Chapter 2: ...Has been found

Relena tossed her briefcase on the oak desk and strode over to the window. Her whole body shook with nervous energy and she hadn't been able to stop herself from fidgeting.

It was gone.

The journal that held her deepest dreams and desires was missing. How could it just disappear in a matter of a few minutes? She had spent a good ten minutes tearing apart her bedroom looking for the blasted thing, only to stop when Heero showed up, again, at the door and informed her that he was leaving, with or without her.

On the way out the door, she questioned Pagan if he had picked up anything from her room, and to her dismay he told her 'No, Miss Relena.' As she climbed into the limo, she thought back to which maid would be on duty, cleaning her room. But even then, Relena knew that the maid wasn't scheduled to clean the room until after she had left the mansion. So that left only one person that could have picked up the diary. The same person that hadn't uttered a word to her the entire trip to the Preventer's main building.

Heero Yuy.

All the blood drained from her head and down to her toes. Dizziness set in, causing her to take hold of the frame of the window for support. He wouldn't have done that, would he? Her throat grew dry at the prospect of Heero reading the entries in her diary. Spinning from the window, she walked over to the pitcher of ice water sitting on the table by the far wall. Shaky hands poured the drink and with a swift movement, she downed the contents of the glass.

If she was going to get through the day, she was going to need something stronger than water. Maybe she was wrong, maybe Heero hadn't taken the dream diary. Maybe she had just overlooked it somewhere. Maybe Chicken Little had been right when he sad the sky was falling.

Relena braced herself against the table and hung her head. Part of her wanted to go down to his office and demand the book back, while the other part was excited, and somewhat aroused, by the idea of Heero reading about her fantasies.

The sound of the office door opening forced her to spin away from the table and try to smooth her face into one of the calm, collected diplomat; not a nervous, panicked woman.

"Yes?"

"Excuse me Minister Darlian, but I have the files that you requested." Felicia, her secretary marched into the office with a stack of folders piled into her arms. She walked over to the desk and set them down. Adjusting her wire-rimmed glasses, she smiled. "It's times like this when I'm happy I'm just your assistant."

Felicia's bubbly personality was contagious and Relena felt the corners of her mouth curl into a small smile. "It's times like this when I wished I *was* the assistant. Thank you, Felicia."

A sigh of relief echoed in the office, once Felicia had closed the office door behind her. Relena eyed the stack of papers and rolled her eyes. How was she suppose to focus on work, when somewhere in the same building, Heero Yuy had possession of her journal? Rubbing her throbbing temples, Relena moved back over to the desk and with an un-lady like groan, collapsed into the soft leather of her chair.

She should just march over to his office, look him in those deep blue eyes...

Sighing, she realized she was only fooling herself. Looking into his eyes, would be her undoing. Hell, just being around him seemed to throw her common sense and speaking skills out the window. She needed to get that diary back.

Still, one thing plagued her: Why had he taken the diary in the first place?

****************

He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help himself. It had been lying there, in the middle of the floor, a leather bound journal; something that belonged to her, and he felt the need to have it. He had been drawn to the book like a child would be to the last chocolate chip cookie on the dessert plate.

During the limo ride to Preventer's headquarters, the air had been spiked with tension as they sat together on the bench seat. Heero could tell that she wanted to ask him about the missing journal. There were a couple of times she turned to face him, and he had held his breath each time, until she sighed and went back to reviewing her paperwork. Their legs brushed whenever the limo took a sharp turn, only to have her pull away from him to tuck her hair behind her ear or fix her skirt. Little had she known that the journal sat in the briefcase leaning against his legs the entire time. With a sigh, he hung his head in his hands.

The top drawer of his desk was slightly ajar, revealing the frayed ends of one of Relena's favorite hair ribbons. Instinctively, he reached out and rubbed the silky material between his thumb and index finger. His eyes drifted closed while he tried to remember the feel of her long blond hair. By accident, he ended up coming into contact with her during one of the last ESUN Senate hearings, the instance forever burned into his memory. The shine of her honey colored hair, her scent that wasn't the product of a retail store perfume, the soft texture of her skin. Just the mere thought was causing a physical reaction.

Heero drummed his fingers across the leather cover. It was just a book, a book that contained some of Relena's deepest feelings, could he really do this? Could he open it and invade her privacy? Would he learn anything new about her, something to help him understand her better? What had she said about him?

A quick glance at the clock on the wall, informed him he had another hour or so before the scheduled meetings. The tight cords of muscles in his arms flexed as he shed his uniform jacket, the white cotton T-shirt pulling across his chest with the action. Leaning over his desk, Heero reached for the cord of his office blinds and released them from the locked position, blocking the rest of the world out of his office. He eyed the lock on the door, making sure that the latch was thrown the right way, to keep people out of his office. With trembling fingers, he settled back into his chair, flipped open the cover and turned to the first page.

[May 28 AC 199

This is it, my first entry and hopefully not my last. I've become totally interested in what could possibly be hidden in my subconscious, so I'm considering this a self-exploration. My dream is one that I've been having for a while...]

A dream diary? He had been expecting this leather bound book to be a journal of some type, but nothing were she kept her dreams documented. With a quick movement, he slammed the book shut and pushed away from his desk. Heero paced the time office like a lion trapped in a tiny cage, his long stride eating up the distance between the walls. Running his hands through his messy hair, he tried to think of anything else but the book lying on his desk.

The sound of voices outside his office caused him to freeze and move over to the window. His hand shook slightly as he lifted one of the plastic glides to the blinds and peered out into the common room. Members of the Preventers were making their way into the building, signaling the start of the business day. Dark blue eyes darted back to the desk. He had to return the book, plain and simple. No way could he just walk up to her and hand it over. If he was lucky, he could sneak out of the office during lunch, head back to the mansion and leave it in her room.

Returning to his desk, Heero fell back into the chair and sighed. The diary glared back at him from the desk, its silent siren's song begging him to open the pages, just for one more look. What was the old American adage, curiosity killed the cat? If that was the case, he was willing to take the risks. Taking the book in both hands, he placed its spine against the scarred wood of his desk and let it fall open.

[August 16 AC 199

The rain has such a wonderful smell to it, so fresh and clean. It's a smell that sticks around with you no matter where you are or what you're doing. I'll never be able to smell the rain again without my knees turning to jelly. What is it about Heero Yuy that makes me turn into a sex-craved woman?

Don't ask me how we got there, but there we were, stuck in the middle of a darkened alleyway, in the pouring down rain. Overhead, one lone red light shone down on us, tinting us with the color of lust and sin. Our heavy breathing is barely heard over the sound of people laughing as they pass by the mouth of the alley. I couldn't help myself, so I looked, hoping that someone would sense me staring at them and stop to watch us. But the sea of faceless people continued to walk by us, taking no notice to the moans and groans coming from the alley. His rough hands took hold of my wrists, pinning me between his body and the walls of the bar as he gently bites at the soft skin in the hollow of my neck. It makes me think back to all of those vampire movies as his teeth toy with the thin chain of my necklace.

My skirt was pushed up around my hips, my underwear lying in a soak heap on the dirty ground beside me. The buttons on my blouse had been ripped open, the front clasp of my lace bra undone with a quick snap of his nimble fingers. My head was thrown back against the rough brick wall, with my eyes closed as the cool rain dances off of my skin. I swear I could hear them sizzle as they landed on me, evaporating into the air from the heat he was producing inside of me. He buried his face in the valley of my breasts, his full mouth and lips traveling over every exposed inch of my skin, making me aroused with his branding kisses. My long legs were wrapped around his waist, thrusting against him through the barrier of his clothing. His long fingers skimmed from my buttocks along the curves of my hips, heading toward my center.

The image gets blurry from this point on, but I remember the feel of his hands roaming over my body, along with the feel of the brick wall pushing into my back. I'm almost sure if I looked at my back in the mirror, that I would find scrap marks running up and down my spine.]

The journal fell from his slack hands and a loud thud resounded in the tiny office as it hit the desk. Being a person of very few words, he found himself rendered speechless by what he just read. The collar of his T-shirt began to feel like a noose around his neck, causing him to pull it away, making breathing a tad bit easier. He had wanted to know what she had said about him, and he had.

He made her horny.

A rush of power seemed to settle over him. The whole idea of him starring in her dreams, her erotic ones anyway, certainly got his blood flowing. What other fantasies had she spun about them in her sleep? Were there more entries like the one he just read, kinky and erotic or some more subbed and romantic?

Rubbing the back of his neck, he pushed the rolling chair away from his desk, and stared at the journal as if it had grown wings or something. He clenched his hands around the arms of the chair, trying to curb the itch to flip through the pages and read more. From where he sat, he noticed a few dog-eared passages in the diary, more than likely some of Relena's favorites entries. Right now, the one he read was at the top of his favorites list.

Like the proverbial moth drawn towards the flame, Heero opened the cover and began skimming through the numerous passages.

[June 5 AC 199

I've never been fishing, never as a child or even as an adult. I don't even like fish. But there I was sitting in a small boat, drowning some worms...]

[June 29 AC 199

I was a clown in the circus. Not the Trowa Barton type of daredevil clown, but the pie-in-the-face type of clown. And it seemed that everyone from political officials to my friends hitting me with cream pies...]

His fingers flipped from page, barely reading each passage, but for the first few lines. Some of the dreams he encountered nearly made him laugh, others infuriated him, while some showed such sadness. Not encountering another erotic dream, not one single mention of his name for nearly three months of passages cooled his demeanor. Heero was about to give up and put the journal away when he hit the entry marked July 13 AC 199.

[I dreamt of him. It's been the first dream I've had of him since I started keeping this journal. I'm not too entirely sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. He has been constantly on my mind during the day, but I'm kind of thankful that he has kept himself out of my dreams, up until now...]

A feeling he couldn't name washed over him as he continued reading the passage. It sounded as if she had given up him. Things started to fall into place; her constant avoidance, keeping Wufei as her personal guard. Relena had been wary around him, something she had never done before in his presence. And now he knew why. He took a little satisfaction in the fact even though she shunned him during the day, she had no control to bar him from her dreams. It dawned on him that the erotic entry he had read had come after his passage. On a whim, he took hold of a bunch of pages and flipped further into the diary. If his hunch was right, somewhere he'd maybe come across another dream.

He hit pay dirt.

[September 25 AC 199

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere and boy are my cheeks pink! Looking back over my entries, I noticed that it's been about two weeks since my last sexual dream. It's a good thing that no one gets to read this thing besides me. If I'm blushing now, I couldn't imagine what kind of reaction anyone else would have if they read this. I never thought that things could be sexual without the actual act, but I learned I was wrong. I've always loved taking long, hot bubble baths after a long day at work. Not only to relax my tired muscles, but my mind as well.

I had just finished lighting the last candle in the bathroom, the soft tunes of some popular pop music flowed from the radio. Grabbing a clip, I twisted my hair onto the top of my head, securing it in place. A tug loosened the belt around my waist and allowed me to push the terry cloth robe off my body, allowing it to pool on the tile floor at my feet. My reflection in the wall length mirror caught my attention. Turning to the side, I sucked in my belly and took a good look at myself.

The shapeless body of the teenaged Relena had melted away and softened into the young adult in the mirror, equipped with curves in all the right places. I closed my hands around the base of my neck, closed my eyes and tossed my head back toward the ceiling. With the beat of the music, I began to sway my hips as my hands roamed over my delicate collarbone, across the gentle swells of my breasts and onto my flat stomach. My hands settled on my hips before they ran down the sides of my thighs. A happy sigh escaped my lips when I brought my head back down and opened my eyes, to catch him standing in the far corner of the bathroom, watching me.

I pretended that I didn't see him and sauntered over to the huge tub. Slowly, I lowered myself into the hot water, a moan escaping between my parted lips as the bubbles slid up my body. I lay against the back of the tub for a moment, allowing him to get his fill before I grabbed the soap.

Pulling my leg out of the water, I propped it up on the tiled edge of the tub, leaned forward and ran the bar up and down my leg, creating a thick soapy lather. I tried to keep my eyes from drifting over to where he was standing. As I continued to perform my 'show', the bar of soap slipped from my fingers, skidded across the bathroom floor and stopped at his feet.

Without saying a word, Heero picked up the bar of soap and walked back over to the bathtub. I tried to take the bar from his hand, but he only pulled it out of my reach. Sulking, I crossed my arms across my chest and suck my button lip out into a playful pout. He shook his head at me and proceeded to finish washing my leg. The first contact of his fingers burned against my skin. Slowly, he worked his hands further down my leg, rubbing the soap along the inside of my thigh.

For some reason, I thought, from past dreams, that he would discard the soap and we'd end up locked in an passionate embrace, but he held the bar tightly in his hand, letting his fingers brush against me from time to time.

He sat on the edge of the tiled tub and coaxed my other leg out of the water, continuing as before, caressing every inch of my long legs. Once finished washing my legs, his fingers danced across my skin as they made their way up my arms, cleaning them in the process as they moved around to my back. I freely leaned forward, letting him rub the entire length of my back, hissing when he lingered on the small of my back and the base of my neck.

My body began to hum with excitement as he continued to sensitize each part with his constant gentle touch. His rough hands slipped over my shoulders and worked their way down to my breasts. While he massaged the soap into my skin, he leaned forward from his position behind me, his warm breath tickling my neck before his lips nibbled at the hollow of my neck...]

Heero leaned against the high backed chair and closed his eyes. Counting backwards from ten, he tried to use Zen relaxation techniques to calm his breathing and pounding heart. The room only seemed to grow warmer when images of Relena invaded his countdown. With a heavy sigh, he reached down to his lap to adjust himself into a more comfortable position.

"Heero, what in the hell are you doing?"

His eyes sprung open and focused on the tall form of Duo Maxwell standing in the door way to his office. With his hands behind his back, Duo moved into the room, stopped in front of Heero's desk, rocked back on the heels of his boots and gave Heero a puzzled look.

Trying to make a natural movement, Heero moved his hands from underneath the cover of the desk, without fixing his current problem. The book still lay open and keeping his gaze locked on Duo, he slammed the cover shut, leaning on with journal with his folded arms. He glared at his 'soon-to-be-dead' friend. "I thought I locked the door."

"You did." Duo smiled as he tossed the bent hairpin onto the desk beside the leather journal. "Tsk Tsk Tsk, what are you hiding secrets from us?" Forgoing the other chair in the room, Duo sat down on the corner of the small desk. "You know, I don't know why I always end up saving your ass, Yuy."

"What are you talking about, Maxwell?"

"The 0800 briefing we have *every* morning..." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Which is in about 5 minutes. Normally, it's you that comes to pull me away from my desk to attend these silly things, not the other way around." Duo tapped his fingers on a huge stack of files. "Boy, time must fly when you're having fun."

A blush crept up into the Perfect Soldier's cheeks, before he realized that Duo was talking about the piles of paperwork sitting on his desk and not...other things.

Heero watched from under his veil of messy bangs as Duo pushed off the desk and made his way toward the door. "You coming, Yuy?" He asked as he motioned toward the hallway.

'Talk about your double meanings.' With a grunt, Heero pushed the chair back from his desk. Placing his hands on the armrests, he began to climb out of the chair when something stopped him. He took a quick glance down and nearly cringed. How in the world was he supposed to walk out of his office with his dignity still intact? There was no possible way that Duo wasn't going to make some snide comment about his current 'situation.'

"Are you feeling okay, Heero? You look a little flushed."

Trapped like a rat, Heero's mind worked in slow motion coming up with an answer that would pacify Duo.

And then the phone rang.

If he had believed in God, he would have thanked him. Sinking back into his chair, he let the phone continue to ring and motioned to Duo. "Go ahead, I'll catch up."

"You sure?"

Giving his friend what had been coined 'The Heero Yuy Deathglare', he answered his question with a clipped tone. "Positive."

"Suit yourself." And stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets, Duo left the office, whistling as he made his way down the hall.

Once the sound of the off-key whistling had faded enough, he picked up the phone only to hear the line already disconnected. Heero thought about contacting the switchboard to find who had called his office, but decided against it. Placing the phone back into the cradle, his eyes shifted back over to the journal.

All intentions of returning it right away disappeared like the morning mist. With a quick adjustment to the lower part of his anatomy, Heero tucked the book under his arm, pushed out of the chair and strolled out of his office.