Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam or Sailor Moon characters

Was it an accident?

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Be-

Long fingers slowly pulled themselves away from the off button and slid back into the bed with a soft thud. The silence from before settled once again in the slightly darken room where little rays of light filtered through making the occupant of the bed aware that it is now past the time to rise. Deep Prussian blue eyes peered up at the ceiling for like the millionth time that morning. It's not like he was asleep in the first place, after all, he was awake some thirty minutes ago. Judging by the look at the window it was late in the morning; the sun had already forced its way into the house through the somewhat thin blue curtains. In the large lavish room, the man untangled himself from the sheets that where restraining him, as if to urge him to lie for just a couple minutes longer, none the less he got up and walked into the bathroom.

He wiped away the cooling vapor that attached itself to the cabinet mirror. The droplets of water that clung to his dark chocolate hair dripped down into the sink as he leaned over it and started brushing his teeth. Glancing back at the small white clock on the wall, he exited and went to the closet. Selecting a white shirt and a pair of black slacks- sling both over his shoulders- he set out the ironing table. It wasn't his favorite task of the day, but it was a force of habit that made him continue it well after his high school years. Ironing itself wasn't bad; he would have to say that it was the smell of the steam that made it 'bad'.

Folding back the enormous blanket and tucking in it's corners he once again inspected the room for any displaced objects. Seeing that there was nothing amiss he then made his way down the long hall to another room, carefully opening the door and peering inside. In short the room inside was a chaotic mess of books, crayons, candy wrappers, and various articles of clothing laying about on the floor. After skillfully maneuvering his way around Heero sat down next to the figure on the bed, "Manami…" He shook the small lump on the bed gently.

"Hrm…" The lump mumbled shifting side to side. A little brown head popped out from underneath the covers and looked at him with dazed violet-blue eyes. "Papa?"

"It's time to go. Come on now…" He murmured sitting the child up right she snuggled closer to her father, burying her face into his shirt. She liked the way her father smelled, a hint of spice and something akin to a sent of crispness. "We're going to be late." Her father said again, he shook the small child again after seeing that she had fallen asleep.

"Ok…ok I'm getting up." She said not moving from the warm envelope that her father's arms made.

"…Mama's waiting." The sentence softly spoken, as for a second the Prussian Blue turned into a deeper one. At that the child woke almost instantly and out of bed into her closet.

He watched as she walked out and into her bathroom, then stood up and began to pick up the mess on the floor. He placed the fairytale books on their shelves, stacked the doodles on the small white table, and put the markers into their box. It was then he noticed a folded paper on her nightstand, picking it up he could see three faces smiling up at him. 'Papa, Manami, Mama.' Labeling at the bottom of each face. A blur ran past him grabbing the piece of paper.

"I'm not done with this!!!" She said with a pout and hid it behind her back. "I want to show it to mommy first!"

He looked at his daughter for a moment then nodded and said, "Alright, are you ready then?"

Manami nodded and tugged on her father's shirt as he turned to leave. She lifted her hands up to him indicating that she wanted him to carry her. "Aren't you getting a little bit too old for this?" She shook her head giving her dad the best puppy eyes she learned from Uncle Duo.

"No." She answered quickly and reached out for him again. Her papa smiled at her and picked Manami up then began walking down the hallway. Manami was always proud of her papa, everyone who knew of him spoke out of great respect for him after all he is THE Heero Yuy. But as for mommy...only Papa and his friends talk about her. In most of the picture frame that are scattered around the house there only three people- Mama, Papa, and herself. There are times where she would see Papa stare at the photos for a long time...and for a short period of time in her life she thought mama was a bad person. The sudden woosh of cold air hit her cheeks and ruffled her father's hair as the white front door was opened. This caused the child to shift her interest to the unruling strands of dark brown and hidden strands of silver. She loved her father's hair, it was thick and always fun to play with- but recently papa has gotten some white in it- though it's not as much as Uncle Zechs... She frowned. Uncle Zechs doesn't really have gray hair-it was more of a really white blond…does that mean he had always been old? Or was his hair jus- ack there's no use to think about it so early in the morning.

Most of her uncles didn't have much gray hair though; after all they are only thirty…something. Papa was currently thirty-five and his birthday is coming up too. She remembered since Papa always goes with Mama for a whole entire day, then when he comes home they eat at a BIG restaurant. Hrm…today they where going to eat too…wonder where…. And slowly the child went back to sleep.

Heero looked behind to see his little nine and a half year old dozing off again; it was late in the morning but still was a Saturday- he'll let her sleep a little bit longer. The clam silence that surrounded the car was peaceful...not like years ago. Heero sighed. It's been ten long years- actually today was the tenth anniversary January 6th, and once again it was a beautiful day. Funny how it seems just like yesterday that his life changed forever even though he himself did not realize it. Yes it's been along ten years.

IJ-UIFSF-JU'T-CFFO-BXIJMF…TPSSZ!

17 years ago

Heero Yuy was never the one to follow rules, but he wore on the black pants, button up the white shirt, and wore the annoying navy blue tie. He woke up every morning at exactly 6:30, never later; only earlier. After having breakfast in the grand dinning room he would get into his car and drive to school. He would walk up the ancient stone steps to the prominent high school a good half an hour before the bell actually rung. Yes an average day of the one and only Heero Yuy.

"Sup' million dollar boy?" A voice spoke up from above the brick stairway entrance. Up sat a teen clad in the same uniform, his bright violet mischievous eye twinkled at Heero. The boy threw back the thick chestnut colored braid to his back as he stood up and jumped off his resting spot on to the steps next to Heero.

Heero motioned a small nod as a greeting and the two turned as another member of their infamous group made his presence known.

"Oh, good morning." A more reserved voice called from the very front of the red- gray bricks. An angelic face and bright baby blue eyes stared up at them with a small smile as in one arm carried a briefcase and the other more paper work. If it wasn't for the fact that the voice and stature was positively male, then Quatre could have passes for a girl with flying colors. Quatre jogged up the steps to catch up with them – his cheeks and nose now red from the cold, small puffs of visible white air came from his mouth as he spoke, "Well it's great being back to school again."

"You're kidding right?" Duo asked as he looked at the shorter one with a bewildered look. "You don't like basking in the sun and hanging out with cute chicks?"

"Unlike you, Duo, some of us have work all over summer and besides…I get sunburned easily." Quatre answered with a serious voice yet his eyes betrayed him.

BONG….BONG…

The haunting reverberation fell on them as three sets of eyes looked up at the bell tower. With a sigh Duo grimly followed the two ahead of him. A high pitch squeal caused him to look up and another mischievous smirk formed on his face. A group of girls strolled down the hallway, clearly looking at them with lusty filled eyes. He didn't pay attention to his friends around him but he could tell that they knew what the group in front of them wanted. Just as the two parties approached each other a small unfortunate soul stumbled across the 'stage'. He could feel the imaginary teardrop behind his head like he saw in many anime shows. "Ok…it's an old trick in the book to get attention…but…she got it." Duo thought as he watched Heero approach her.

Heero was not surprise when he entered school and already THIS particular group of females waited for their arrival. The unexpected was when a small girl came out of no where and tripped in front of them. Somehow this was the most realistic fall he had seen in awhile, he picked up the small glasses at his feet and handed to her. With her books in one arm and a quick bow she was off. Heero dismissed the girls in front of him and went straight to class- not wanting to endure the boring lecture that will come if he was late. He was sure Duo and Quatre felt the same as they parted at the elevator. "Room 567G" Heero eyed the door with the labeled number on it. He entered and almost immediately the chattering on the other side stopped- then flared up again. Eyes that followed him, eyes that he knew would hold want or hate, he had seen enough through his years to know and chose to just simply sit down and get wish the year was over with.

The professor cleared his throat, fixed his bottle-looking glasses and with trembling hands, wrinkled from age picked up a laser pointer from the table; he turned to the students and smiled. He was dressed in a lab coat-clean white and freshly ironed- a simple gray vest, white collared shirt inside and brown slacks. Yes, this year the infamous Heero Yuy was in his class, not that he was afraid or anything, but Yuy was regarded as 'special' among the teachers after all Heero Yuy's great grandfather DID help build the school at one point in the distant past. Although both parents are dead Heero Yuy still held power over this school. The professor twitch his gray mustache in slight annoyance as his memory returned to the conversation the staff had before the beginning of the year. It made him angry that this particular student can receive special treatment just because of his family's name. "No matter, it won't change my teaching methods. What the students earn; they receive…it's almost time for me to retire." He gave a long sigh, already he was tired. Well only a couple more hours to go. "Welcome to a new year students. I am Professor Jacob; you all know what the class is and what I am expecting of you. I am not a hard teacher-it is you who will determine your future-what you earn at the end of this semester is what you earned. There will be no change in that grade. Now let's begin."

Heero watched with half closed eyes from his seat in the back as the students began to pick out their lab partners for the semester. The green colored box was passes around till it reached to him, on the scratched piece of paper a name was scribbled on. "Hotaru Tomoe." "Who?" He muttered to himself. He hated pairing up with someone, pass experiences left him with bad turn outs and bad grades.

"If you don't know who your partners are please come forward and I'll help you." The professor said as if on cue. Heero picked up his books and went to the front handed the paper to the elderly man. "Hotaru Tomoe? Ms. Tomoe?"

A small figure stepped up behind him, "Ah there she is." The professor said and handed them the procedure list for the lab. Heero looked at the girl next to him, she was small- her head only came up to his chest. Long black hair left down to her waist it was a simple cut, she looked like she didn't go out into the sun much- but then again it's winter time. As far as he could tell was that she was rather bland in the blue and white uniform. They sat next to each other and she took out several blank papers out of her folder, next came the pencil and eraser all laid out neatly. Heero glanced over the lab-it was quite simple really, "Wonder if she can keep along…" Hotaru sat next to him quite and waiting, somehow she seemed very familiar. Heero couldn't pinpoint it but he had defiantly met her somewhere. "Um…" She said softly, "We should start." Heero nodded and picked up some of the materials that the paper indicated. He handed her a pair of gloves, "Here."

She looked at him, and almost instantly he was drawn into the dark depths of amethyst eyes. Sadly it lasted a mere second before she turned away a soft flush appearing on her cheeks. "Thank you." She said more forcefully obviously trying to cover up her embarrassment, she fidgeted with her glasses a bit as her eyes scan the paper. It was the glinting glasses that made the light bulb go off- she was the girl from earlier. "Huh…who would have thought." Heero glanced over the girl surprised to actually see her already starting, neat little penciled marks on her sheet. "Well at least she's not like them…" he looked over his shoulder to see a group of girls just mindlessly staring at him leaving their partners to do the work. Maybe this semester won't be that bad like he thought it would be.

*7*17*23*6

She pulled the light jacket closer to her body as the September winds blew by shuffling the crisp orange red autumn leaves around her. Depthless amethyst darted about searching for the bus that was already 5 minutes late. Today had been an awful day from the start- she was late for class, the bills are due, she was going to be late for work for the second time this month and lastly...today she bumped into HIM. Embarrassingly she tucked a stray strand of hair away, blushing slightly. "Stupid, you practically flung yourself at him…" She sighed and looked up as she heard a familiar engine come within hearing distance. Already as it came to a stop she could see that the bus was packed with people within. Hotaru boarded the bus dreading the trip across town and as predicted she was squeezed in between people; being short did not help the matter at all. As the bus came to life she was shoved roughly against an older man. "Sorry." She mumbled and tried to maintain her balance throughout the whole trip.

Hotaru never intended to draw attention to herself in school. Quiet as she may be trouble seems to stick to her no matter how hard she tried to avoid it. It wasn't her fault that her glasses decided that they've been through enough abuse and decided today of all days to fall apart on her along with so much things that needed to be taken care of, she under estimated little piece of trash on the floor. As soon as her foot applied pressure on it, the darn paper slipped out from under her and she fell with a little crash on the over polished floor. Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, and Quatre Winner were the last people on her mind. They were a dangerous crowd. Hotaru was fully aware of how popular and rich these boys are, what influences they had on the entire school and if they were crossed what would happen to the person who set them off. It was better to avoid them above anything else. It was just her luck that the last people on earth she wanted to bump into WERE the people she bumped into. Life sucks.

She nearly missed her stop again, being that it was so noisy in the bus and crowded too. It took awhile for her small frame to be able to wiggle out of the bus. She let out a breath as she stood in front of the diner she was employed at- loud music poured out of the open doors as rowdy men inside loudly threw insults at each other, the bright blue and pink neon signed that spelled out Al's Diner buzzed as it tried to sputter to life. Hotaru hurried into the back employee room as the train from overhead drowned out the men with its long screeching clashes of metal wheels upon steel tracks. The light blub that hung over head swung while the vibration from the train shook the diner; she banged her locker open and threw in her pack, shedding the light jacket at the same time. Changing in the dark shadows as the blub swung around buzzing every so often flickering leaving her in shadow every few seconds. The uniform was simple a red- striped skirt and a white collared shirt. Hotaru redid her hair and ran outside grabbing the electronic notepad from its holder on the shelf and walked out to the front. As she past the kitchen she nodded a hello to the cook and got a smile in return. She slipped the notepad into her pocket and went right to work. Even though this was considered a family place only men came around. Off duty security guards have occupied most of the space in the diner- not that they helped in keeping the place from erupting with numerous random fights or do they intervene when the female workers are harassed.

"It's about time you showed up." An older girl whispered as her amber eyes darted towards the table to the left. "They're back." Hotaru didn't need to look back to know the regular customers of the diner. They were a rowdy group of young men, all "friends" of the boss and deserve "special" treatment. They were rude, perverted and always left with at least something broken. She glanced at the small chicken shaped clock on the wall- it was 6: 44.

"Only four more hours…" She sighed.

"Don't look so blue, sweetheart." Martin, the cook, said as he handed her a steaming dish of steak and cheesed potatoes. "Today's pay day. You should get yourself something nice."

Hotaru smiled at him, "Can't. I gotta pay the bills Mar, what good is a nice outfit if I'm sleeping on the streets?"

"You can sleep at my place babe! But you're gonna to have to work for your stay if you know what I mean." A slurred voice shouted over the counter.

"Tsk. Sorry Joe I already have a job." Hotaru placed the order in front of him. Turning to Martin she rolled her eyes. "When is this day going to be over?"

When her shift ended she packed some food into containers, paid for it and left out the back door. As she walked further away from the diner her pace quicken to catch the last bus of the day. She sat down at the back in the corner leaned her head on the window and waited until she reached her destination. Hotaru rode on the bus for quite some time before it came to her stop, not that she mind, at night there are hardly any riders. The dark street of her neighborhood greeted her with small lights flickering along the sidewalk and lone dog barks somewhere nearby. Hotaru opened the black steel gate to the owner's backyard- inside there was another smaller shabbier house- here was where she lived with her father.

The lights inside were already on, signaling to Hotaru that her father was still awake. Even in the dim lighting she could tell that the paint where peeling off the walls on the outside, and there where some small cracks here and there. Vandals have managed to creep into the backyard again; the spray paintings on the wall had her sigh warily. "I have to fix those before it rains again." She mentally tallied the expenses. "Luckily this time it isn't another broken window."

"I'm home…" She announced as she opened the door and a warm gush brushed at her face. The door creaked open and she quietly closed it behind her after jimmying the keys out of the lock. Hotaru set her navy blue jacket by the door and removed her worn out tennis shoes.

"I'm in here." Her father's quiet voice came from the other room. Soft chuckling and papers being swept away was heard "Not like I can go anywhere."

"Hi Papa, I brought home some noodles today." One of the few quirks about working at a diner was that she got discounts on food. Martin is one of the few who knows she lives with her father, so he tends to give her some extra helpings. She placed the food on the low table; her father looked up from a small mattress spread out on the living room floor. He lifted his hand up and waved at her.

"Welcome home honey." The former Dr. Souichi Tomoe had an air of youthfulness about him. Despite having natural white hair he was actually quite young. Unfortunately the talented doctor was struck down with paraplegia. He accepted the warm bowl of greasy noodles with bits and pieces of carrots and broccoli Hotaru handed to him after she divided up the meal. "How was work today?" He asked as she sat on the floor next to him.

"Mm-" Hotaru slurped from her small container. "It was the same. I mean work at the post office is pretty boring dad." She wiped her oiled lips. "But I might have to find another job, we're getting a little bit behind this month. I heard the diner near there is hiring."

"A diner...isn't sort of rowdy?" He asked. "Besides, the post office is already keeping you late after hours."

"Sorry dad, it's not like we really have much of a choice in the matter-"

"I'm sorry Firefly." Dr. Souichi looked down at his legs. "If I wasn't-"

Hotaru sighed; she touched her father's hand. "Dad you better eat. It's getting cold. I'm going to shower and get some homework done kay?" The doctor nodded.

Life hadn't always been this hard. Her father was a renowned doctor and saved many lives. All but one…because of such incident he had trouble finding and keeping jobs thanks to the media. He had worked himself nearly to death. Midway through her sophomore year in high school her father suffered a massive stroke rendering him paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors told her that things will get worst, his muscles are deteriorating. Her father was dying in front of her and there's not much she can do.

Medical bills started to pile up shortly after he was released from the hospital. She had taken out all of their money to support them. Her father's current employer was not so sympathetic either. The man fired Dr. Souichi on the spot. Hotaru had not other choice but to start job hunting, it was then she found Al's Diner. The owner of Al's Diner was Howard, he offered her a job. Howard was a sleaze bag and his chumps made it harder to find work in the area around them. She grit and tolerate with the treatment all the while lying to her father about a decent job at a far away post office (which turned her down because of her age).

"Homework~." Hotaru set the books on the table and her father peered down at her from the side.

"What are we studying today?" He asked.

"Well my lab partner has the other half…and I…" Hotaru picked up her biology book. "Sorta need help?"

"Let's get started then." The Doctor smiled as Hotaru scrambled to get the things closer to her father. Late that night father and daughter slept with an open math book between them as soft rain lightly drizzled outside.

AN: Philosophy 150 killing me. While taking a break for the convention, I decided to combine the two chapters after I read it. I'm nearly done with Ch2 (formerly 3) it'll probably be up a couple days after Anime Expo is over. Did anyone else go?