Welcome to All the Little Children. This is a crossover between Gundam Wing and Weiss Kreuz. The setting is a little confusing, so read this, please. I don't want a lot of complaints about my story for things that I'm about to explain.
Basically, the five Gundam pilots are no longer pilots. They've retired in a way, you could say. All of them have taken normal jobs. (At least, more normal than being teenage terrorists.) They are older than in the series. They're nineteen, because that makes them living on their own and being in such intimate relationships a little less strange, according to the standards of the real world. As far as this fic is concerned, they piloted the Gundams during a war, and now the Gundams are gone. I know that a whole of stuff happens in between, but this is less complicated of a back story. Besides, this doesn't quite take place during either of the time settings for the two series. It's more of a mix of both. It takes place in Tokyo, during an undisclosed era. I hope this doesn't bother people.
WARNINGS: This is a type of Alternate Universe. There will be shonen-ai. And I can't guarantee that all of the characters with be in character all of the time. If any of these things bother you, turn back now. It's as simple as hitting the back arrow.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Gundam Wing or Weiss Kreuz. It's as simple as that.
Omi Tsukiyono paused in his typing as arms wrapped around his shoulders and a chin came to rest on his head. The blonde sighed, realizing that it had gotten late if his boyfriend was home already. Time had flown by so quickly as he worked on his homework.
"So, how was practice, Coach Ken," Omi asked. Ken had gathered a few neighborhood children to form a soccer club. Every Thursday after school, Ken would teach the eager students the many tricks he had used when he played professionally.
"Not too bad. The little ones are improving in leaps and bounds. Taku, the baker's son, has some very promising natural talent. Too bad he's determined to take over his mother's bakery. But he can enjoy soccer for now at least." The brunette smiled. "What did you get into while I was gone, Omi?"
"Oh, I just worked on this history paper for school. It's about the battle of Sekigahara, and how Tokugawa took over Japan. Interesting, but nowhere near as interesting as spending time with you." Omi's stomach chose that moment to demand food. Ken laughed at his boyfriend.
"What do you say to going downstairs and getting some dinner," Ken suggested. Omi agreed, blushing slightly from embarrassment.
The two lovers headed down the stairs towards the kitchen, but they were intercepted halfway by a very agitated redhead.
"Aya, what's wrong," Omi questioned, worried.
"Manx is here again." Aya scowled and turned abruptly to go downstairs to the mission room. Ken and Omi followed hurriedly.
"That's the second mission this week. Granted, the last was just a drug bust, piece of cake, but shouldn't this case go to another team?"
"Who knows, Omi? Maybe it's just another easy mission, so they figured two in a week wasn't too much for us." The two fell silent as they entered the mission room and took a seat next to each other on the couch. Yohji had already claimed one of the armchairs, and Aya was leaning against the wall. When all four were situated, Manx slid the video message in the VCR, and everyone turned their attention to the television.
"Weiss, five children have been kidnapped off the street, and later returned, dead. The murders are the work of one Duo Maxwell. Hunters of the night, deny this dark beast his tomorrow." Persia's message ended, and Manx stepped forward with a stack of files.
"First things first. Are you all in?" The four nodded. "Good. These files contain information on Duo Maxwell and Maxwell's current living arrangements. They also contain information on the victims. The five were Kazuya Naruse, age nine; Yuuki Furutani, age eleven; Kaze Yamada, age thirteen; Maki Ishikawa, age eight; and Tomoko Saito, age seven; in order of disappearance.
"All of the victims were homeless, living on the streets, and with no apparent living relations. They all hung out with different 'families'. The only connection between all of them was that Duo Maxwell was seen with them, alone, shortly before they disappeared.
"Duo Maxwell, the culprit, is nineteen. He lives in a house with four other young men. During the week, he works as a mechanic at a local shop. On the weekends, he goes around town, talking with the street children, playing games with them, bringing them treats. Overall, he appears to be a good guy.
"However, the five victims were small for their age, and were the target of harassment from the bigger children, or even adults. If Duo ever learned of this, he would take the child with him for the day, talk with them, and reassure them. More recently, none of them were seen alive again."
"That's horrible. How could anyone betray a child's trust so easily," Omi protested. Ken squeezed his hand comfortingly.
"Shh. It's okay. He won't every hurt another child again. Ever," Ken reassured his boyfriend. Yohji nodded.
"We already ran surveillance on the house. Can you take him out tomorrow night? The sooner he's taken care of, the better," Manx pointed out. All four nodded decisively.
"He'll be dead before he can even think about finding another victim," Aya growled.
Duo Maxwell sneezed as dust tickled his nose. The hood of the car he had just agreed to work on probably hand't been opened for nearly a decade. The car was coated in dust, inside and out.
"She'll be lovely when I'm done with her. I just have to survive the dust so I'm alive to see the job through to the end." Duo contemplated the dirty car. "Maybe I should clean the thing first so that I can see what needs fixing." Inside the shop's office, the phone rang shrilly. Seeing his boss answer the phone, the American returned to his job of hosing down the car. After a few minutes, the head mechanic hung up the phone and came over to Duo.
"Hey, Maxwell. I'm closing up early tonight. Leave that for tomorrow," the man ordered.
"Sure, Takamura-san. Something come up?"
"Aki broke her arm climbing a tree, and Kanako is still out of town on the business trip. I need to go to the hospital," Takamura explained.
"Understandable. Let me just grab my bike, and I'll be on my way. Tell Aki that I'll be waiting for her to get all better so we can go fishing again."
"Will do. Thanks." Takamura adored his daughter, and Aki adored Duo. Therefore, the gruff man trusted Duo to take his daughter on various trips on the weekends. Recently, Duo had agreed to take Aki on a fishing trip, but that would have to wait until Aki's arm healed.
"That little bundle of energy. Does she ever stay still," Duo asked himself. "It's almost impossible for her to stay in one place for very long. And those questions of hers." Whenever Takamura brought Aki into the shop, she followed Duo around like a baby duckling. And she had a way of asking questions so rapidly that even Duo had trouble keeping up with her sometimes.
As he thought of all the times he had babysat Aki when Takamura and his wife, Kanako, had gone out to dinner together, Duo set out towards home on the bike he had repaired himself, when he had first taken the job at Takamura Auto Repair. He was eager to help Quatre with dinner since he would be home several hours earlier than usual. Takamura usually kept the shop open until seven, but Aki's accident had called for a four o'clock closing. The other five wouldn't even be home until after five.
"Tadaima 1," the brunette called out of habit as he walked into the entry way. As he expected, nobody was home yet. Slipping off his shoes, he stepped up into the main hallway. The former Gundam pilots had chosen to live in a more traditional house, complete with sliding doors, tatami floors, and a well-kept garden out back. The kitchen floor was tile and set down at ground level, like the entry way. Duo stepped down into the shoes he kept there, and headed towards the fridge.
"What to make, hmm," he mumbled to himself. Gathering some peppers, mushrooms, and carrots from the vegetable drawer, he set them in a strainer, and ran cold water over them. Next, he put some chicken on the stove to boil while he chopped the vegetables. As he was starting on chopping the chicken into pieces, the first of his housemates arrived home.
"Tadaima," came Quatre's muffled greeting.
"Okaeri 2," Duo called back. "Want to start the rice, Q?" Quatre, who had just come into the kitchen, complied.
"You're home early. Did Takamura-san fire you finally?" The blonde laughed when Duo scowled at him.
"No, he didn't. Poor Aki-chan broke her arm, so the old man went to take care of her. How about you? How was your day?"
"Fairly boring. That old house that's supposedly haunted finally sold today." Quatre, although young, had managed to find a good job at a real estate agency thanks to his upbringing as the Winner heir. "So, what's cooking?
"Chicken stir-fry. Some of the peppers were getting old, so I thought I'd use them up."
"Sounds good. I remember when we all thought you couldn't cook to save your life," the blonde teased, as he grabbed glasses, napkins, and chopsticks to set the table, and headed towards the dining room. "Everyone was so mad when you admitted that you could cook well, and actually liked to cook sometimes." The two friends laughed, remembering the fun times.
Soon, Heero and Trowa came in together, since the pet shop Trowa worked at was just a few stores down from the computer shop where Heero worked. Wufei was the last to arrive, since the dojo he taught at was all the way across town. By the time all five were home, Duo had finished preparing dinner, and they all sat down together to eat.
After dinner, for which Duo received several compliments, the friends decided to watch a movie. Deciding which movie was not such an easy choice however.
"Let's watch 'Jumper'. It looks like such a good action movie," Duo suggested.
"A scary vampire movie would be nice. We haven't seen 'Perfect Creature' yet," Wufei pointed out.
"Because I can't watch scary movies without having nightmares for a month," Quatre retorted. "I want to see an assassin movie."
"How about 'The Contract'," Trowa interrupted. "There's action, there's blood, there's assassins. A little bit for everyone."
"I'm okay with that."
"Yay! Assassins."
"That's acceptable."
"All right. How about you, Heero?" Trowa looked at his friend.
"Hn."
"I think my boyfriend agrees, Tro. He just need to start using words," Duo scolded.
"Hn." Quatre snickered into his hand. Trowa just started the movie, cutting off an opportunity for Duo to start ranting about Heero's faults. In the end, 'The Contract' turned out to be a good choice because everyone enjoyed it. Quatre just barely held in a yawn as the end credits started scrolling up the television screen.
"Come on, Quat. Let's get you into bed. It won't due to have you sleeping on our picnic tomorrow," Trowa teased. He led his lover upstairs to the bedroom they shared. Duo was beyond yawning, having curled up against Heero like a kitten and fallen asleep. Heero sighed, and picked up the sleeping brunette.
"Oyasumi 4," Heero said to Wufei before following Trowa and Quatre up the stairs to his and Duo's room. Wufei turned off the television and the lights before heading off to his own bedroom.
1 'Tadaima' basically means 'I'm home'. It's used by Japanese family members when they come home from work or just from going out shopping. If you come back to the house, you say 'Tadaima'.
2 'Okaeri' means 'Welcome home'. When someone comes home and says 'Tadaima', you say 'Okaeri'.
3 This probably doesn't need explaining, but a dojo is a school for the martial arts, or just a place where you can go and practice what you already know in a traditional environment.
4 'Oyasumi', in this case, is short for 'Oyasumi nasai', or 'Good night'. 'Oyasumi' also means absent.
A/N: So, how do you like the first chapter? Personally, I'm really excited about this fic because I love Gundam Wing and Weiss Kreuz, and they're both older anime.
Please let me know what you think. I know everyone asks for reviews, and I'm guilty of not writing reviews, but if you think you have something to say that can help make this story better, let me know. That way it'll be more enjoyable for everyone to read. :)