Sorry, about the wait. I'm usually faster at these things but you probably don't believe me. Be warned the beginning skips around. Oh well, I'll get on with it since I have no life. (For the moment) ;b
Disclaimer: I'm running out of lines for these things...Don't own it.
A Day Away
Diamonds and meetings
The glint on Holly's finger was driving Root crazy, this couldn't be happening! He clenched his teeth not trusting his mouth to say anything. Wondering why he cared about it, Holly was only his officer and nothing else. But that didn't change all that he would do for her. Every time his hopes faded for her she would unexpectedly burst through all barriers and restore his admiration for her. Although no one would know about that soon and if they did he would have their name and rank. Holly caught his gaze and smiled.
"Trouble proposed," She said happily, "I know you probably don't want to go, but the wedding is the day after tomorrow after his promotion." She said winking the beautiful diamond in the flat lights hanging from the dirty roof of the building. Root stood still watching her from the doorway of her cubicle, glaring at the opposing diamond nestled around her finger. Then the name sunk into his mind, Trouble Kelp the soon-to-be major. It couldn't be, he didn't even know that they had been dating.
"Trouble!" He yelled out of disbelief, Holly's head snapped around scanning him with her eyes out of question. Root gulped, had he said that aloud? Oops. Holly stared at him for a second and returned shuffling her papers with more sharp movements Julius watched her snap her hands around as she felt his stare on the back of her neck.
"So when's the wedding?" He asked through gritted teeth trying to cover the lapse in his attention over her. Holly didn't look back this time at him. Instead she took a seat in her own padded chair drumming her hand on the desk. Julius could see the diamond mocking him as it followed the pattern of her fingers.
"Sunday. the. day. after. tomorrow." She stated separating each word as if her commander was a slow child. And her eyes where telling him to leave her alone, she wasn't happy about his outbreak over Trouble. Ouch, ouch, ouch, that wasn't supposed to happen! Root thought frantically, what was he supposed to say now? Small talk, weather, news...oh hell! I can't do those things!
"Nice day huh?" He said eventually, Holly was confused was the commander actually trying to talk to her? What was the next subject he would throw off his lips, stocks and business maybe? Holly almost laughed at the thought of Root debating over the Haven's stocks. But she was curious; he seemed to be under pressure at the moment. Holly decided to take the age old offensive against him.
"Yes." She stated, wondering how much she push onto him until he cracked and broke down. Root clenched his teeth harder until he thought they would break.
"Have you heard of that bombing on the surface?" He said hoping to get into another subject he might be able to cope with.
"Yes." Holly said again determined to keep him down until he spilt over why he was here.
"Foaly's building a new neutrino I hear it's nice."
"Oh?" Holly stated once again prying ever further into her superior's dignity. If he had just said that he must be desperate. Meanwhile Root was mentally stabbing himself over the pathetic scene.
"Lovely part of the world this is." He said returning the attack after recollecting himself. But Holly stayed vigilant.
"Yes." Holly said hiding a huge grin on her lips, her lungs where burning wishing they could break down and spray gales of laughter into her superiors' bothered face. Root decided to give it one last shot.
"Wonderful weather." He said feeling as if he would have a heart attack if this continued. Holly was all too delighted to compromise.
"Yes." She said with a straight face seeing the discomfort in the impossible situation, Root walked out of the office silently feeing his heart pummel to his stomach. He could hear gales of laughter explode behind him from a certain female officer's office. What a great way to start off with Holly. His mind listed off all the faults he had made during that 'conversation', Root shook his head trying to subdue the racing thoughts of Holly. Root clenched his fists out of anger, if only he could hit someone right now.
It could've been Foaly's sarcastic remarks, it could've been Opal escaping from her coma, but no of course not, that would be too easy, it had to be Holly Short. Julius growled a threat at a stray techie trotting down the hall with stacks of papers between his hands. He had to go to the council's meeting soon and he never looked forward to their meetings. They where oozing boredom and plus they where the only people that could order him around. Root passed the secretary in front of his office closing his eyes in frustration, he didn't want to see Rose at this moment. He wasn't up to her tricks anymore.
"Are you happy now!" He barked at her slamming the keypad to open his door. Root tore into his unorganized office swearing unprofessionally. Once the door smacked closed the middle aged pixie turned in her chair looking at the sliding door in surprise. What was he talking about?
Root sat at the end of the long oak wood table carved with patterns of leaves and vines on its surface. He chewed on the end of an old cigar already tired of being there; the walls almost had boredom written on them in bold letters.
As the lights dimmed into a comfortable shade for the council to debate over he spat out the cigar, the meeting had officially begun and the casual talk was replaced with serious tones of important matters over the Haven. But the only thing Julius could concentrate on was Holly shuffling papers in her office. And the diamond fastened around her wedding finger winking in his face as if to say 'I beat you, I got her first'. Root took his anger out on clenching the bottom lip of the table; it was a habit he had acquired after the council prohibited smoking. Perhaps he could cancel Trouble's promotion to major before the final papers where signed. But he couldn't do that as long as he was stuck in a constant circle of this day. Oh hell, that couldn't be true; there was no such thing as that under the earth.
"-what is your opinion Commander?" through his silent musings he hadn't heard the council talking to him. Julius waved a hand at them dismissing whatever subject that was thrown at him. He knew that it was disrespectful to address them in such a manner, but who would accuse him of being 'disrespectful'? There was a small moments silence in the room as every eye turned onto him shooting waves of silent glares towards him. Root didn't care, he had been through worse in these meetings. After the uneasy silence, the patient members of the council continued their drawl.
The meetings stood a record of seven hours, and each one of them Root had to sit through and 'observe' the progress of the council. Although they did fine without being watched like toddlers in playpens without him. Root smacked his head against the headrest of Vinyaya's car. The traffic was getting worse and it never seemed to cease throughout the Haven. Julius needed another cigar to calm himself, taking out the brown package from his pocket he twisted the cigar into his mouth feeling around for the lighter in the large car.
Instead of punching the lighter he had unfortunately found the lost button for the sliding roof. The metal slid back right when Julius had lit his new cigar and the underground rain poured into the space creating small puddles in the expensive leather seats. Root yelled out of frustration smacking the long dashboard to search for the unknown button. Before him the traffic light winked green and an army of overconfident manga taxi's zoomed through the small deathtrap. Root looked up to find angered drivers spraying profanities towards the car.
"This ain't d'arvitting driving school!" One elf yelled behind him, Root swallowed the threat and flicked the wet cigar out of the opened roof and narrowly missed hitting a biker. Another spray of foul words hit his car from the pedestrian. Root looked forward trying to shut out the roar of the city and focus on driving. Punching the gas petal he flew through the umpteenth traffic light. The car slowed once more as he stopped at another light. Reaching for another cigar he heard the faint ring of his mobile phone. Root bared his teeth and answered it.
"Commander Root." He growled once he got the phone in his hands, Vinyaya appeared on the small screen looking at him strangely.
"Why are you wet? Have you dropped my car off to the mechanics yet?" she asked politely, Root looked around the expensive car. All the leather seats where thoroughly soaked and the floorboards where beginning to form puddles from the torrential downpour. The look on his face confirmed Vinyaya's suspicions the top roof was open somehow, and she could see drops of rain around the background of the screen.
"Shut the convertible roof right now!" She snapped changing from her usual polite self, Root looked around the dashboard. He couldn't see the button that was tucked away next to the cigar lighter. Julius looked up to the slow moving traffic to see the progress of the light. It wasn't officially green yet, and he could still see the rushing cars move through the tiny space. Root searched harder but to no progress, in the middle of his actions the light winked green and a chorus of overeager horns pounded his ears along with impatient driver's shouts in ears.
Abandoning his search he pounded the gas petal and once more and zipped across another quick moving intersection almost hitting the car approaching the front of him. Stepping on the brakes he stopped a few scarce inches short of the rear bumper of the unnamed car. Root's mind drifted to the cigars in his pocket, taking one out he accidentally terminated the link to Vinyaya. Oh great! Now she was going to be furious with him, and an unhappy wing commander on your back was not the greatest thing in the world. Root lit the cigar as the light turned green yet again before he could pull the toxins into his system.
"Bad day?" Said a voice in his ear, the manga car swerved in the lanes almost crashing into a light pole. Root glared at his niece who had appeared in the passengers' seat out of nowhere. She wore a smile while slightly hovering over the condensing puddle in the leather seat. Her black hair was slicked back by the rain and her large black eyes watched her uncle with childish curiosity.
"D'arvit! Stop poofing in like this!" He yelled taking long pulls from his cigar to calm himself this was going to give him a heart attack if it continued any longer. Rose smile widened into a creepy smirk, she looked like a cat following it's prey silently until she could strike.
"First: you shouldn't be driving on manual it's dangerous; switch to automatic. Second: I don't know if you've noticed, but there's rain in here. Third: You need to cross the intersection. Fourth: never try small talk again. And finally fifth: It's not poofing it's teleporting." She said hitting the button to slide back the roof to its rightful position.
"Okay joke's over, either admit that you are a fraud. Or confess that you cursed me, take it off, and don't resist arrest." Rose looked up at him her black eyes swirling with thoughts clouded by her expressionless face. That look always gave Julius the creeps, in fact it gave anyone the creeps.
"I can't take it off, it has to run its course. Once I cast a spell it's out of my hands, all I can do is observe and hope nothing gets out of control." She said as Root watched raindrops fall through her slightly transparent body.
"You're lying right?' Root snapped taking longer pulls from his cigar as the situation dawned on him. Rose shook her head.
"Why would I lie about something like that?" She said pointing at the green light. She would have to take her leave soon. She was already helping him too much and the Elders already where scolding her over it. Rose shuddered she would have to report over her progress soon.
Root gripped the steering wheel and jetted across the intersection moodily, Rose disappeared once he took off. Her body slid through the seat as the car lunged forward. Root looked at the empty passengers' seat and then at the walkway on the outside of the manga strip. Rose was sitting on an empty bench on the sidewalk still watching him with her large black eyes. Root shuddered but dismissed the subject; he had more important things to do. But there was a glimmer of hope, perhaps if he submitted to the curse and he did nothing for a long while Rose would give up her show and release her grip on him. Root smiled; yes that is what he was going to do, it was foolproof.
Unfortunately Rose had more patience than her dear uncle.
Thank you for your nice reviews! I am so happy to get them and I am sorry if I didn't respond to them I was on a reeeeeeeeally slow computer. But that's fixed now ;b So was it rushed? To bland? Unexciting? Or did you like it? OH I know you can review and tell me!
spirochick37: Thanks for reading, Root will be tortured I assure you XD
foreverforgetful: Your reviews are always so nice to get thanks for reading (and reviewing don't forget :smacks self:)
Madam Ko: I'm so glad you happened to stumble across this story ;D
hollybridgetpeppermint: That's a mouthful, I keep having to skip back and forth to spell it right. But I'm lazy so no big deal XD :collapses on couch: thanks for reading!
bb: nice, short, and easy to remember! thanks for reading ;D
