It's My Life
Okay, as promised, here's Lena's side of 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel'.
Here's a late Christmas present yet early New Years gift to you guys. I hope you enjoy!
Gathering Draca and Lynn about her, Relena told them of their situation in a whisper and how the girls had to be certain to refer to her as 'Salimar' throughout the evening as they made their way to the bar for drinks.
"Well," Lynn whispered, "you just know that they're going to think that I'm you, Re…Salimar." Lynn took off into a playful run, coaxing the other two girls to follow so while giggling at the statement.
It wasn't so much that it was a humorous statement but rather that it was plausible and likely to happen, causing the girls to laugh at the prospect of, most likely, Heero approaching Lynn and calling her 'Relena'.
Reaching the bar counter the girls still giggled over their private joke.
Draca was the first to recover and carelessly lean over the counter shouting, "Hey Giorgio, need the five usual, piacere!"
Desperately trying to maintain her cool composure, Relena tried not to glance over at Duo and Heero, whom Giorgio was attending to.
"Sί, signorina, after I'm done with these men and their drinks," replied Giorgio with a grin while placing three open bottles of cream sodas on the counter in front of Heero and Duo.
Draca playfully pouted until she was distracted by the clearing of the throat caused by Duo, much to Relena's amusement rather than surprise. It was Duo Maxwell after all, and during their acquaintance as bodyguard and employer Relena had come to realize that even if Duo was dating someone he would flirt with any pretty girl he got the opportunity with.
"Evening, ladies, so what are three gorgeous ladies, like yourselves, doing in a place like this?" he asked giving the girls a wink.
Feeling a modest smile cross her features, Relena didn't bother to hide it, unlike Lynn as she blushed and turned away. Relena was a bit surprised at the blush, it wasn't like Lynn to blush over a compliment from a fairly attractive member of the opposite sex.
"Entertainment, darling, entertainment," answered Draca, playfully blowing Duo a kiss.
Glancing over Duo's shoulder, Relena saw that Hilde was watching their interaction with narrowed eyes, especially Draca. Not wishing any death threats upon her old friends, Relena took the opportunity to point out her observations. "Seems like your girlfriend is getting quite jealous of your flirtation." Relena gestured to her fuming friend at the table where the rest of the preventer group was situated.
"Also, your friend looks as though he could use some help," winked Draca, nodding towards the Heero as the 'Perfect Soldier' was attempting to grab four bottles of soda at a time.
With an expression of realization and haste, Duo quickly dashed to Heero's rescue by grabbing the other five bottles from the counter and heading back to the table.
Turning back to her friends for their assessments of their first encounter with Heero and Duo, Relena found Draca eyeing the boys still and leaning down to whisper in Lynn's ear. Lynn had not made eye contact with neither, Duo nor Heero during the entire correspondents.
"Lui è carino," Draca told Lynn in her ear.
"Chi?" Lynn muttered back absently, not even bothering to look up at whom Draca was referring to. Relena didn't even know who her friend was referring to.
Does she find Duo to be cute? I mean he is in a sort of child-like way but…
"Lui coi capelli corti e marroni scuri," clarified Draca, causing Relena to almost glare at her; however, Giorgio saved Draca from one of Relena's rare glares.
"Here you are girls," Giorgio told them placing a tray of five cups of tea with a honey pot in the center.
"Grazie," spoke up Relena, pulling out the money to pay for the drinks out of her shoe.
Over the time that they had been staying in Italy combined with some minor lessons, Relena and her friends had learned to speak Italian quite fluently. It certainly came in handy during class sometimes for some of the professors would slip from speaking English to suddenly speaking Italian. With knowledge of the language the group could understand their professors' lapses of languages.
Paying for the drinks and taking the tray, Relena turned to carry the drinks to the boys.
Deciding to surprise Draca in return for the comment about Heero, Relena informed her friends that Heero had most likely heard and understood what they had said. Relena knew that Heero was fluent in many languages for it had to have been part of his training to be a gundam pilot, but also because she had often heard him say a few lines at fundraisers and special events to representatives who didn't speak a word of English.
She got the desired effect from both her friends; shock.
"How?" argued Lynn as they made their way back to the stage and to the guys.
"Hey girls, how did it go?" Sage greeted, taking his cup of tea from the tray before Relena had time to set it down.
"Sage," scolded Draca angrily, "let her put the tray down before you go grabbing for your drink!"
Sticking his tongue out at the girl, Sage pointedly ignored her advise and proceeded to let a dab of honey fall into his cup. Then sipped his tea, the liquid burning his tongue, as suspected.
"HOT!" he cried, fanning his tongue.
Rolling his eyes at his brother's stupidity, Adam took the cup Relena offered to him. "So?" he promoted only to receive blank looks. "How did your encounter go? Who was that guy? Was he a pain? Was he hitting on you girls, because his body language basically suggested as much."
Laughing a bit, Lynn was the one to answer, "It did go very well, Relena handled herself perfectly. The guy was trying to engage us in some flirtation but he only succeeded with Draca." She blew on her tea then took a small sip before adding, "However, I don't know who that was."
All eyes turned to Relena.
"That was Duo Maxwell," supplied Relena, but then continued on with a meaningful look at Draca, "and he has a girlfriend who just happens to be here with the group, Hilde Schibecker."
"Whoops," Draca muttered slowly, realizing her mistake in blowing him a kiss. "I thought that he was single since he was hitting on us."
"Don't worry about it," assured Relena with a comforting smile over the rim of her cup. "Duo does that all the time with any seemingly available women who he has been given the opportunity to flirt with. I've seen it many times while he was my bodyguard."
"Wow," snorted Adam, "good to know that our friend was in the safe hands of a guy who could get distracted by a skirt standing a few feet away all alone." The sarcasm was noticeable but Relena let it all slide.
Sage watched Sylvia Noventa and her group as he drank his tea slowly. It had become tradition for the band to drink tea and honey every time before they performed, supposedly it helped maintain their voices and prevent sore throats.
Relena wasn't quite certain how accurate that was but she didn't mind having tea and honey. It actually tasted best that way in her opinion.
"Are you alright, Sage?" Lynn inquired, eyeing the drummer questioningly. He was not acting himself and he kept starring at the table, which wasn't good because it could attract unwanted attention from the preventers of the table.
Snapping out of his gazing, Sage turned to his friends with a false smile plastered on his face.
"Course," he nodded, finishing his cup and setting it down on the tray before escaping behind his drums, adjusting the high ride cymbal and stool to his liking.
The group wasn't fooled but no one was going to press Sage at the moment. Later, someone would though, most likely Draca.
"Well," sighed Draca, finishing her cup and climbing up on stage, "guess we should get started shortly. Finish your tea and get ready."
No one protested. With Draca no one was meant to protest for arguing with Draca was like arguing with a tree, the girl would not move from her decision or command. In plain English, it was useless to question Draca.
One by one the other three band members finished their drinks and went to their respected instruments.
Standing at the keyboards, Relena looked up at the table to find the group speaking with Sylvia. In her chest Relena felt a pang of jealous, she wished it were her that the group was speaking to instead of Sylvia.
Yet, Relena thought bitterly, even if you were in her place you wouldn't have Heero's affections like she does. Nothing would have changed if you had stayed, you would still be overly exhausted by working 20 to 22 hours a day, sleeping in the office half the time and the other catching quick naps in car rides.
The lights in the bar dimmed as Adam and Lynn slipped on their guitars and strum a few notes to make certain the volume was good.
Even in the dark, Relena could faintly see the outline of Draca as she took up the microphone and heaved an excited yet nervous sigh. That was another tradition, everyone would unconsciously heave a sigh of nervousness no matter how many times the group had practiced their songs; one just never knew when something would go wrong.
"Now signoras and signores, welcome, to our main event of the evening!" Draca's voice boomed above the silence of the bar. "Please welcome the one, the only, 'For Rel'!"
Following the announcement was the dry applause from the few drunks at the bar and possibly from the preventer table.
It wasn't a disappointment or a surprise to the band, it was how their performances always started off at Giorgio's. There would be so few people there when the band arrived and started to play, then by the end of the night there would a fairly large crowd of enthusiastic listeners.
Giorgio knew that and that was one of his major reasons for always booking the group for a gig and always ready to pay the band in cash after their performance. The first time the band had played for Giorgio it was more or less a trial, skeptical run that turned out to be quite profitable for both sides.
Lights returned to normal while Lynn was adjusting her amp as it was making awful ticking sound until she realized it was due to her watch. Removing her watch and placing it inside her pocket, Lynn stood on the stage facing the audience as well as everyone else.
There was such a thrill in starting off the first song for they always played the same song first just for suspense. Everyone waited, including the band, for Lynn to start up the song.
No one in 'For Rel' moved until the Lynn started up only to be joined by Sage a couple measures into the song, then Adam entered and last was Relena.
Thank you to Lynn-Minmay and Morrighan of Crimson and Sable for being such loyal reviewers in my Gundam Wing fics. I really appreciate it so much.