Not My Cup of Tea
Chapter 1: Paperwork and Romance Novels
Relena Peacecraft sighed in frustration as she brought a hand up to massage her temple. It was only 10:00 a.m. and she already had a headache. Headaches were an everyday occurrence for her, but they usually didn?t kick in until sometime around noon. She had a feeling that today was going to be a bad day. Returning her attention to the pile of ever-present paperwork on her desk, she steeled herself and dove back in. Sometimes the stupidity of certain persons truly frightened her. She was currently reading a report on the violation of the recently passed disarmament law. Did this guy, the CEO of some arms manufacturer or another, actually expect her to believe that the reason the company?s lunar-based factory had still been producing mobile suits was because he wanted to ?explore their possible value in regards to heavy labor operations?? Apparently he did. Moron.
The vice foreign minister reached over to grab her coffee mug, a slight smile tugging at her lips at the sight of the design painted on the side. The motif was something Duo had come up with for her last birthday, a picture equation: a zombie-like chibi of Relena + a cup of coffee = normal Relena chibi. Duo had laughed at the expression on her face when she had opened it. His laughter changed to hysterics after Heero had said with a perfect deadpan expression that he thought it was a ?fairly accurate? portrayal of Relena in the morning. Relena had been hurt for a brief moment before she registered the humor in his eyes and chucked the empty box at him, joining in the fun. That was one of the many things about the enigmatic wing pilot that intrigued her. Heero?s acting abilities were amazing; had she been the one speaking, she wouldn?t have been able to keep a straight face. His face, on the other hand, almost never showed what he was feeling, closing him off from the world in an almost Trowa-like fashion. Only his eyes, so deep, so beautiful, showed what the rest of his face hid so well. She knew it sounded clich?, but it was true. All of her trashy romance novels (in data disk form, disguised as ordinary files so that her brother and Heero couldn?t find them) described the main male characters in the same way. They were all tall and gorgeous, with dark and mysterious pasts and expressionless faces, but with unfathomable eyes that bared their soul.
Relena wouldn?t go that far; it had taken her a long time to be able to ?read? his eyes, and it wasn?t like they showed all of his repressed emotions of pain and loneliness, or some other such nonsense. Most of the time, she could only see what he was feeling right that second. But every once in a while, he would just be staring off into the distance, and his eyes would fill with a sadness so deep that she had to look away before she started crying. He looked so lost, just like a little boy, and seeing him that way always made her rethink her opinion about society in general. A world in which it was necessary to take a perfectly innocent and sweet little boy and turn him into a ruthless killer, a machine for war? she didn?t even want to think about it.
?Oy! Ojousan!? Relena was pulled out of her musings as Duo waltzed into her office, making himself at home. He stopped in his tracks when he saw her face. ?Ojousan? What?s wrong? Did something happen?? Duo had a concerned look on his face as he leaned against her desk for an unobstructed view of her visage. Relena pulled away and quickly composed herself, taking a sip of her coffee to disguise her actions. She instantly regretted this, grimacing as the bitter taste filled her mouth.
?Ugh, cold coffee, just what I need to make this morning complete,? she remarked to herself before reassuring her distressed friend with one of her well-practiced fake smiles. ?It?s okay, I?m fine, Duo. I was just?thinking about this disarmament law; how people aren?t responding very well to it, that?s all.? Well that had sounded believable. Duo gave her a look that said quite clearly: ?yeah right, you?re lying and you and I both know it, but I?ll let it slide this time.? Duo let the subject drop, but their entire conversation afterwards was riddled with his subtle attempts to guess what had been on her mind. Relena, of course, knew how to recognize them, and as such neatly avoided his carefully set traps. After about fifteen minutes or so, the braided man gave up and left, leaving her with a new folder of paperwork to go over. Joy. Relena moaned and began searching in her purse for the bottle of aspirin she kept on her person at all times. As she swallowed the elusive pill, she glanced at her clock. 11:43 a.m. This was going to be a very long day.
Her mind unconsciously began to drift back to the depressing subject of Heero?s childhood. She kicked herself mentally, trying to force her overworked brain to concentrate on the task at hand. This effort was fruitless, however, as her thoughts apparently had wills of their own. Relena struggled to keep her concentration for a moment or two, but eventually gave in to her intellect?s demands. As visions of a Japanese gundam pilot danced in her head, Relena wondered for the millionth time why she tortured herself by keeping him so close to her heart. It was obvious that he didn?t care for her in that way. He was an impossible dream, and the realist inside her constantly felt the need to remind her of this fact. Why did she even bother? The answer was quite simple. Hope is a perseverant little bugger of an emotion. There were times when he would drop his cool demeanor and say or do something which would ignite that small flicker of hope in her heart. Like the time he had kissed her on that colony a few months before the Mariemaeia incident. Or the time he had protected her from the falling debris inside the Libra. During those rare moments, she felt like a twelve year old, blushing every time he looked at her, sneaking glances at him while his attention was otherwise occupied and entertaining the thought that he felt more than friendship for her. But he would always return to being the cold, emotionless soldier that she knew so well, and all of her foolish hopes would be quickly dashed.
It was pathetic, and she knew it, but she would take whatever she could get, real or imagined, building up her fantasy world only to have it come crashing down. Was it possible she had masochistic tendencies? His rejection hurt more than anything she had ever experienced before, but for some incomprehensible reason she never seemed to learn her lesson; in fact, there were times when she almost liked their little game. But there was only so much pain she could take, and for the past few weeks, she had been desperately trying to suppress her impossibly resilient feelings towards her silent shadow. As of yet, she had not succeeded. It appeared that it was her destiny to be forever single. For in her eyes, there was simply no one who could compare to Heero. Oh well. A girl can dream, can?t she? No matter how unattainable that dream was, or how much her common sense protested.
Deciding that this new train of thought was far too uncomfortable for her to continue with right now, Relena searched the office for something to distract herself. Ah, there! Smiling wickedly, she pushed the well camouflaged data disk into her computer and began to read her favorite romance novel, pausing briefly to look at the cover image. The man in the picture was tall and well-built, with perfectly toned muscles easily visible under the bronze skin that covered them. His unruly dark brown hair flew carelessly around his face as he gazed wantonly at the woman wrapped in his arms with gorgeous dark blue eyes. The woman he was embracing was slender and pale, with long, silvery blonde hair and blue-green eyes that were looking up at him with a mixture of adoration and desire. ?Gee, I wonder why I like this one the most?? she asked herself sarcastically. Relena stared at the two lovers for a while longer, sighed, and began to read.
As her eyes took in the familiar story, her mind began to wander, changing bits and pieces to meet her own specifications. In her version ?Christine?, the beautiful and spirited heroine was replaced by herself, while a certain ex- gundam pilot took on the role of ?Brian?, the mysterious and darkly handsome hero. Relena lost herself in her dream world, ignoring the sensible part of her, which was yelling at her to simply forget all about him. The pacifist leader used her 'listening skills', carefully cultivated by the endless 'important' political meetings she had attended, and ignored it. Relena smiled serenely and went back to reading without a second thought. Listening to reason had never been her cup of tea anyway.
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Elyra-chan: Yay! I finally have a story up! You guys know the drill: reviews = good, good = happy elyra, happy elyra = more updates. See? It?s all a viscous- I mean beautiful- cycle! Just to clear things up, every chapter will be from someone else's point of view. So far the plan is 1) Relena, 2)Duo, 3)Heero, and 4) Secret Matchmaker. So, look forward to the next chapter, told by everyone's favorite braided baka! Over and out!
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I'm going to try my best to get the next chapter out soon, but with my weird rewrite tendencies, I don't know when that will be. I will try to get it out though. Thank you all!