I don't own anything.
Niceties of Hostages
Take two:
Her vision began to come to. She opened her eyes, determined to be taken to a cell of a damp basement. But when she looked around, it was a simple hotel room... and a Preventer jacket on the edge of the bed caught her eye. She recalled being smothered by the chloroform cloth by the man in the elevator, and how he pushed the emergency button. Now, she couldn't recall how she got here.
Looking down at her attire, she was relieved to see her trench coat and dress were still intact upon her, no signs of it being ruffled or removed at any point. Her hair was loose, falling out of its confinement at any point in her unconsciousness. Standing on both feet at the edge of the bed she reached out to the Preventer jacket and inspected it's stitched name tag, everyone at the preventer's HQ had their own. Much to her confusion she read the name "Maxwell" on the stitch patch. This information didn't take long to sink in when the handle to the hotel room front door opened, the very man himself walking in.
"Well, good morning sleeping beauty." He called to her in his cheery voice, a cheery voice that didn't seem to register to the woman.
"YOU DID THIS?" Relena couldn't believe Duo would have such the audacity, or the effort to try and kidnap her.
"Now, now, it's not what you think." Duo insisted, holding his hands in the air palms facing her.
"Then tell me, because I'm not sure I can come up with an alternative." Despite being a captive, Relena knew how to enforce her authority nature.
"Well, we needed to make a show in front of the cameras. Heero wanted to make it believable." Duo explained, but this only confused Relena more.
"A show for what?"
"Well, we've been getting intellect that three of the delegates you've been attending briefings with have hired a hit out on you." Duo sat down on one of the two chairs in the room. "Heero thought it best to pose a kidnapping to make the three gentlemen believe one of them succeeded."
"I still don't see where you are going with this." Relena sat back down on the bed and crossed her arms.
"The delegates will be suspicious of each other, they will think one of the other delegates pulled off the kidnapping and out of their desperation not to be caught they will continue to answer to the ransom.. Each delegate topping the other in price." Duo tried to sound clear and understanding, but he could see she was having trouble following.
"You said that the colonies asked for eleven million in reparations from the war destruction," Relena nodded, "Since the earth refuses and the colonies are suspending all shuttle flights to their ports till their demands are met--" This seemed to give Relena a huge hint to what they were doing.
"You staged my kidnapping so they would pay eleven million in ransom to get me back, and therefore we have raised enough money for the colony's reparations." It made sense, she had to agree. But it was far immoral for her liking.
"You can't possibly find justice in this! This is immoral, unconstitutional, untruthful…" She began listing all the words for the scenario.
"Heero said you would act this way, speaking of which he should be here soon" Duo looked at his watch. Relena sunk back on the bed, defeated. She couldn't get out of this even if she wanted to, the Preventers were an organization she vouched for, if public knew they pulled this off it would be all on her.
"How long have I been out for?" she asked, looking up at the plastered ceiling.
"Nearly five hours, the press has already been notified of your kidnap, so if you watch the television you'll see the security footage from earlier." Duo told her as he sat back in the chair, arms rested behind his head. He was beginning to fall asleep when the door suddenly jerked open.
With agility that always amazed, Heero Yuy stepped into the room and without so much as a word he through a duffle bag in Relena's direction. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by his commanding tone.
"Go change into these clothes, we are leaving in five minutes." Heero said. Duo looked at him in alarm.
"Yo, she just woke up five minutes ago," He claimed with confusion.
"Our location has been leaked, I'm expecting a threat within the next half hour." Heero said to Duo with a disapproving look, Duo was never professional in his line of business.
"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK.." Relena yelled as she stepped closer to Heero, but her yelling didn't go far when he cut her off again.
"GO CHANGE NOW." He didn't yell it, but it came with force that out matched Relena's insistence.
"Fine." She walked to the bathroom and slammed the door. Once inside she looked around at the small compact of a room, lavender tile and a green shower curtain. Obviously the hotel wasn't like the ones she was used to. She unzipped the black duffel back and took out a large piece of material that would hide every inch of her. She looked further into the back and held up a second piece of cloth.
"Uh, Heero what is this?" She called through the door.
"You should know, You work in Foreign affairs." Heero called back. Yes, she knew these garments, Arab women at the conferences would wear them. It wasn't exactly what you would call a hijab, more of a head wrapping and a more then modest dress. She remembered talking to one of those women before, she explained the importance modesty posed in her society.
Relena took of her clothes and put them in place in the duffel bag, she put on the black dress that hung all the way to her ankles. It hid her very figure perfectly. She took her hair and wrapped in several times around itself, but didn't bother binding it, the head wrap would do that just fine. When she was finished she looked at herself in the mirror, satisfied that so little would do so much.
"I don't see how this helps," Relena said as she stepped out of the bathroom.
"We are staying in an international hotel, near the airport." Duo said.
"It will be easier to transport you this way." Heero grabbed the duffel bag in her hand and guided her out of the hotel room, Duo following in suit.
"Where are we going from here?" Relena asked Duo, they were in Heero's black Mercedes waiting for Heero to get back from the hotel lobby.
" Heero insisted that we take you back to his apartment, it's on the lower parts of the county and is untraceable because he uses a P.O box." Duo told Relena, looking in the rearview mirror at her rather then turning around.
"How long will this be going on for?" She asked, spotting Heero leaving the Hotel lobby and approaching the car.
"We're not sure." Duo answered, and just as Heero opened the door he said loudly: " I WOULD NEVER HAVE TAKEN YOU FOR THE S&M TYPE." Of course he said this for comical purposes but was met with a glare from Heero and a slap in the head from Relena.
The drive to Heero's apartment was awfully quiet, not even Duo made a motion to break the silence. He of course had fallen asleep ten minutes on the freeway. Heero's eyes were glued to the road ahead and Relena was looking out the side window with lazy enthusiasm. They were passing gas stations, warehouses, and farm fields. She saw cattle, horses, and a few oil rigs, before she finally spoke up.
"I don't have any clothes." It may seem like an inappropriate conversation but it was still the truth.
"I've packed some while you were unconscious, everything has been taken care of." Heero answered automatically.
"What about my brother? Or Lu? Their son's birthday is two days from now I was suppose to.."
"They understand the situation as well." again there was silence, save for Duo's snoring.
Relena tapped her fingers on the small space below the window, her nerves getting the best of her.
"Are you still angry that I disobeyed you?" she asked bluntly. But there was still no answer from him, this indicated that she hit the nail on the head.
"Look, I'm sorry I went to the delegates meeting but you need to realize that I have a job to do." She tried to reason with him. "It's not like I stayed there long enough to make a difference." But as she thought about it, there was something that fit into place. "Wait, you knew I was going to go to that meeting!" Relena leaned forward so that she was just behind him.
"Otherwise this whole kidnapping scheme wouldn't have occurred!"
"Now you get the picture." Heero said.
"Then what was that display all about? You yelled at me right in front of Quatre and the other delegates," She couldn't exactly figure that part out.
"It was for show." Heero answered. "it had to be believable that you disregarded a security risk."
"So that it would be more plausible that I'd be caught." She finished, slumping back into the seat.
"Exactly. It would be much more easier on Quatre if he wasn't informed at the time." Heero explained throwing her glance.
"Really, so much trouble for this?" She waved a hand in her face, the garb she was given was making her sweat.
"We're almost there."
Indeed, they had arrived fifteen minutes later to a small suburban town, it was filled with children playing in parks, people jogging on the side of the road, and dog walkers. A town that seemed completely the opposite to what Heero Yuy would be found in. Heero pulled into a gated apartment area, it had a modest fountain in the front, and the condos seemed to mimic a Swedish style- wood on the bottom and a painted at the top. They pulled infront of an apartment labeled: 52. Heero smacked Duo in the face to wake him up.
"Ow!" Duo cried and held his face.
"We're here Duo." Relena crawled out of the back seat and into the dusk air. The street lights were beginning to come on and she could hear women calling children home. She walked up the small pathway with Duo behind her. She entered through a plain white door into a tiled kitchen. Duo closed the door behind them and proceeded further into the apartment.
"Well, home sweet home for you." He called out to her. Relena looked around and inspected the modest kitchen, it had a pantry to the right and bar counter with stools. She went further in and saw a fireplace and beige carpeting floors, a black sofa and love seat made up the living room along with a small television. The dining room was a small table with four chairs and nothing was on the walls. Heero came out from one of the back rooms and motioned for her to follow him.
The back consisted of two medium size rooms, one which was his and the other was obviously hers. She was guided into her room, which was a full size bed with a dresser and mirror.
"I've already packed your clothes in the dressers." Heero said. "There is one bathroom which of course is right in the center of the hall, and we have a small backyard."
Relena looked around, it didn't have any feminine touch, but it seemed as if it worked for him. She opened one of the drawers and seen pairs of jeans, shirts, and some undergarments. Having been in this garb enough she had picked out simple sweat shorts and a shirt. Heero took the hint she wanted to change and closed the door behind him.
"Well buddy, as much as I'd like to stay," Duo said as he got up from the sofa, "I've a family to go home to." He gave his friend a sly wink and fished his keys from his pocket. Apparently Duo had came over earlier and dropped off his car while he drove back with Heero. Duo waved as he walked out the front door, a double beep could be heard from outside as Duo pushed the unlock button on his keys. "Have a great night." and the door slammed behind him.
Heero went straight to the bathroom, desperately in need of a shower. As the water ran, Relena came out of her room and decided to settle herself down and watch T.V. However when she picked up the remote she saw that it wasn't as simple as it looked, it had dozens of buttons that didn't differentiate from the other. Sighing in defeat, she just curled up on the couch and fell asleep. The shower turned off ten minutes later, and the door opened with hazy steam trickling out. Heero stood in only a towel as he came into the living room to check on Relena. It was at this moment that she awoke from the noise and peered up to see a bare chested Heero staring down at her. She tried not to let her blush show when she saw he was wearing a towel.
"You can get in." He said.
"Sure." she breathed out as she tried to stand up, but her head felt dizzy and her eyes saw dots. She grabbed a hold of Heero to steady herself, but as she tried to situate herself somehow she grabbed the wrong thing, because the towel fell from his waist. Heero looked at Relena in a mixture of surprise and something else she couldn't figure out, but it didn't take her long to realize how close they were.