"The Running Woman"
by: the archduke
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing and this is a totally not-for-profit endeavor. And this also has nothing to do with the movie "The Running Man" other than I like the movie.
Chapter 2:
Heero Yuy. Soldier. Gundam pilot. Preventer. Repairman.
"If Dr. J could see me now."
A small smile formed on Heero Yuy's face, his musings igniting the sense of humor most people believed he lacked. All of the training that he had experienced at the hands of Dr. J certainly prepared him for his current assignment, though he did not think the good doctor would approve, nor find any humor in the somewhat ironic twists his life had taken.
He was currently in a tree overlooking the pond on the Darlian estate, fixing a security camera that had gone offline overnight, utilizing his knowledge of electronics in a decidedly pedestrian manner. No fixing of giant robots or escaping from fortified military complexes.
The life of a Preventer was positively domestic compared to the nomad he once was.
A domesticated 'Perfect Soldier'. Who would have thought?
One person always thought it was possible.
Heero blinked and returned to the task at hand. The fact that it had taken over seven hours for anyone to even notice the device was malfunctioning was inexcusable. While he did not usually work at the estate, and in fact avoided it if at all possible, his position as Head of Diplomatic Security demanded that he make a trip out to the country to investigate the matter personally. What he found was less than inspiring.
The group of officers that he had personally selected, trained, and assigned to perhaps the most important duty in the Preventers organization were completely lax in the execution of their responsibilities. Foot patrols were off schedule, monitors were left unsupervised for extended periods of time, and a pervading sense of familiarity hung in the air. Heero recognized his mistake ten minutes after he arrived – he had kept the same group of officers together for too long, and they had gotten so comfortable with each other, and with their surroundings, that they took the status quo for granted. He knew that in their eyes days at the estate were similar and monotonous, and they had all been lulled into a dangerous state of complacency.
Heero did not yell. He was by nature not a person to manifest his anger in the traditional ways. He understood the psychology of fear and used this knowledge to his advantage. Ten minutes after informing the Vice Foreign Minister's security detail, in a whisper that nonetheless spoke volumes, that within the next week they were all to be taken off assignment for gross negligence of duty and sent to Antarctica for retraining, supervised by him personally, Heero left the stunned and fearful officers and walked into the surrounding woods.
They had all redoubled their efforts towards their assigned duties, remembering the initial training they had received at the hands of Commander Yuy. And this time he was angry.
So that was how he ended up in a tree near a pond that, coincidentally, was at the approximate halfway point of the trail that Relena jogged almost every day. Heero knew this of course, because he knew Relena's schedule and had in fact ordered this very same camera installed when Relena first insisted on running cross-country. Logically he knew that she ran at this time and that she would be passing by the pond at any moment, but he was still taken aback when her form appeared emerging from the woods.
She was jogging. In a tight sleeveless t-shirt with equally tight matching shorts.
She was jogging. Hair in a ponytail that swung back and forth as she moved.
She was jogging. Sweat covered her skin as she slowed and took deep breaths of air into her lungs.
She was jogging. Things moved when people jogged. Especially female things on female bodies.
Instead of continuing on with her run, as Heero expected and hoped, she stopped no more than fifty yards from him and gazed out at the pond. Truthfully, the morning sun did paint the pond in exquisite colors, but Heero did not appreciate the beauty of nature at that moment. There was a reason he avoided coming to the Darlian estate, even to the detriment of the assignment.
If he was here he would see her, and seeing her knocked all sense of thought from his mind. And seeing her in that outfit made him nearly comatose. As he was watching, he saw her hands grip the bottom of her shirt and slowly lift, bringing the shirt up past her stomach, and she had to do a little shimmy of her entire body to bring the fabric up past her breasts and over her head.
If he visited the estate more he might witness Relena Darlian in only a sports bra more often. So he made his visits as infrequent as possible because it wouldn't be good for his career if the next thing that happened occurred on a regular basis.
He fell hard. And right out of the tree.
Author's notes: this chapter, like the one before it, is pretty short. There are two reasons for this: 1) the first two chapters are like introductions to get to the real good parts of the story, which are coming up, and 2) I am very impatient and if I don't immediately put up chapter I tend to abandon stories; blame television for giving me the attention span of a gerbil (I'm assuming gerbils have very short attention spans)