It's My Life
Okay, as promised, here's Lena's side of 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel'.
I'm late again with this update. I was hoping to have this done before I went to Australia and New Zealand but, as you can see, I wasn't able to finish. Well, I'm back from overseas and I finally finished this chapter. Sorry for the wait.
Next update will be July 22nd or, at the latest, July 23rd.
Hanging up the pay phone at the corner of the street, Relena sighed half in relief and half in resignation. Was there some sort of sign above her head that read, 'Follow her, she is Relena'? If so, she wished she could take it down because due to the fact that Heero was just getting a bit too close to her for comfort, despite the little cat and mouse game she was playing with him.
In all honesty she was scared. She was scared that one day Heero would put the pieces of the puzzle together, or get the sudden urge to review her files and find that her middle name was 'Salimar'. That was all that she needed, especially if it happened before she made it on her journey to the Americas and to her cousin.
"Damn it!" she cursed, lightly banging her head against the glass of the pay phone box.
"Lena, I'm appalled at your filthy language! Don't make me wash your mouth out with soap," Adam's voice scolded teasingly. The voice was followed by the physical appearance of Adam.
"Do I get to drink something before and after?" replied Relena, joining in on the little joke.
"Of course," he assured, "not. Remember that I'm the evil brother; Sage would let you have something to wash away the soapy taste but not me. No, never me, I would make you suffer through the taste."
Relena smiled, straightening up and linking arms with Adam before beginning the walk home. "You are just so cruel."
"So, the tickets are all set and paid for?" Adam inquired.
"They are. I leave in about four days but my tickets won't come until the day before I leave and by then I'll be out of the country so I need someone to pick up my tickets and take me to the train station," explained Relena.
Adam's eyes narrowed in confusion, he obviously felt that he had missed something vitally important. "Was there some sort of memo that I missed, why are you going out of the country?"
Hiding a grin, Relena answered, "Oh, I'm going to ask Quatre if he wants to go to Six Flags Great America in Illinois with me." Relena knew that Adam hadn't known this as he was the first person to be told.
As expected, her friend was surprised. "Really! When exactly did you decide this?" he continued to question, opening the gates to the Noventa household.
"Last night before I went to bed," she replied with a self-satisfied grin. "I want to see him as myself and not as Salimar Reigns, you know? I just want to be myself around him without the media, without the Preventers, and without Heero. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yeah," nodded Adam. "Granted I've never felt the same, except for the time when I stole you away from that England house nearly six months ago and right now when I fought off the others so that I could talk to you alone. Other than that, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I can sympathize."
Laughing a bit, Relena unlinked her arm from Adam's to open the kitchen door. "Well, I want to see him and I want him to know me beyond who I was before."
"Salimar!" greeted Draca, pulling Relena fully into the kitchen and down the hall to den. "She's back everyone! We can now begin cleaning this song."
Just as sudden as Draca had grabbed Relena did Lynn slide up next to her and capture the other arm. Having no understanding as to what was going on, Relena glanced at each of her friends with questioning eyes until she was seated at the open piano.
"Hey," panted Adam as he entered the room, obviously having run after Draca dragged Relena away, "what are you guys doing?"
"Well, we know that we said that we would wait until tomorrow to work out the kinks in my song, but while you were out Draca suggested to me a solution to the opening confliction of notes," explained Lynn, setting up the piano music for Relena.
Adam scoffed his doubts. "Really, what 'solution' is that?" He was honestly skeptic as he was positive that the problem lied in the notes Lynn had written and the solution in being to rewrite the music.
Draca grinned broadly, "We take out all other instruments in the beginning and leave only the piano. Then later on when the drums and such enter at a climax, also we decided to eliminate the electric guitar for keyboards, which will be playing some twinkling stuff while piano does the chords!"
During the explanation Draca began to talk faster and louder.
The other band members exchanged looks but it was Sage who clamped a hand over Draca's mouth. "Don't need to be so loud about it, even if you're excited," he stated.
"What do you think?" Lynn inquired to Relena.
Blinking her surprise away, Relena smiled, "I think it sounds great but how are the other supposed to know when to come in? Also, why has my part been changed?"
"Oh…"
"Well, since you're the only person playing we decided to make your part more…interesting. As to your first question, while you play and Lynn sings, she will indicate when a climax is and we'll take note of it as we follow along with our old music," Draca enlightened, unclamping Sage's hand. "Don't you ever touch me like that, again!"
"Sorry," Sage mumbled, going over to the recliner and sat down. "Say, aren't supposed to be somewhere else?"
As though recalling something else Draca slapped her forehead. "That's right! Thank you Sage. I'll see you guys later, I have to go make a call, a very important call," she informed the group as she left the den.
Slightly perplexed by Draca suddenness, Relena decided to think nothing of it and cracked her knuckles then rested her fingers on the keys. "Shall we?"
Coming out of her dumbfounded state, Lynn returned her attention to Relena and nodded.
"Here we go," Adam muttered in the background, taking a seat next to his twin.
Taking a deep breath, Relena looked at the music and began to play the new notes and chords. It had a beautiful sound to it, and Relena was thinking that if Lynn, or anyone else, suggested to go back to the old way, she would kill them. Not literally as that would be unbeneficial for her.
"Kitto kitto bokutachi wa. Ikiru hodo ni shitteyuku soshite. Soshite bokutachi wa. Ikiru hodo ni wasureteku. Hajimari ga aru mono ni wa. Itsu no hi ka owari mo aru koto. Iki toshi ikeru mono nara. Sono subete ni. Moshimo kono sekai ga shousha to haisha to no. Futatsu kiri ni wakareru nara. Aa boku wa haisha de ii. Itsu datte haisha de itai n da."
Out of the corner of her eye, Relena saw something or someone move in the doorway. Ready to brush it off as Draca, Relena snuck a glance at the door only to find that she would have been wrong. It was Sylvia who was in the doorway watching them.
What is doing here? Is she spying on us or something? Maybe she wants to ask a few more questions about me, Relena assumed, returning her eyes to the pages before, as it was different music.
"Kitto kitto bokutachi wa. Kanashii hodo ni utsukushiku. Yue ni yue ni bokutachi wa. Kanashii hodo ni kegareteku. Mamoru beki mono no tame ni. Kyou mo mata nanika o gisei ni. Iki toshi ikeru mono no tachi. Sono subete ga. Moshimo kono sekai ga shousha to haisha to no. Futatsu kiri ni wakareru nara. Aa boku wa haisha de ii. Itsu datte haisha de itai n da. Boku wa kimi ni nani o tsutaerareru darou. Konna chippoke de chisana boku de shika nai. Ima wa kore ijou hanasu no wa yametoku yo. Kotoba wa sou amari ni mo. Toki ni muryoku dakara."
Finishing the song with her eyes closed, as she had already memorized the ending since it had remained the same.
"Whoa!" cheered Sage, clapping hysterically.
"Beautiful piano piece as well," complimented Adam with a wide grin as he got up and gave a hug to Lynn, who returned the embrace.
Relena smiled at Adam's enthusiasm as she was certain that he had had major doubts about the idea of having a piano solo in the beginning. Releasing Lynn, Adam took the opportunity to hug Relena as well.
"This new CDs going to be great," he exclaimed with great confidence. "How's your song coming along Salimar?"
Noticing that Adam had left an arm draped around her neck from the hug, Relena patted it. She did so while saying, "Almost done, I just need to finish coming up with the piano part then we can try and put the entire thing together." It was true, the piano part was giving her some problems as she could hear each note in her mind but for some reason she just couldn't quite put on paper.
"May I hear what you have so far?" Sylvia inquired, catching everybody off guard as she entered the room.
Having momentarily forgotten that the new Vice Foreign Minister had been in the doorway, Relena quickly reclaimed her composure. "No," she answered, "I prefer playing any music with at least the piano part done. What may we do for you, Ms. Noventa?"
She almost felt like spitting out the name 'Ms. Noventa' but refrained from doing so. She didn't hate the woman, she couldn't, but Relena was jealous of her. There was no denying that Relena was envious of Sylvia for not necessarily being Heero's girlfriend but for having somehow captured a part of Heero that Relena had thought was always meant for her. Well, that was what Relena had thought until she was slapped, not literally, in the face with the truth.
"Well, that song of yours had caught my attention was all," answered Sylvia, moving to leave then seeming to recall something else she had to say. "How did you all make money to pay rent here?"
Sylvia was obviously talking about how the group was able to pay the first months of rent off from the beginning. Mrs. Noventa, sweet woman and a wonderful person but she had a nasty habit of talking too much, so she had obviously let it slip that the band had pre-paid the first three months of rent when they first came to Italy.
Sage, surprisingly, answered in an off-handed manner. "Easy Sylvia, Adam and I ran the roller rink, Draca worked at the community center with the elderly, Lynn worked at a nursing home, and then Salimar had a job at a residential home for Alzheimer people."
Relena bit back a smirk, it was a good lie, especially since Sage had, whether intentionally or not, made it so that all three of the girls worked with elderly people in some form or other. Personally Relena wouldn't have minded working with the elderly, beyond her charities and her periodic visits to nursing homes and hospitals.
"When we met up at the university we came up with the idea of forming a band," Sage continued, still lying through his teeth and it amazed Relena that he was doing it so easily. "It's been working so far, we get gigs at bars and hospitals for children. Of course we still got our normal jobs, got to pay rent and college money still."
"Oh…Interesting careers," nodded Sylvia. She was obviously impressed or taken back with the array of jobs that the group did together and individually.
"We never like to be the "normal" people," winked Adam.
"Then you beat the rest of us," joked Lynn. In return, Adam stuck out his tongue at the girl in a very childish manner.
"Meanie," pouted the bass player.
"Well, sorry to have disturbed you," apologized Sylvia as she left the room and closed the door behind her, much to Relena's liking.
Once out the door the group heard Sylvia's cell phone ring.
Waiting until thinking the coast was clear, Relena turned to Adam with a spreading grin. "That was bloody genius! Why can't I lie like that? Straight face and everything?" she praised but was quickly silenced by a 'sh' from Lynn.
Lynn was by the closed door with her ear pressed against the door to overhear what was being said by Sylvia. It was difficult however as Sylvia's words were muffled and not directed towards the door. She must have been keeping her voice low, even if it was unconsciously, causing it to be even more difficult to overhear one side of the conversation.
"Man…I can't hear a thing," whined Lynn, her shoulders slumping forward as she stood up in defeat. "Well this sucks."
"Who do you think she's talking to?" Sage asked, standing up with his hands in his pockets.
Giving him an "Are-you-serious" glare, Lynn answered condescendingly, "Heero Yuy, who else would she be talking with?"
"Her secretary to inform her of a meeting that she needs to attend or that she needs to pick up some papers to review…" offered Relena, having been through that before. Though, she never once could remember when a Preventer had to call her, beyond her brother and Lady Une.
"That's right, she is the Vice Foreign Minister now and I don't recall Relena ever having much free time when she had the job. In fact, I don't think you ever had free time beyond those times at night and early morning when you called," Adam added thoughtfully.
Relena gave him a small smile, she remembered all too well how her days went. There was no time off for her, not even for Christmas as there was always some sort of party she would need to make an appearance at for publicity and out of politeness. At these parties there would only be a gift exchange between her and Duo as he was her date and escort, sometimes even with Hilde, if she wasn't too busy with her charge or occasionally when she was also in charge of Relena. However, much to Relena's disappointment, Heero would never come to the parties, he would take the day off or asked to be reassigned so he could escape the party.
Well, it's not Heero's fault completely, I did advise and assure him that Duo was very capable of keeping me safe. Plus, it was Lady Une who assigned him those other jobs. Though I wonder…if there were times he did come and watched over me from the shadows again…or perhaps it was Sylvia, Relena thought.
It had never been a secret in the political world of who Sylvia Noventa was or that she was interested in taking a position in politics in the near future, Relena just never would have thought that position would be hers, Vice Foreign Minister. There was nothing malicious to be said about how Sylvia was handling the position: There had been no major conflictions, no declarations of war, no declarations of independence, and no slandering on television or in the newspapers. So far everything was right as rain.
"Earth to Salimar, hello..." Sage nudged, waving a hand in front of the dazed girl. "Come in Salimar, are you there? This is Houston, over."
Snapping out of her thoughts, Relena looked up at her friend in confusion. "Houston?" she repeated. "As in the town? What…?"
Laughing at her obvious misunderstanding, Sage shook his head, "Never mind, it's an old space joke that I picked up from some old books I got from my great-grandpa."
"Oh."
The door to the den opened quietly as Draca slipped inside and gently shut the door behind her. "Hey guys," she greeted in a low voice as though she was afraid of being overheard. Her expression was of indecisiveness, which was something Draca almost never was. "I don't know if this is good or if it'll really screw us over, but I just overheard Sylvia talking with Heero on her cell phone."
Lynn gave a look of smug triumph to Sage which caused the man to groan in annoyance and roll his eyes.
"What about it? They figure it out or something…?" A realization dawned upon Adam as he spoke. "Aw man…I…crap! I forgot that I had put dudette's ID bracelets into that box we left in England for Heero to find. What if he's checked out the bracelets and had put two and two together?"
A swift slap above the head put a stop to Adam's mild panic attack. "Chill out, I don't think he has figured that out yet," Draca sighed, "but Heero is on his way here. He'll be here by tomorrow so if we need to discuss anything now's the time to do it."
Everyone turned to Relena for any information. "If I think of anything I'll let you know, but for right now, let's just practice and be ourselves without a thought of tomorrow since we still have today. Okay?"
Nudging his brother aside, Adam stood by Relena and draped an arm over her shoulders. "That sounds like an excellent plan. Now, I was thinking, about that song, maybe I could play bass in the beginning to help Salimar keep tempo…"
Thank you to AnimeGuera and thanks to my very devoted readers/reviewers: Ulitheal, Lynn-Minmay, Morrighan, and DogDemonK9.