Disclaimer: I do not own Zoids or any of its characters.
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Unexpected
Chapter 3
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The window blew through the open top of the jeep as it drove through the desert leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. Red hair blew from both the driver and passenger's side of the car. Naomi sat in the driver's seat, driving of course, as Leena sat in the passenger seat staring down at her lap.
"So Leena, what's up?" Naomi asked trying to project her voice over the sound of the car.
Leena shifted her gaze upwards and bit her lip. She turned in her seat slightly so that she could face Naomi a bit better. She opened her mouth as if she were about to start talking but stopped and closed her mouth again. Naomi sensed uneasiness in her and slowed the car down to a stop. Putting the car in park she unbuckled her seatbelt and shifted into a more comfortable position.
"This is better, now we won't have to scream like banshees to hear each other," Naomi said with a laugh. Leena gave a slight nod and cleared her throat.
"I…I went on a date last night," Leena said softly. Naomi raised one eyebrow and smiled.
"Oh, so this get together is just to rub your sex-life in my face, hm?" Naomi asked with humor in her voice. The humor in her left once she saw the girl next to her begin to shake with sobs. She took Leena's left hand in both of hers and tried to calm her down. "Leena, what's wrong?"
"He…he-" Leena began to choke out. She took a deep breath but all that came out was a bare whisper, "-raped me…"
Naomi sat still as Leena's words began to sink in. It explained why she had been acting so strange, calling her at the break of dawn and asking her to go out. This was serious, someone had hurt Leena, and she was ready to go break that person's skull. Pulling herself away from her own thoughts she went back to the sobbing girl before her.
"What? How...who…when….." Naomi shook her head and took a deep breath to calm her own nerves. "Leena, tell me what happened."
Leena took a few shaky breaths and let her sobbing subside. She gave a small nod as she leaned back against her seat and closed her eyes. Her hand clutched onto Naomi's as if her life depended on it as she began to tell the story of her unfortunate encounter the night before.
Leena had driven all the way into town in the jeep, butterflies fluttering in her stomach the whole time. Jake Storm, the leader of the Thronnos Team, had asked her out after his defeat against the Blitz Team the other day. Leena accepted excitedly, never really having had someone ask her out before, except for Harry, of course. Of course she had had boyfriends and random flings, but never a guy actually wanting to court her for the night.
She hopped out in a short black dress. It was simple with spaghetti straps, showing just a bit of cleavage. Her hair was up in a loose bun with her crimson curls falling here and there to frame her face. Her violet eyes had held excitement as she looked around for Jake. They had agreed to meet in the parking lot so that he could pick her up and take her on their date.
She finally spotted him and walked over as calmly as she could. He laid a kiss on the back of her hand and helped her into the car.
The date had been "perfect". They had had a nice dinner at one of the finest restaurants in that town, followed by a walk in the park, which overlooked a beautiful moon-lit lake. When the date was over, he helped her back into his car and they sat in the back seats, talking to each other.
Slowly he made his move on the young girl, giving her a small kiss on the lips. Leena gave him a dazed look and smile, her cheeks holding a slight blush. He smiled and kissed her again and started to slide his hand up her skirt. Leena pulled back and slowly cleared her throat, apologizing, saying she that she did not want to go that far and thought he should drive her back to her car, it was getting late after all.
Little did she know, he was not the slightest bit ready to do as she had asked. He smirked and let out a small chuckle as he began to lean over her again. He laid a kiss on her bear shoulder and slowly pulled the strap down. Leena pulled away and adjusted her dress back the way it was supposed to be and said it was getting laid and she needed to get home.
Instead of following her request he locked the doors and pushed her down into a laying position over the seats as he laid himself on top of her. He pulled her skirt up around her waist and forced another kiss on her.
Leena screamed and pulled her legs back in between them and kicked up, sending him flying off of her and onto the side of the car. She sat up and tried to open the door but could not free herself from the confines of the small vehicle. She then felt two arms forcefully pull her back down.
"You could have made this easy and had fun too, but kicking me was definitely a no-no, little girl," Jake said cruelly.
Leena stared up with him with fear-filled eyes as he did what he wanted with her. The more she had tried to break free, the rougher he had handled her. She was soon too exhausted to fight and did one thing she never let herself do: give up. He did what he wanted with her not giving a damn about the tears that slid down her face or the cries of pain that escaped her mouth every so often.
When it was all said and done he hopped over into the driver's seat and let her fix herself as he drove them to where she had parked the jeep. When they were there he pulled the car over and parked it next to hers. Jumping out he walked back to the passenger door with that swagger that had first lured her to him. He pulled her out of the car, not roughly, he just pulled her out.
There she stood in front of him. He eyed her up and down and licked his lips as he pulled her up against him again and laid one last kiss upon her lips.
"Don't worry, you were good," he said with an evil smirk on his lips. "Now, we don't wanna tell no one 'bout tonight, now do we? I mean, what would your teammates think of you? They'd just say you were a slut. I'll be back for you if you say anything, alright? But don't worry, I won't mind, another round sounds good to me, baby."
He had gotten back into his car and with one last smirk and an air kiss through the window, he drove off. Leena stood there for only God knows how long until she finally found the strength to gather herself into the jeep and drive all the way back to the Hover Cargo.
By the end of the memory, each word had been separated by a sob, leaving the horrible memory chopped up with pain. Naomi pulled the girl into a sisterly embrace and stroked big calming circles on the crying girl's back. Anger had slowly taken her over as she listened to the girl's heartbreaking tale. She would have her revenge and if any of Leena's teammates found out, their revenge on the bastard that did this to her would be much more painful than anything she could even begin to imagine.
When Leena finally calmed herself down Naomi smiled down at her and asked if she needed more time to sit there. She said no and Naomi put her seatbelt back on and sped off towards town again.
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The hum of a busy hustle and bustle filled the diner with the familiar warm sounds of people taking orders, talking, and the soft sizzling of the grill in the back every time someone came through the kitchen doors. Families sat in booths looking at their menus, regulars sat at the counters making small talk with the waitress, the chef in back shouted out a table number signaling the food was ready to be served.
Leena and Naomi sat at one of the smaller booths next to the window which gave them a view of the city streets, not yet busy since it was still early, but had a few people sauntering around enjoying the sun's rays on their faces. The diner itself was pretty busy, everyone wanting a good home-style cooked meal before they fully began their day.
Leena sat quietly, her eyes trying to focus on the menu but eventually gave up and settled on looking outside the window, focusing on a bird hopping around on the sidewalk, pecking at some invisible piece of food. Naomi sat across from her, he eyes traveling from the menu up to look at the girl in front of her every so often. Not wanting to keep the silence going she cleared her throat softly and looked back at her menu.
"What do you wanna eat? My treat," she asked the redhead. Leena turned back from the window and shrugged,
"I don't know. I'm not that hungry, really," she replied softly. Naomi sighed as the waitress came over.
"What can I get you, ladies?" the older-aged woman asked with a smile. Naomi smiled back and pointed to something on the menu.
"I'll have this and a cup of coffee, please," she said. The waitress turned to Leena and asked her what she would like.
"Just a glass of water please," she replied softly. The waitress looked up from her pad of paper and crossed her arms.
"Well that's not a healthy breakfast for a skinny girl like you. What's the matter? It looks like there's something troubling that pretty face of yours," the waitress said with a motherly voice. Leena smiled slightly and looked up at the woman. She looked back at the menu and asked for a cup of tea.
"That's not gonna fill you up, honey. I know just what you need," with one last smile she took their menus and walked off.
Leena sighed and turned back to look out the window. The bird she had been looking at before was still there but had found a piece of toast lying in the middle of the sidewalk. It pecked at it at first but then grabbed the piece and flew off. She then turned back to face Naomi but kept her eyes on her hands as they played with a packet of sweetener.
"Are you going to tell the guys?" Naomi asked as a different waitress came by and set down their drink orders. Naomi's coffee sat on a small saucer with a class container of sugar and a metal container of cold milk next to it while Leena's tea, also on a saucer, came with two slices of lemon and a beat shaped bottle of honey.
Leena shook her head as she picked up the bear and fiddled with it instead of squirting its golden contents into her tea. Placing it back down she grabbed the sugar next to Naomi and poured that into her cup then placed it back where it had originally come from. She stirred the tea, not once looking up at the girl across from her.
"They'll be so disappointed in me," she said softly, stirring her drink with a small spoon.
"Leena, they all love you, they won't see you as anything less if you tell them what happened."
"I'm afraid to…what if you're wrong? What if they really do see me differently? What if Jake is right?" Leena asked as a tear slid down her cheek. She wiped it away angrily. "They'll think I'm just a slut, I mean, it sort of was my own fault."
"Leena, it was not your fault that asshole did that to you. You said no so he had no right to think anything else. You did nothing wrong," Naomi said almost angrily.
"What if he comes back?" Leena asked with the voice of a little girl that had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"Don't worry, I won't let him and the guys won't either."
"Naomi…I don't want to tell them…please…I just can't," Leena said looking up with pleading eyes.
Naomi sighed softly and gave a small shake of her head showing her disapproval. She knew the first step to Leena healing from this traumatic event was confronting it by telling her teammates, the people who cared for her the most. They would be able to comfort Leena in ways she knew she could not. But if Leena did not want to then she was going to have to respect her wishes.
"Alright, Leena, I won't tell anyone but I hope you realize telling them is the right thing. But I want you to do it when you're ready, alright?" Naomi asked gently. Leena gave a small nod and looked up as the waitress came by with their food.
"Sunny-side up eggs and bacon for you," she said placing the plate in front of Naomi with a plate of toast and butter next to it, "and a plate of my special, make you smile pancakes," she finished as she set down a big stack of pancakes in front of Leena with a whip cream smiley face on top and two cherries on top of the eyes and nose.
Leena stared at the stack of food, something she would normally devour easily. She looked up at the woman and gave a genuine smile, the first Naomi had seen all morning.
"Thank you, I love smiley face pancakes," Leena said softly, a small smile still set on her face.
"I thought you'd like these, and it's nice to see that pretty smile finally shine, honey," the waitress said as she gave them a smile of her own and walked off to another table.
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A calm silence had taken over the Hover Cargo after Leena left with Naomi; Bit had even gone back to bed. Not long after, Jaime awoke to start his daily routine: make breakfast, wait for everyone to wake up, and then clean up after their lazy butts. Of course he wouldn't phrase it that way, he didn't mind so much cleaning after them, it had become just a regular part of his day.
As he began breakfast, the smells acted as an alarm clock to wake Bit Cloud from his slumber. He jumped out of bed making a B-line for the kitchen only to be met with the sweet smells of breakfast being cooked up. He took a seat at the table as Brad was woken about half an hour later.
"Hey Brad, guess who stopped by this morning?" Bit asked with a smirk.
Brad went on ignoring the blond pilot and went on to pour himself a cup of coffee. He sat down at the table across from bit and grabbed the morning paper. Bit realized the long-haired man was not going to bite on the bait he had just released so just went on as if he had asked.
"Naomi." Brad sat visually unfazed continuously taking sips of his coffee as if Bit had not said a word.
"Where's Leena?" Jaime asked looking up from the frying pan, "She should've smelled the bacon and come running by now."
"Oh, Naomi took her out this morning," Bit answered grabbing a piece of bacon off of the pan.
"I thought they couldn't stand each other," Brad interjected as he put the newspaper down, "is there a reason why they're spending time together?" Bit shrugged showing that he had no response to the other zoid pilot.
At the sound of footsteps coming from the hanger, the three boys looked up from whatever it was they were doing and watched as two female redheads walked in. Naomi walked ahead, a smile on her face as she sauntered over and sat down next to Brad. Leena had followed slowly behind and stood in the doorway.
"Good morning," she said softly, "I think I'm gonna go back to bed, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night." She pulled a strand of her hair back behind her ear and looked over to Naomi. "Thanks for taking me out to breakfast, Naomi." With that she left to go to her room.
"So Brad, how 'ya been?" Naomi asked taking a sip of his coffee. "Geeze, don't you put sugar in this?"
Brad smiled at her as she scowled at the black liquid in the cup. Jaime finished setting the table with the dishes of food he cooked. Doctor Toros soon after came in with a zoid model and placed it in the middle of the table on top of the note Naomi had placed there earlier. Everyone ate, except for Naomi who made herself a cup of coffee, and happily conversed. The Doc asked of Leena's whereabouts but soon forgot as he built his bacon and eggs into a replica of the Blade Liger model in front of him.
Bit grabbed the last piece of bacon and left the table. He threw his dishes into the sink and began walking towards his room. Tossing the last piece into his mouth he began to open his door but stopped when he heard muffled cries coming from a few doors down. He walked over to stand in front of Leena's door and heard her sobbing softly. He knocked on the door and the sobbing quieted. He knocked again head soft footsteps then watched as the door slid open slowly.
"What, Bit?" Leena asked, her voice soft. She looked down at the floor trying to hide her eyes but Bit could still see that her eyes were puffy and red.
"Are you crying?" he asked her with concern.
"No, of course not," she said and went to close her door again.
Bit watched her slowly disappear behind the block of metal and stood still to listen for more sobs. After a while he walked away and went to his original destination, his room. He laid down on his bed and stared at the ceiling as he thought about the redhead down the hall.
I'm not a big fan of my own writing right now, not sure if I'm just rusty or not. Tell me what you think about this chapter and if you have any suggestions please leave them in a review!! I would love to hear what you guys think! I'll probably have another chapter out soon, I know exactly where I want this story to go.
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