Summary: Ten years after the Eve Wars, Heero and Duo face a new threat…

Pairings: 1+2, implied 3+4 and 5+S

Disclaimer: No G-boys under the Christmas tree this year. Dangit. :(

Kazoku
by ReySolo and Tori Sakana

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Chapter 1 (In which the situation is set up)
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Alarms were blaring. Guards raced to block the exit. "STOP!" a voice commanded.

A seven-year-old boy turned around slowly, a terrified expression on his face. "Wh-what did I do?"

The two security guards near the department store looked down at the boy with innocent blue eyes and a short brown ponytail under a black baseball cap. "Son, did you try to take something out of the store without paying for it?" the taller guard asked gently.

"N-no…" he protested. "Stealing is wrong."

The guards exchanged glances, then the shorter one asked, "Where are your parents?"

Just then a man with a long brown braid and flashing violet eyes stormed over, followed by a girl with a short red braid and matching violet eyes, obviously his daughter. "Exactly what are you accusing my son of?" the man demanded. The look in his eyes promised certain death if the answer was not deemed satisfactory.

"We—er—the alarms—" the taller guard stuttered.

"Ventuno, did you steal something?" the man asked his son, as if the question were merely to show the guards his trustworthiness.

"No, Dad," the son answered innocently.

So flustered by the man's wrath, neither guard noticed the man nudging his daughter, the girl going around to the boy's back, the boy handing her a watch, or her moving and placing it on a rack nearby.

The man turned back to the guards. "Are you going to accuse my son of lying to his own father, as well?"

The taller guard gathered up all his courage. "I'm—I'm sorry, sir, but store policy requires that we search anyone who triggers the alarm system."

The man's eyes flashed in anger again, but after a pause, he nodded. "Ven?"

The boy swallowed, holding his arms out slightly as if unsure what to do. His eyes were slightly tearing.

The guards searched him as well as they could without actually touching the boy, for fear of retribution from the father. After a very short glance-over, the shorter one stated, "Okay, he—didn't take anything. We're very sorry, sir. It's just—."

"Store policy," the man finished coldly. "Perhaps someone else was in the process of shoplifting just before my son came by, and that person has now escaped due to your own faulty assumptions. You have also lost a customer, as I will not return to a store which treats my children with such disrespect."

The guards swallowed and nodded, moving off as quickly as they could.

~~~~~~~~

Duo Maxwell walked through the mall, his oldest son Ventuno walking on one side of him holding his hand, his daughter Juuni on the other side holding his braid. He looked at his son. "Ven…" he began.

Ven looked up, a penitent expression on his face. "I know, I know, I shouldn't have gotten caught."

Duo nodded. "Remember, by your eighth birthday I'll expect you to get out of those messes by yourself."

Ven nodded solemnly.

Duo grinned, shedding the disciplining-father image he disliked so much. "But it's okay. I don't get to practice my Shinigami-mode nearly enough."

Juuni giggled. "Did you see the looks on their faces? If they were afraid of you, think how they'd feel if they met Tousan in a bad mood!"

Glancing at her with an indignant expression, Duo asked, "You really think Tousan can be more threatening than I can?"

Ven snorted. "With his death glare? Oh, yeah."

Duo shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He grinned. "Anyway, at least now we don't have to return anything to that store. I think that's enough practice for today, okay, Ven?"

"Sure. I can just practice on Juuni once we get home," Ven smirked.

"Hey! Dad, don't let him take my stuff!!" Juuni cried.

"Juuni, he will return it," Duo assured her.

She shook her head violently. "Nuh-uh, he ate that one candy bar I had two weeks ago!!"

"That's just 'cuz you never said it was missing and I forgot it wasn't mine!" Ven defended himself.

Duo sighed and shook his head, but the smile hadn't left his face. "Okay, kids," he interrupted, "We still have to buy a few more things, then we'll grab something to eat and head home, okay?"

"Okay!" they chorused.

~~~~~~~~

"Dad, I'm hungry!!" a little voice whined.

"I told you, Ven, we'll go to the food court once your sister is done trying on that outfit," Duo reminded his son.

"But she's a girl, she's taking forever..." Ventuno, while the oldest of Duo's and Heero's three children, was still only seven, and therefore not quite old enough to have acquired any patience whatsoever.

"I'm sure she'll be done soon," Duo assured him. Secretly he agreed that Juuni had been in there for quite a while. At this point Duo was wishing he'd accepted Hilde's offer to come shopping with them. The problem was that Hilde had suggested she come to help Duo's only daughter get "feminine" things, and Juuni, after living in a house with four males, flat out refused to get anything "girly." Besides, she had insisted that since she was five 'and a half' she could go by herself. Duo had accepted this, not realizing the difficulties he would have involving the changing rooms. At least their youngest son, Sifir, was at home with Heero. Duo was having enough trouble with only two... Sighing, he called in, "June-bug, you okay in there?"

Silence.

"Juuni?"

"I'll go check on her!" Ventuno raced off into the changing room before Duo could grab him.

"Ventuno Yuy-Maxwell, you get back out here this instant!"

After a moment, Ven wandered back out, looking up at his father innocently. "She's not in there."

Duo sweatdropped. "What?"

"There's nobody in any of those rooms."

Duo stared at his son, trying to determine whether he was telling the truth or protecting his sister.

Ven sighed. "You don't believe me, do you, Dad? She may run and hide, but I never lie."

Duo fought to keep a straight face upon hearing that familiar line altered slightly. The hint of a smile on his lips vanished as he realized he had no idea where his daughter was in a huge mall. Heero was going to kill him. "I believe you, Ven. Now come on, we have to find your sister. Um... I'm going to go check in there and see if she left the clothes in there or if she's still wearing them or what. You said there's no one in there, right?"

Ven nodded.

"Okay, you stay out here and see if she shows up."

"Mission accepted," Ven replied calmly.

Duo looked at his son strangely. "Um... right. I'll be right back. And don't take anything!"

He went into the woman's changing rooms quickly, looked inside each individual room, and found nothing. As he was rushing back out, he ran into a tall blonde lady carrying several bras. Duo cringed as the undergarments went flying, and the woman's face turned bright red. "Pervert!!" she screamed, smacking him upside the head with her very large purse. Mumbling apologies, Duo practically flew out of the changing area...

...to find Juuni and Ventuno standing there laughing hysterically at him. "Dad is a pervert!" they shouted in unison, and burst into another fit of giggles.

Duo tried to glare at the two, but the sight of brother and sister laughing so hard they had to hold onto each other to remain standing was just too adorable, so he gave up and joined in on the laughter.

~~~~~~~~

Heero sat at his computer typing while half-listening to the quiet sounds of Sifir playing on the floor beside him. Realizing that the room was getting dark, he glanced at the clock. It was after six; where were Duo, Ventuno, and Juuni?

Just as he started to ponder why they were so late, the front door opened, and the quiet was shattered. The three missing members of the family burst in. Ven entered first, followed by Duo with Juuni perched on his shoulders. Several full shopping bags were dropped on the floor as Duo half-galloped into the house.

"Giddy up, horsey!" she cried. Suddenly she got an idea and grabbed Duo's braid. Yanking hard on it, she yelled, "Whoa!!"

"OW!" Duo shouted, and Juuni let go in surprise. "Ow, June-bug, please don't do that. You know how you feel when Ven pulls your braid."

"Sorry, Daddy," she said in a small voice.

"It's okay, baby," he replied.

"I wanna go on the horsey," Ventuno exclaimed, pulling on Juuni's leg. "Can I, huh, Dad?"

"No, me!" Juuni cried, kicking her leg so Ven would let go.

Since watching them enter, Heero had turned back to his laptop, pretending to completely ignore them. The kids' antics, however, were starting to get to him. He felt the corner of his mouth move up into a smirk. He hoped Duo was too preoccupied with remaining standing to notice.

He wasn't. "I saw that, Hee-chan! You think this is funny, huh?"

Heero completely lost all expression and attempted to focus entirely on the screen before him.

Duo wasn't going to let him off that easily. "Okay, kids, horsey is tired," he said, moving over to the couch to let Juuni down. "Go play with Tousan now, he's been relaxing here all day while we were out working."

Juuni and Ventuno raced over to Heero, Ven plopping into Heero's lap, and Juuni moving to play with the keyboard of the computer.

Heero finally looked up and gave Duo a death glare.

Duo searched for an excuse. "I have to... um..." He glanced over at Sifir playing quietly in the corner. "I'll give Sifir a bath?"

Heero raised his eyebrows and shrugged, turning back to stop Juuni from messing with his computer too much. "Juuni! No messing with my hacking files! Stop that right now."

Duo smirked, then turned to their four-year-old son. "Come on, Sifir, time for a bath..."

Sifir looked up at Duo with an expressionless face. "No," he stated calmly, then turned back to playing.

"Sifir! Remember, you aren't supposed to..." he trailed off as he noticed what the kid was working on. "Um, Heero, did you see what Sifir is building?"

Heero glanced over, while trying to hold Juuni's hands away from the keyboard and keep Ven from bouncing on his lap too much. "It's a Gundam," he stated.

"Yeah, um, where did he get the—?" Suddenly a red laser beam shot out from the model Gundam's arm and vaporized a nearby toy truck. Duo's jaw dropped, and his eyes widened to the size of melons. Out of pure reflex he snatched the small mobile suit from his son's hands.

Sifir looked up and glared at Duo.

Duo swallowed. "Hee—Heero? Why have you been teaching our son your death glare?"

Heero didn't reply; he was busy once again trying to save his work from Juuni.

Duo smiled uneasily at his youngest son. "Um, how about we go give you a bath now?"

Sifir continued to give Duo a death glare. "No."

"JUUNI! You do NOT type 'Hello, my name is Juuni Yuy-Maxwell' into the computer system I'm hacking into!!" Heero's no-longer-calm voice burst out. After a moment of frenzied typing, Heero turned to look at Duo, a question in his eyes.

"Trade?" Duo asked.

"Trade," Heero stated, gesturing for Ven to get off his lap so he could stand.

"Come on, kids, want to play that new Pokemon video game we got today?" Duo asked Ven and Juuni, after placing the apparently functional Gundam on a high shelf so the kids couldn't reach it.

"Yeah!" they shouted, racing into the TV room. Duo started going through the shopping bags to find the game.

Heero walked over to Sifir. "Bath. Now."

Sifir met his father's gaze, and nodded. "Mission accepted," he stated grudgingly, and moved toward the bathroom.

Before following, Heero caught Duo's eye and raised his eyebrows, silently bragging, 'That was easy.'

Duo maturely replied by sticking out his tongue, then headed toward the other room.

Heero smirked and followed Sifir into the bathroom.

~~~~~~~~

Heero bathed Sifir rather quickly, then put him to bed. He peeked in at the others playing video games, hearing Juuni insist on "just one more game!" Figuring Duo had the situation in hand, he returned to his laptop to continue his work.

He was so absorbed in it that he didn't realize how much time had passed until he peripherally saw Duo enter the room and lean against the wall. "They asleep already?" he asked, still typing.

Duo sighed. "Yeah. At least shopping took as much out of them as it did me."

Heero finally stopped and looked up. "Tired?"

Nodding, Duo yawned, "I think I'm going to head to bed now."

Closing the laptop, Heero asked, "Alone?"

Duo stood up straighter, a smile forming on his lips. "Well, I'm not that tired… And the kids are asleep earlier than usual..."

Heero nodded, walking past his love into their bedroom.

Duo grinned and followed.

~~~~~~~~

"Heero Yuy. Former Gundam pilot 01. Also known as The Perfect Soldier." A picture was projected onto the screen, depicting a young man with messy brown hair and glaring blue eyes.

"Duo Maxwell. Former Gundam pilot 02. Also known as Shinigami." Another projection, displaying a young man with chestnut hair in a long braid and deep violet eyes.

"Sifir Yuy-Maxwell. Four-year-old biological son of Perfect Soldier and Shinigami." A third picture, showing a young child with messy brown hair similar to that of the first image, and penetrating brown eyes.

The speaker paused in her presentation. As she'd expected, a hand went up. She nodded, giving the man permission to speak.

"Biological son?" He seemed to be attempting to keep the disbelief out of his voice, but it wasn't working. "Yuy and Maxwell are…" he trailed off.

The speaker nodded, and explained without condescension, "Both male, yes. The answer to your question is genetic engineering. The two have had three children created in a lab from their own DNA and carried to term by a female volunteer. The science behind the procedure is not important to this mission; the pertinent information is that the child is indeed their biological son."

The man nodded and gestured for her to continue.

"We have been observing this family for some time, mainly by following records: health records, financial records, et cetera. The older two children…" She hit a button to move to the next slide, which showed an older boy and a girl, both vaguely resembling their parents. "…Ventuno and Juuni, did not seem to quite fit the profile of our plans. However, the youngest, Sifir, shows some promise. Your mission is to acquire the boy, as well as one or two of the others to use as motivation for him to obey us. Do keep in mind, however, that the parents were Gundam pilots. It will not be easy to abduct even one of their children, nor will it be simple to keep one of them under control. Be very cautious."

The small group of men nodded solemnly, and she felt reasonably certain they would heed her warning.

Soon they would have a perfect weapon in their hands.

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TBC
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Authors' Notes:

~Kid's Names: Ventuno is Italian for 21, Juuni is Japanese for 12, and Sifir is Arabic for 0

~For those of you curious about how Ventuno, Juuni, and Sifir look, here are some lovely pictures of Heero and Duo's kids, drawn by Tori:
http://reyzone.ramen43.com/fic/kazoku/kazokuphotos.htm

~First we were unsure of how the kids would differentiate between their two fathers. Then I realized—Duo is American. Heero is Japanese. Duo=Dad, Heero=Tousan. Problem solved. (Upon reading other kid fics, I find my idea is not entirely unique. However, I promise I did not steal the idea; I came up with it myself, so I'm using it.)

~Japanese phrases used may or may not be accurate, acquired from Tori who has never taken an official Japanese language course.

~Chapter titles' format shamelessly stolen from sf, a wonderful Saiyuki author.

~We promise this isn't just about their kids. Heero and Duo are main characters in this story, as well. Please, give us a chance! :) And pretty please, review if you like it!