And Mother Makes Three
By Demoness Mark
Prologue
"...Dad, why don't you ever date? I understand why you didn't when I was younger, but I'm sixteen now. Besides, I want a mother. A mother would UNDERSTAND that I'm old enough to date. Especially a mother like Miss Relena." Mariemaia argued with her father.
Mariemaia had been living with her "dad", Heero Yuy, ever since the failure of her Christmas Eve coup, nine years before. She had been desperate not to have to go to someone who wouldn't understand her, so she had begged Heero to adopt her. However since he wasn't legally an adult, he and Lady Une had (grudgingly) made a joint custody deal until he was legally of age.
She had been teasing him about "marrying Miss Relena" ever since he had adopted her, but he still hadn't gotten the hint that she was still desperate to see them get married.
'Like that's every going to happen.' she thought, before tuning back into the "Father knows best" lecture.
"...And furthermore, Relena and I are just friends. Besides even if we weren't it wouldn't be any of your business. And finally, you aren't old enough to date until I say so, and that's final." Heero snapped at his exasperating daughter.
He loved his daughter to bits, and would never been able to force himself to survive if she hadn't been there, as they had based their lives on each other and helped each other to heal. He loved his daughter, but HE WOULD NOT YEILD; his rules were for her own good, after all.
It was rather strange since the first time he had met Mariemaia he had been her enemy. Many who knew their past questioned why he had chosen to adopt her. And those who knew Lady Une's involvement were even more curious why she would allow someone else to raise Treize's daughter. The truth was it was a matter of healing for all three. Heero could understand Mariemaia in a way that no one else could as he too had only been a child when he was trained in military arts for another person's purposes. Lady Une chose to renounce her claim on Mariemaia because after thinking about it she realized that she had an unhealthy obsession when it came to Treize and decided that she would not be a good mother for Mariemaia due to this fact. And Mariemaia gave Heero a reason to continue living.
It worked out well for all of them and they all had learned lessons from the arrangement. He, himself, had learned the importance of life and living it to the fullest. Mariemaia had helped him pull himself together and have fun. It was fun being a parent, most of the time at least, and he had no idea what he was going to do when Mariemaia went off to college. He had learned how to shop for little girl's clothing, cook balanced meals, color coordinate, and put a child to bed. He had needed a lot of help with some of them but it had been interesting to learn how to do them to say the least.
The arrangement also gave them both a family to cling to. It was easy to tell that they cared a great deal for each other, even being mistake for being siblings. It was always amusing to see the expressions of the people who mentioned that belief to him when he told them that he was Mariemaia's father.