential fiancé to the ambassador as "The Herald" claims?" A female reporter shouted out amongst the group.
Heero pushed his way forward ignoring the questions and gave them his death glare trying to back a couple of reporters away.
Another voice popped into the picture, "Will you do an 'inside scoop' for the "The Herald" that has been declared by Treize Krusheneda?"
"No comment," he murmured. He saw that the back door was in his reach, but the swarm of reporters kept him from getting there. His back was towards the door, but he felt someone yank him in.
"It seems like you're a celebrity around here," Trowa quickly shut the door. He saw the death glare that Heero was giving and immediately changed the subject. "Relena's in her office along with Quatre...I just passed there a couple of minutes ago." He saw the bodyguard bolt up the stairs in no time. It looks like I'm going to lose my bet to Quatre after all.
Heero saw the congregation and ran through the various scenarios that could be played out to diffuse the situation, but none of them seemed to work out too well. But, one thing was for sure that no matter what he tried to do, a bunch of reporters were seen in every scenario.
Quatre brought him out of his nightmare, "Well congratulations, Heero."
"Thanks." He returned to the current situation. "What do you want to do, Relena?"
"I'm not too sure myself, everything just blew up in front of us. Treize sure has us in a bind...he's been digging up dirt these past two years and it seems like he's finally hit the jackpot." She began to pace in her office and realized that there was only one thing that they could possibly do. "Quatre told me about Treize's declaration for an inside scoop on our story. Do you want to do that?"
A plan started to run through his nerves and a small evil flash crossed his eyes for a brief a second, "I think it'll work."
"What are you thinking, Heero? I saw something clicked in that mind of yours." Relena looked in on her fiancé, never did before did she see him smirk.
"We'll have the inside scoop only reserved for Treize and Lady Une...but, it'll be on our terms. Disclose that to the reporters now."
"You sure about that?" Quatre looked up from his seat.
"I'm sure...safety won't be compromised here. The reporters are just looking for their answers."
"All right then, it's settled." She quickly left the room and headed down to where the congregation of reporters were situated at. She viewed through a window and saw the magnitude of the crowd. "Here goes nothing...damage control." She pushed the heavy doors open and before here, flashes popped in a matter of seconds with reporters aiming their microphones to the ambassador. "As for Treize's declaration in today's newspaper, I will disclose the information only to him, but on my terms only and that's that." She turned away from the massive group, as reporters shouted out their questions in rapid fire succession in hopes of Relena leaking out some vital information on her fiancé. I sure hope Heero knows what he's doing.
The rest of the day went on without any other abnormal incidents minus the fact that the phone lines rang off the hook every hour, in which Quatre still manned somehow with about twenty pairs of ear plugs by his desk. By early evening, mostly everything died down, but the news of Relena's potential engagement was sounding off in every possible news channel, as everyone wished her the best. They even showed her response to Treize's declaration in his paper for her to disclose some details about her engagement.
"It seems like your declaration worked," Une smiled down on her boss.
"For now it has," he stared at the screen, "and now we wait for her phone call."
TBC
