I don't own Gundam Wing, i just like messing up the character's a bit.

Warnings: the will be gay couples somewhere in the future, and striaght, maybe bi', i'm not sure yet. some relena bashing but not throughout the whole thing, i'll make her grow up a bit.

No pairings yet, but there will be. If you read this fic and do not review you will have bad luck for the next 10 years. So you know what you have to do. I'm not going to write another chapter until I have at least ten reviews. You'll really want to know what the next one is though because it's going to be how he grew up and what happened to him and his sister. Anyway I'll stop blabbering. Please R&R!!

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A push towards humility.

The battle was finally over and peace was now beginning. The five Gundam pilots had been staying together in a ward of their own with their trainers (the five Doctors), due to the influence of the Winner family. Quatre had just come out of surgery from his injury gained fencing against Dorothy, but he was appallingly wide awake and extremely hyper, much to certain Nurses dissatisfaction.

Despite Heero's and Wufei's protests they also had with them Relena, Dorothy, Catherine, Noin, Sally, Hilde and Lady Une (although admittedly none of them were really sure if it was the lady or the commander at the moment); surprisingly there was also Zechs and Treize. It seems that once Zechs had shot at Libra's system he had flown out as far as he could and came across a cockpit, separated form the rest of the shattered Gundam remains of Tallgease. Taking it back to L1, it seemed that he had saved Treize and the doctor's had him put into the same ward as the younger pilots.

At first it was slightly uncomfortable for all of them, since but a few hours ago they had been all opposing each other, yet with the usual Maxwell charm Duo had erased the problem with his cheeky grin and a (not-surprising at all) death-based quip, "graveyards sounded more like a rave, than this! If I stripped would I get a smile?"

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"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

"What the hell was that?!" yelled Quatre, who panted slightly clutching at his heart. The heart monitor next to him was going a mile a minute. Suddenly the door burst open and a quick blur skidded under Wufei's bed. Yells sounded like "come back here you little brat" drew rapidly closer towards their ward.

"Hey Fei, there's a kid under your bed."

"Well thank you for pointing out the obvious, Maxwell. And how many times have I told you, my name is Wufei! In your case it's Chang. Now help me get her out!"

However when Wufei moved to climb off his ridiculously high bed (well his heritage does make him quite petite), he ended up standing on none other than Heero Yuy himself. Wufei toppled onto the floor in an undignified heap, causing an uproar of laughter and giggles around them room, with exception of the two people who were preoccupied with whispering to each other under the bed.

Upon seeing the terrified child scramble under the bed Heero had immediately set out to calm the poor thing. Whilst the two above him were bickering he had started to crawl under the bed towards the little girl, stopping after his shoulder blades went under, so as to let the little girl have her own space. He couldn't really see what she looked like, but he could see her sparkling grey eyes open wide with fear. Speaking a softly as he could he started the conversation the normal way people do in odd situations,

"Hi, my names Heero, what's yours?"

"Merle Kit, mister" a small voice answered, causing Heero's heart to tug a bit at the sound. She sounded so much like… no don't think about that now.

"Well that's a pretty name, so what are you doing down here. Surely it would be nicer on top of the bed with the pillows and the blanket?" Heero asked, silently thinking that he was going to kick Chang hard in the butt when the kid leaves, he could already feel a bruise forming. Who knew that Chang was as heavy as a baby elephant?

"hiding" well that was sooo informative Heero's inner voice said cheekily, before Heero's inner reason decided to put duct tape across voice's mouth. It wasn't surprising really that Heero was often comparing these two beings to his comrades Chang and Maxwell.

"Well I've got to admit that you've chosen a pretty good spot. You can see everyone that comes through that door and the bed you choose is right against a wall, so no one could get you unless they crawled all the way back here too, although it would be a bit hard for them to fit, after all my friend Duo thinks I'm too skinny, and I'm having a hard time getting under here."… Nothing, no reply, no smile, but at least the little girl wasn't shaking as much. Heero however realised that she could be cold, since he suddenly got one of those quick shivers down his spine. You know, the ones you get when your body feels cold, but you hadn't really noticed. Distraction, surprising how much smaller pain can become with that.

"Are you cold?" a small nod was his answer and Heero shuffled back slowly, whilst saying "why don't I get a blanket or two then? It'll be a lot more comfortable for you than lying on the floor, and I won't feel so worried about you getting sick. Does that sound good to you Merle?" another small nod was all Heero got before he finally backed out of the bed.

Heero turned his head around once he got out of the bed, only to have his face caught in a Nurses skirt. Now Heero can handle being close to people, when he wants to and that is really emphasizing that when. Looking up he saw her nametag, reading Miss Hardingle head Matron of children's burn ward. Heero being the bright spark that he is put two and two together, realising that this was not only the women screaming about brats and whatnot, but was also the reason why the little girl was hiding.

Much to his annoyance the woman merely shoved him out the way and tried to crawl under the bed to get the girl. However being a woman who was naturally bulky she couldn't fit. So instead decided to rant at the poor thing about how much trouble Merle would be when this was over.

Heero couldn't believe the nerve of the woman, how anyone could speak so harshly and cruelly to a child under their care, was beyond him. Even he was better spoken to as a prisoner of war, despite the fact that people called him rather smutty things most of the time. It seemed that he wasn't the only once thinking this however when he heard the voices of Miss Relena and Zechs stepping in for the child. Well it was more like them yelling lots of stuff at the woman.

"She's just a child"

"I can't believe the way this place is run"

"Scaring the poor thing to death"

"I have a right mind to report you"

"Besides you were causing more of a disturbance with that racket"

"I write letters, I'm warning you now"

The argument was starting to get pretty heated and even Quatre, Duo and Une were joining in; everyone else just watching with an amused glint in their eyes. As much as Heero would have liked to hear them bite at that bitch's ear for the rest of the day, he had heard small whimpers coming from the bed, realising that the yelling was beginning to distress the child. Sighing quietly he stood up, cleared his throat which did nothing to quieten them down. Taking a deep breath and holding it for a second, before he let out a long, loud whistle.

"Well now that you're all quiet, maybe the kid won't carry on crying." Blushes spread along the cheeks of most occupants in the room, who had worked themselves up so much they forgot the original reason for the argument. Heero ran his hand through his hair in an irritated fashion, muttering about idiots and something like "maybe barbed wire isn't such a bad idea" whilst he crawled under the bed with a pillow and a spare blanket.

"Hello again Merle, would you like the blanket now?" not waiting for an answer he pushed the blanket towards her, watching her sadly as she practically snatched it from him, as if he might change his mind if she didn't do it fast enough. Hiding his shock to see how badly burnt her arm was, when she reached for it.

"I take it you're hiding from Matron then" Heero stated with a small smile, his face turning confused when he saw a small shake of the child's head. "What are you hiding from then?"

"Safe, bed is safe."

"Well, I guess there can't be any monsters hiding under here if you're already underneath it."

"Don't like milk" huh, now I'm lost Heero thought, why would milk be a problem. His confusion must have been noticed, because the girl edged towards him almost conspiringly to say

"Matron makes me have milk with my tables" awe bless Heero thought, I forgot how cute kids could be, she probably meant tablets. Wait, why am I even thinking like this? Stop it Heero, you're not supposed to feel anything good about others. They're not worth the pain. However, none of this inner conflict showed across his schooled face as the child carried on.

"I don't like tables, but I don't like milk more. She says I can't have my tables with wortor, milk only. No tables, no milk" she said, a little smile on her face showing how pleased she was that the nice boy hadn't interrupted her.

"hummm, do you know why you have to take tablets and milk" another shake of the head. "if I explained what each tablet did for you would you come out from under there and take them?" there was no response for a second them suddenly the girl nodded and was moving past him, deciding that he'd better move out to join her before Matron Miserable started on her, Heero shuffled backwards. Much to his relief there were no skirts in his way; he was however shocked to notice the woman's stunned face as she pointed her finger at him and said

"She's never agreed to listen to anyone before".

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About three hours later the matron had finally left with Merle. Heero had spent a long time explaining what each of her seventeen tablets was for. Although she was a child from the burn ward, she also had a lot of other problems, most due to the fact that she couldn't produce any antibodies and her blood would clot up (although there was a lot more that that wrong with her, but Heero felt that three hours was more than enough).

He then explained that she needed the milk for calcium, and that they couldn't give it to her in a calcium tablet as they would like to, because she already had too many tablets as it was.

Having worked in a hospital when he was about nine, to earn money to look after his pregnant sister, Heero knew a lot about medicines, and said that is she took her medicine right then and there without complaint matron would bring over her doctor, so they could see if they could reduce the pills. Heero found that the little girl had quite a sweet tooth, and pointed out that if she had hot honey; she would be able to reduce the pills from seventeen to four, five if you added the calcium tablet. (Find out for yourself-honey has lots of medical properties). The doctor had arrived and agreed to try out the different prescription. Seeming quite embarrassed he hadn't thought of it himself.

All the while, the other pilots, doctors and the ladies present were watching in amused interest, the attention their fellow warrior/friend was giving to this random, tiny stranger; wandering if they were finally seeing the real Heero for once and hoping that they would see this side more often. After all how often have you seen the perfect soldier smile?

With that the child and her carers left, but not without a quick warning to the grumpy witch of a matron. Lets just say that the idea of dangling by her toes over a bunch of sharp sword blades (such as Wufei's Katana, which she could see out of the corner of her eye), if she ever yelled at a child again, had seriously caused her to think about answering back to the most dangerous and influential people in the universe.

...

Quietly the door opened a fraction; the pilots although sleeping in appearance were alert and ready to take action. After all the final battle was over, but that didn't mean that people still wouldn't try anything. All fears were set aside when they realised it was just the little girl that had hidden under the bed earlier. Her little green eyes taking awhile to adjust to the darkness, before she scanned the room.

Set on her target, little padded feet shuffled toward the teenage boy who managed to help her with her medicine. She didn't want to be alone with the loud crashes of the storm outside, but none of the other children would let her sleep with them and they were all mean to her afterwards. Calling her names and making fun of her being scared. She hoped that this nice boy wouldn't be the same and pick on her, yet she was sure he wouldn't, not with how nice he was earlier. He had even complimented on her choice of hiding place and said that he would have done the same.

With his eyes only a sliver open, Heero made out the form of a child heading towards him. Despite his curiosity of her wanting to be near him, he didn't move, lest he scared the poor child off; she looked frightened enough, especially whenever the thunder rolled past. She got to his bed and stared for awhile, quickly looking around the room to see if she had woken anyone up. Seeing the coast was clear, she quietly scrambled onto his bed, clutching her little rag doll to her in fear of it running away in the dark, and crawled towards the boys chest, before curling like a kitten against it. She saw his eyes open a bit, wondering if he was going to send her away. Instead he just whispered

"Is that Sophie?" gesturing toward the doll with an inclination of his head. She could only nod in reply, a bit shocked that he knew her doll's name.

"Cute doll" Heero mumbled. Lightening and thunder crashed causing the small child to whimper, yet rather than send her back to bed he stroked her hair till she calmed down and gave her his blanket and his second pillow. With her look he just whispered sleep well and waited for her to sleep.

Now with the child calm Heero started to drift off, until he realised that there were still eyes on him. Moving slowly, to make sure he didn't wake the child he looked around at the other pilots. All of them looked at him with a small smile, which Heero gave them a glare for, as if daring them to jibe at him. But their smiles stayed, especially Duo's, but unlike his usual cheery self this one seemed real. They all looked at him with a new insight to the gentleness they knew was there, and placed their heads exhaustedly against the pillows, wondering what the first day of their peace was going to be like.