The Beehive: Ch3 (The Mourning After)

[Tumbleweed]

AN: Yeah, I know I promised violence in this chapter but you’ll have to wait for the next. This chapter was originally just going to be part of the next but when I was trying to think of a name for the chapter I realized that the two parts really didn’t go together very well. So I decided to separate them and expand on them a little. I’m terribly sorry to those of you who were counting on some blood. Also, the title of this chapter was meant to be a play on word. (morning, mourning, get it?)

The Beehive

Chapter 3: The Mourning After

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Her hand slowly slid down his burly chest until it met the crease where his abdomen met the sheets. Her innocent cerulean eyes shimmered in the flickering candles light. A thick band of her honey blond hair hung over her shoulder, running down smooth flawless skin until finally resting on her breast. Her smile was warm enough to melt the polar ice caps.

As enchanting as this was, Heero had no time for pillow talk; he had a job to do. His own navy blue eyes remained fixed on her aqua blue spheres as his hand slowly slid beneath his pillow; she had no idea what was coming next. He felt it, the cold metal handle met his fingers and he yanked the weapon out from underneath it’s fluffy hiding place and Relena Darlian found herself, once again, looking down the barrel of a gun.

The horror in her face was unforgettable as her eyes turned back to Heero’s, looking for an answer; she found only the cold focused stare of an assassin.

“Say goodbye, Relena”, his deep, monotone voice whispered. Her body violently jerked for a moment as the bullet tore into her delicate throat. “Mission complete”, he stated as he studied the crimson streams gushing out of the hole in her in her neck and placed a passionless kiss on the dead woman’s forehead.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

DATE: February 15, 203 AC
LOCATION: Heero’s Apartment

~*~*~ TIME: 4:28 AM ~*~*~

Heero shot up into the darkness, wide-eyed in horror. ‘What happened? Where is she?’, he asked himself as he surveyed the unlit void that was his bedroom. A bead of sweat trickled off one of his dark bangs, down his forehead and rested on his eyebrow for a moment before he brought his quivering hand to wipe it off. He started to feel cold as the early morning air passed over his soaking bare chest.

There was nothing unusual, just the same blank wall there always was; the bedroom door was open but he might have done that himself.

Suddenly he realized it; he had to check. His head snapped down to the spot in the bead next to him; empty, just like every other time. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs and then expelling the abundant air slowly –half in relief, half in disappointment- and threw his upper body back down onto the mattress. The good news was, Relena wasn’t there in a bloody heap; the bad news was, Relena wasn’t there.

When he landed, he found that his bed was drenched in sweat, ‘That was one sick nightmare’, he commented to himself. Heero Yuy had a lot of nightmares, mostly about things that happened in the war. Nightmares about hurting Relena, however were also common, and were his least favorite; this one happened to be one of his worst. He was glad that he hadn’t spent the night with Relena; waking up from a nightmare like that with her around would have been awkward. Even without her around he still felt horrible, almost as horrible as he would have had he actually done it.

“BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” the alarm clock screeched as the neon red numbers shifted to read 4:30 AM.

Heero turned over and slammed to snooze button in aggravation. ‘A little late’, he hissed as he picked himself up off of the cold sweat soaked white sheets of his bed and stretched. ‘Damn it’, he continued, ‘I’ll have to find some time to do laundry later.’ He lazily threw on some shorts and a tank top for his 20-minute morning jog and laid out his suit for work on the unsaturated part of his bed for after he takes his shower. He’d have to be out the door by 5:15 at the latest.

He left the bedroom entering the main area of the apartment. Heero’s apartment wasn’t anything special. It had two bedrooms, one of which Heero used for an office; a few closets; a bathroom and a kitchen, dining room, living room which were all connected. He didn’t exactly live in the best neighborhood he could either; it was a lot better then the previous neighborhood though, and closer to the presidential residence. He would have been perfectly content to stay in the other one though, but Relena ordered him to move after he was mugged. He didn’t understand why she ordered it, it was the other guy that had to be carted off in an ambulance but he obeyed nonetheless.

Most people didn’t understand why Heero lived like this. With the salary he got as the president’s personal bodyguard he could afford a much more luxurious place then where he lived. Heero, however, just didn’t see any sense in spending much money on an apartment he was rarely at anyway.

He opened the refrigerator to grab a bite to eat. It was mostly empty, except for a few essentials. There was carton milk, expiration date unknown; a half used bottle of ketchup; some eggs; a bag containing a cheeseburger and fries from a fast food joint that he had stopped by for dinner two days ago, ‘those should still be good’, he thought; occasionally there was some cheese or some fruit, but not today; a bag of carrots and then, besides a few other insignificant items, the stack of nutrition bars Heero usually had for breakfast. They weren’t incredibly tasty but they had all the essential vitamins and minerals and could be eaten quickly. Heero grabbed two and threw them on the counter with the bag of leftover fast food. He then walked over to the sink, snatched up one of the nearby plastic cups and filled it with water. On his way to the sink Heero noticed the stove; nothing in particular about it, he just noticed it. He almost laughed; he didn’t even know why he had that thing, he rarely used it; it reminded him that he could heat up the leftover fast food with the microwave, however.

He threw the detestably jolly white bag, specked with red and yellow designs, in the microwave, set it for a minute and hit power. While the microwave hummed its steady monotone symphony he took a bite out of one of the nutrition bars he had; it was cold. He leaned back against the counter; it was cold too. He took a look around his apartment; boxes of stuff that were still unpacked from the move sat in the corner, a TV sat on top of an unimpressive wooden table in front of an even less impressive pea green couch in the living room; his apartment had a pretty cold feeling too. Almost everything about Heero Yuy’s life seemed cold, his childhood, the war, his present life and even his future, for that matter, seemed like it would also be cold; it’s what he was both used to and, oddly enough, comfortable with. Just about the only thing in Heero’s life that made him feel particularly warm was Relena; Relena, who showed him blind trust and kindness, even though they barely knew each other; Relena, the one target he couldn’t seem to kill; Relena, who was the main reason peace existed in this world; Relena, who inspired him to live through the war; Relena, who offered him a job after the war; Relena who a heartless soldier like himself could only hurt; Relena, whom he had no right to even touch; Relena, the person he had to protect, even from himself.

“BEEP, BEEP! BEEP, BEEP!” sounded the microwave, interrupting Heero’s melancholy nostalgia.

Heero moved to get his food from the microwave but was then again interrupted by another electronic sound, “BRING………! BRING………! BRING………!” It was from the vid-phone.

Heero turned it on only to see a partially welcome smiling face staring back at him from the monitor. The face was rounder then his own, the eyes were also blue but a lighter shade and larger, it was topped off with long brown hair, like his own but also lighter, which though it wasn’t immediately shown, Heero knew was being kept back in a ridiculously long braided ponytail. Yes, the face staring back at Heero was none other then his mismatched friend and ally, the former pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe, Duo Maxwell.

“Hey, Heero buddy!” the almost ever gregarious Duo greeted.

“Duo, do you know what time it is down here?”, Heero asked in annoyance; he knew what he was calling about.

Duo’s perpetual smirk grew smugger, ever so slightly, as he confidently replied, “Well, I’d say about when you probably have to get up from what I here. You should probably look into getting more sleep; you seem moody.” Of course, by that Duo meant more moody then usual. Heero always seemed to be moody when things weren’t going according to plan, and Duo was also aware that he was the anti-plan as far as Heero was concerned. “So”, Duo continued, “how’d it go?”

Heero stayed silent.

“That bad huh?” Duo shook his head, “You didn’t get her something like a gun, did you?”

“I got her a box of her favorite candy”, Heero dryly replied. “As a friend”, he hastily added, “Remember? I wanted to cheer her up, she was depressed.”

“Right, right”, Duo waved his hand in a brush off expression, “That sounds safe enough for either case. What happened?”

Heero didn’t necessarily want Duo to know about it but after a moment’s silence he decided to give in. “Were do I begin?” he finally started.

After about five minutes of explaining, re-explaining, correcting Duo’s wild interjections and Duo gawking at Heeo in disbelief and then asking him to explain it all over yet once again, Duo finally got a firm handle on what happened. “So let me know if I got this right”, Duo confirmed, “So basically, you almost got laid over a box of candy and you declined? Damn………”

Something about the way Duo said it annoyed Heero but he wasn’t about to go through and correct him again; he had already spent enough time on this uncomfortable subject. “Close enough” Heero conceded in exasperation.

“I don’t know weather to call you noble or stupid”, Duo admitted.

“Duo………” Heero sneered as he shot Duo one of his intermediately intimidating death glares, “I have no intention of putting Relena and myself and in the same position as you and Hilde.”

“Now that’s not fair”, Duo argued, “that was planned, sort of. But right, right……… I gotchya buddy, good friend, bad lover. But, I can’t help but think she wants you for the latter more.”

“You think I don’t know that!”, Heero snapped, more frustrated with himself then anything.

Duo paused for a moment with a cockeyed expression to give Heero a chance to think, he then asked, “Do you love her?”

“I………”, Heero started, “I don’t know”, he finally admitted.

“Well you better figure that out soon buddy boy, cause she ain’t going to just sit and wait for you answer forever. This isn’t something you can just keep putting off Heero, it might even be to late now.”

Heero couldn’t help but grimace a bit at that last part.

Duo continued, “Now, I’m not you and you know that girl a hell of a lot better then I do so I don’t know how you really feel about her; I will say this though: As devoted as you are to work I just figured she’d been railing you the whole time.” Duo smugly snickered.

Heero slammed his fist down against the counter in anger. “Don’t ever say something like that again Maxwell”, he hissed, “You don’t know what those damn reporters are capable of; you’ve never seen how upset she gets when that kind of stuff gets spread around. It’s not funny.”

‘Well, your certainly protective enough’, Duo silently murmured, “Fine, fine but I had to say it. Now it’s your turn; do you love her?”

“I………”, Heero trailed off.

“Come on!” Duo goaded, “Just say the damn words Heero. What’s keeping you?”

Heero’s indigo blue eyes wondered off to the side as he thought about it for several more seconds. “Let’s pretend I did for a moment………”, Heero replied in hesitation, “What do I do about it?”

“WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT IT!?”, Duo gawked, his face had the most wide eyed expression of shock not associated with life threatening danger the former pilot of Wing Zero had ever seen, “What do you think your supposed to do about it!?”

Silence accompanied by a stern “don’t toy with me” look, was Heero’s answer for a while until he finally broke the silence. “I really don’t have time for this”, Heero plainly stated.

Duo made a deep sigh, closing his eyes in disappointment, “Well……… just do something she wouldn’t expect, Okay.” After realizing that Heero was serious about cutting off the conversation he went on, “at least think about what I said, Heero. See you later”, he reluctantly bid, frustrated with Heero’s stubbornness.

“Bye”, Heero replied nodding his head before his hand clicked the off switch.

What was keeping him from saying the words, anyway? Heero wasn’t quite sure himself. Now that Relena was planning on leaving politics he really didn’t have an excuse to hold back. All that was left was this bizarre feeling of fear. It wasn’t the type of fear that he got when his life was in danger; he could definitely handle that. It wasn’t really a fear of rejection either. It was definitely a type of fear though; something in his mind was arguing against the idea of him admitting his feelings and he wasn’t sure what. Whatever it was, though, it was finally clear to Heero that it wasn’t something that was rational.

‘Something she wouldn’t expect, huh?’, he repeated to himself as he looked up at the clock. ‘Four forty-five? Damn, not enough time for a jog. Looks like I’m getting to work early again, if I still have a job that is.’


LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation

~*~*~ TIME: 7:11 AM ~*~*~

Light began to creep through the window of the presidential bedchamber. The stream of photons emitted by the sun steadily slid up the navy blue blankets, crested with the ESUN symbol in a bright goldish yellow. On top of those blankets a very ragged looking President Darlian begrudgingly opened her stinging, blood shot, aqua blue eyes.

‘I didn’t drink that much, did I?’ she asked herself in grief. She slowly began hoisting herself up off of the bed, her long blond hair dangled down all over reddened overheating face in countless unruly tangles. ‘It must have been more then I thought. I thought I was older then that’, she resentfully continued.

Her mouth was a bag of cotton balls; she needed water. Relena hobbled her way to the bathroom, nearly collapsed on the countertop, turned on the cool water and threw her head in the sink to try and lap some up liquid. After drinking her fill she checked herself out in the mirror; she didn’t want to but she did anyway. Her eyes were red, not surprisingly considering how all of the tears she shed; there were dark circles underneath them; all the makeup she had neglected to remove before crying herself to sleep had been smeared in the most unattractive ways all about her normally pretty face; the white dress shirt and pants she had also neglected to remove were all crumpled up and wrinkled, it wasn’t a big problem but it didn’t look good; and hanging over it all, was her long golden hair, which was in a cluttered mess of chaotic tangles and split ends, the strands that had rested in the sink during her drink were dripping wet.

‘I look like a whore’, she muttered to herself after about a minute of gazing at the depressing sight in the mirror. ‘Maybe that’s just what I am’, she continued as she slowly dragged herself back to her bed and collapsed. “Ugh……… what was I thinking?” she whined, she would have cried had she still had the fluid for tears, “I completely let my hormones get the better of me, errg………” She clenched onto the bedcovers in a fist in frustration. She rolled back onto her back and lay there for a minute or so, gazing into the blankness of the navy blue drapes, laced with a gold fringe, that hung over and around the Victorian style windows of her bedchamber as she pondered the events of the previous night. ‘I wonder if he’s even coming in today’, she thought.

She turned to the vid-phone on her left, punched in a few numbers and at the last minute turned off the vid functions, realizing that she didn’t want anyone seeing her like this.

“Hello, president’s office”, chimed in the sweet peppy voice of Cheryl after a couple of deep dragging dial tones.

“Hello Cheryl”, Relena replied using every ounce of will power and voice control she had to not sound like she was dying a slow and torturous death. “Hey……… um……… did Heero come in today?” she finally inquired; she couldn’t help but suspect that a tinge of her anxiety was seeping into her forcibly nonchalant tone.

“Yeah, he’s mostly been staying in his office but he’s here”, Cheryl hesitated, something wasn’t right; the president didn’t normally turn off the vid-function. “Is everything all right?” she finally mustered up the nerve to ask.

Relena panicked for a moment but quickly regained her composure. “Oh, yeah, sure, I was just wondering”, the ruffled young politician reacted; it was lame but it would have to do. Relena couldn’t help but let a small sigh slip. “I’m feeling kind of sick today so I might be in late”, she stated, hoping the phone didn’t pick up her sigh.

“Really?” Cheryl asked; she was sure Ms. Darlian was covering something up but decided it was in her best interests to play dumb; she trusted Relena but in her experiences as a secretary she found that it was safer not letting her employer know she knew they were lying. “Well, I hope you feel better soon”, she continued.

“Thanks Cheryl, I’ll see you later today”, Relena gratefully bid farewell before clicking the phone off and rolling back over on her back. “Heero………” she longingly called out. What had she been thinking last night? Did she really think she could win Heero’s heart in bed? ‘Even if he did sleep with me it wouldn’t have been like I had always dreamed’, she chastised herself, ‘it’s not like he’d just open up; it would have just made things worse. You’re so dumb, Relena.’ She had to cut herself off; the thought was just too depressing. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, as much as she’d been clinging onto her delusional hopes and fantasies, she realized that she had to face facts; Heero just wanted to be her friend and nothing more; maybe not even that after how she acted the previous night. ‘I practically tried to rape him’; she lamented. She knew what she had to do, she had to apologies to him; hopefully he’d forgive her and they could salvage their friendship. Not now though, she couldn’t even bare the thought of facing him now. ‘Oh… Relena, what’s the matter with you?’ she scolded herself in sorrow.

[zipdos]

Duo the matchmaker is at it again!!!!!