Cotillion

The car ride in the family's black mid-size SUV to the Winner mansion was eerily quiet. Heero didn't mind it much, as it was rare to get a quiet moment lately, but he knew a lot of it was due to his dear daughter sulking, which meant it wouldn't last long.

The moment Relena had shared the news of entering her daughter into this season's batch of debutantes, Zerina had set her foot down in what was probably her biggest tantrum yet in her sixteen years of life, including the time when she was a toddler and had become enraged her favorite Uncle Zechs had told her he was moving back to Mars. Unlike that time, however, Relena didn't change her mind as her brother had done. In fact, she had made it very clear what her expectations were and refuse to cave in to her daughter's screaming.

So now his daughter was sitting in the front seat, her arms crossed over her light pink cocktail dress she was forced into wearing, her dark hair pulled back by a sparkly white headband, pearls adorning her neck, and the angriest look he'd ever seen on her face. Her bare feet were propped up on the dashboard in what he assumed was the best act of defiance she could come up with at the moment, her toenails painted a deep black to match her mood. He was slightly surprised to see that Relena had even managed to get Zerina to put a bit of makeup on, although it wouldn't be noticeable to someone who'd never met the diplomat's young daughter before.

All hope for a tranquil drive was smashed to pieces when Zerina opened her mouth to state in her most low toned voice," I hate you."

Heero bit back the urge to growl in annoyance and kept his eyes on the road. "I had no choice."

"She couldn't have threatened you with much," she shot back.

He raised an eyebrow at that and glanced at her sideways with his eyes. "You know as well as I do that your mother doesn't half ass anything."

Zerina snorted and glared out the front window. "You're such a coward."

He sighed and actually looked at her for that comment, despite her avoiding making eye contact. "Considering your recent behavior, I don't think you have much of a say here."

He watched as she bit her lower lip in irritation, proving his words were accurate enough to falter her mood. His eyes darted back to the road as he tried to focus on his driving. He enjoyed the momentary lapse in conversation before she started up again, this time trying to bargain with him instead.

"You know, we both aren't really into this. She doesn't have to know if we don't go." Her voice was almost hopeful with anticipation that he'd agree with her.

He let a small smile slip at the mere idea of defying his wife, but he shook his head. "You forget that Dorothy is running this thing. She'll be getting back to your mother on every detail of today's events, both good and bad."

Zerina grumbled at that, having indeed forgotten that small fact. "I don't even get why she's pushing for this so much. She didn't have to do Cotillion. Why am I being forced into this?"

"Your mother was busy doing other things when she was your age. Like avoiding another galactic war." He took note of the scenery, their vehicle getting closer to the street to turn down that would lead up to the massive Winner Estate.

As he slowed the car at a four way stop, he took the time to look Zerina in the face, making sure that she was actually looking back at him for the next thing he was about to say. "She didn't get to do a lot things that other kids her age did. She had to watch her father die in front of her, take up his position in government, fight OZ and the Romafeller Foundation, push for disarmament, protect the world from another war, and basically missed out on anything a normal teenage girl experiences."

He reached his right hand out and rested it on Zerina's crossed arms, looking at her tentatively. "Is it really that bad for you to tough this one out for her sake and just let her have this one thing?"

Zerina made a face at her father's words, not wanting to give in to the argument that she never did anything her mother wanted, because deep down inside, she knew this statement was true. Outside of punishments, Zerina was pretty much free to do as she pleased. Her parents had set the limits at not hurting anybody, not destroying anything, and no interference with her education.

She and her mother had very little in common and practically zero shared interests. Failed attempts at ballet, learning new languages, any sort of interest in politics, fighting with her words instead of her hands; these were all things her mother had tried desperately to find some sort of bond with her only daughter, but nothing had so far stuck. It was almost pathetic to realize how much more like her father she and her younger brother truly were.

Zerina let out a big sigh and loosened her crossed arms slightly. "Why did you have to give in to her so easily?" she responded grumpily instead. She focused her eyes back outside the window as her father made the right turn down the narrow street towards the Winner Mansion and forced back the bit of anxiety that had risen in her chest as she realized just how much closer they were to their destination. She really wasn't looking forward to this. She just hoped that there wasn't anybody she already knew there besides Tetra. That would make things way easier. There were quite a lot of snobby girls at her school.

Heero was surprisingly smirking at her question and reached out to pat her shoulder gently. "I had the unfortunate choice of either dealing with you or your mother's anger." He slowed the vehicle to turn up the long driveway that lead to the front of the mansion. "You, my angel, will eventually be leaving to college in about two years." He stopped the car as one of the many valets Dorothy had strangely hired for this minor event stood in the middle of the driveway and made a stopping motion with his right hand towards them.

Heero put the car in park, taking advantage of the pause, and focused his eyes on his teenage daughter. "I, however, will be with your mother until, as our wedding vows morbidly stated, death do us part." He raised an eyebrow at her. "I think you can see why I made my decision."

Zerina allowed herself a small smile and rose up straighter into her seat, understanding but still not willing to relent her anger towards him. "You'll be questioning that decision over the next two years, Father, and wonder if maybe you were right in your choice."

Heero laughed as he lowered the driver's side window to speak with the worker who had stepped over towards them. "You wouldn't be a Peacecraft if you didn't make my life a living hell at least twice a week," he said lovingly.

He turned his attention to the younger man standing by and raised his eyebrows in question. "What's with the roadblock? Dorothy always lets us park in front of the mansion."

The younger red haired man seemed taken aback by the question, the many other guests not second guessing his job. "Mrs. Winner has requested that all potential debutantes park their vehicles around the back so as to avoid the front of the house due to a massive remodel going on. She would also prefer the valets to handle the task since she doesn't want a repeat of New Year's."

Heero's face fell and paled slightly at the mention of the last holiday party at the Winner home, and nodded stiffly as he unbuckled his seat belt to get out, trying to ignore his daughter's choked laughter as they exited the vehicle.

After handing off the keys to the red vested valet, he turned towards Zerina and pulled her close to him as they followed the marked path that lead to the back of the mansion.

"I don't know why you're laughing. That whole fiasco was your fault," he muttered fiercely in her ear.

She smiled daintily at him as she patted his arm like he had done to her earlier in the car, though her gesture was more of a condescending nature. "Nobody got hurt, daddy. And Samael was also involved, if my memory serves correctly." Her smiled widened as she took in her father's narrowed eyes at the mention of the second oldest Maxwell child, his annoyance for the boy well known. "He was also the driver. Tetra and I were merely trying to stop him"

Heero rolled his eyes and glanced around at the few other girls and their mothers who were walking along the path, hoping none of them were overhearing this horrible conversation. "By telling him to step on the gas and crash the car into the fountain?"

Zerina slowed her steps and bit her lower lip in consternation. "I already told you, I said for him to step on the gas before we got close to the house. He didn't listen and..." she trailed off as her father stopped to raise his eyebrow at her, making it clear he didn't want her to continue. She sighed and looked down at her now heeled feet, mumbling," Sorry. I keep forgetting we have the nondisclosure agreement on that."

Heero took in his daughter's guilt ridden expression and softened quite a bit, as he always did when it came to her, and let out a breath of defeat. "All I ask is that you please make friends with someone other than the Maxwell boys."

She giggled at his worried tone and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. "Well, next time don't raise me with the hell raisers if you don't want me to end up like them."

He let out a wistful sigh as they drew closer to the back of the mansion. "I didn't. That was your mother's decision to keep you kids together."

They shared a small laugh as they reached their destination, the large stone steps that lead up to the huge doorway of what Zerina remembered as the East wing of the mansion. The lady of the house was standing by, her signature smirk gracing her features as she greeted the women and future debutantes walking through.

When her eyes landed on the father daughter pair ascending the steps towards her, the smirk turned into a genuine smile. "Ah, if it isn't the illustrious Mr. Yuy and the young Eva Peacecraft. How wonderful it is to see you two here together."

Zerina greeted her aunt with an equally large smile, noticing her father didn't do the same. "Always a pleasure, Aunt Dorothy," she said with an exaggerated grandness in her voice and a twirl of the hand.

The smirk returned to the older blonde's face and she reached out to hug one of her dearest nieces. "Suck it up, young lady and deal with it," she uttered in Zerina's ear and the young girl giggled. As she straightened her posture, she stole a glance at Heero and rolled her eyes at his obvious displeasure. She motioned inside down the hallway. "The meet and greet will be in the small ballroom. I trust that you two still know the way." She raised her eyebrows to Zerina, adding pointedly, "Tetra is already in there, handing out name tags."

Zerina nodded her acknowledgment and inwardly shook her head, sympathetic towards her best friend's plight, the menial job clearly some sort of punishment, and started down the hallway without her father.

Dorothy turned towards Heero and wrapped him into a light embrace, his arms actually coming up in polite response. "You really will do just about anything for her, won't you?"

Heero snorted at the question as he pulled back and looked to his wife's longest friend. "She's almost six months pregnant. You act as if I had any choice."

Dorothy laughed softly at his response and stepped to the side to give him room to pass through. "Oh, well as long as you're aware..."

Heero simply smirked in response and continued on his way, glancing down to see how far his daughter had gotten from him. *Just a couple of hours and then we're out of here.*

oxXXxo

"Tetra!" Zerina practically threw herself into her best friend's arms, easily ignoring the dirty looks from the nearby women that her loud high-pitched shriek elicited.

Tetra Winner, dressed in a similar style dress as Zerina's, but in a dark forest green shade, turned at the sound of her name and smiled widely when she recognized her friend and returned the hug with equal fervor. "Oh, god, Z, where have you been? I'm dying here!"

Zerina pulled back slightly and took a moment to glance around the small ballroom at the other mothers and daughters assembled around, already grouping themselves into little cliques. "You would not believe the argument my mother and I had over the vid phone. She insisted I wear this stupid pink dress, instead of the black one I picked out." She put her hands up, making quotation marks with her fingers on both hands as she mimicked Relena's soft yet stern voice. "Black is for evening wear, darling, and formal events." She stepped back and rested her head on the shorter girls bare shoulder. "I hate this so much."

Tetra hummed her support and patted her friend on the head softly. "At least you have me here to go through it with you."

Zerina nodded in agreement and looked to the stack of name badge stickers her friend held in her white gloved hands. "What, no plastic pin tags this time? Your mother doesn't usually cut back like this," she asked in confusion as she pulled part of the pile away from her.

Tetra gave a slight smirk, but also rolled her eyes at the question. "Daddy put her on a budget this time. With the front getting redone and this whole thing apparently being some extra special event, he really put his foot down. I was surprised she gave in so easily. She must have owed him big time for something."

"I'll say," Zerina agreed as she straightened up, flipping through the stack as she searched for her or her father's name. "What's with the front remodel anyway? The fountain wasn't that damaged." She had deliberately chosen to ignore the comment about the event being "extra special" as she figured it had to do with the added participation of the two former pilots daughters and nothing more. She was also happy to note that she didn't recognize any of the names she came across in the stack so far.

There was a look of annoyance on her best friend's face as she gave a small growl of disapproval. "You know my mom. Once the fountain was repaired, the rest of the house didn't match. She really went all out on it too. My dad said she couldn't have a new house and a big party at the same time. So she chose to put the majority of the money into the remodel." She watched the next few guests wander in, not offering to hand them the proper identification, choosing to parlay her duties in exchange for much needed talk time with her only friend. "She's been sticking to it so far, so I guess that's good."

Zerina nodded at that as she traded the stack in her hand for the one in Tetra's, not finding her name yet. "I gotta say, your mother can be quite devious when she wants to be." Her lips twitched into a half smirk on her face as she slowly leafed through the sticker name tags. "It's one of the things I admire most about her, actually."

Tetra frowned at that and turned her head to look at Zerina on her left. "What do you mean?"

Zerina looked up from her hands and stared at Tetra in minor confusion. "What do you mean what do I mean?"

Tetra stared at her, her aquamarine eyes holding an edge of worry. "Why'd you say my mother was being devious?"

Zerina was moderately surprised her dearest friend hadn't caught what was going on and gave a small laugh at her reaction. While she was the product of two of the most arguably greatest strategic minds in the universe, Tetra Winner had only inherited her mother's sharp wit and beauty, while taking after Quatre greatly, right down to his gentle, but somewhat naive nature. It was this automatic positivity and kindness that had endeared the older blonde to Zerina so much.

Zerina let out a soft sigh and smiled lightly at Tetra. "Renovation projects tend to exceed their budgets. Something always comes up. She can very easily say that a contract changed, or an item they wanted is no longer available and will need more funds. But knowing your dad's lack of interest in fixing basic home structures, he's not going to take the time to go over it with her and will let her handle it. And your mom wins both ways as she'll get the renovation plus the extra money she wanted to begin with."

Zerina watched her as friends expression changed through a series of emotions, ranging from minor disbelief to anger, slight sadness, and then reluctant acceptance.

Tetra closed her eyes and shook her head, going over this revelation over and over in her mind, She finally opened her eyes to stare at Zerina in irritation. "Of course you would figure that out. Great evil minds think alike, after all."

Zerina feigned offense and placed a hand over her chest in mock pain. "Why, Tetra Winner, I think that knife hurt more going through the front than it would have going in my back!"

They giggled together for a few minutes, before remembering where they were and what they were supposed to be doing. With breaths of defeat, they glanced back at their hands and went back to rifling through the name tags.

"So, why are you on sticker duty, T?" Zerina asked, not looking up from her pile. "Forget to clean your room again?"

Tetra gave an unladylike snort. "Ha! If only!" She paused as a very familiar looking pair entered the ballroom from the secondary set of doors towards the back. "I told her that I didn't need to learn social skills and stupid dances, because I already have friends I can trust and rely on, and none of that even matters when I'm in a research lab by myself focusing on trying to find cures for diseases."

Zerina stopped when she found her fathers name tag and lifted it up out of the pile. "Sounds reasonable. But I'm guessing this punishment was to teach you how to speak to new people anyways?" She grimaced when she saw her real name, Eva, listed on the sticker tag beneath her dad's.

Unlike her own parents who had resigned themselves to addressing Zerina by her middle name after years of fighting, her aunt Dorothy was one of the few people in her life who insisted on calling her by her given first name,. It was only when she was in deep trouble that anybody ever called her Eva.

She pursed her lips and pulled up the sticker from the backing, slapping it over her left breast onto the stiff pink chiffon rouching and beading. Her eyes slid over to the right at Tetra, realizing she hadn't answered her question and frowned when she noticed her staring at something off in the distance. "T...?"

Tetra gasped suddenly and turned to Zerina wild eyed, grasping her by the shoulders in a firm grip. "Z, you're not going to believe who just walked in."

Zerina, who just so happened to see the next name in the sticker pile, had already realized the reason for her friend's distress. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Their eyes fell onto the mother daughter pair who were slowly making their way around the ballroom, the older dark blonde woman in a sleek black knee length dress, giving kisses on the cheeks of the other guests, the younger girl, her face a mirror image of her mothers, in a simple deep red dress that flared out at her hips in feather like ruffles, jeweled beading encircling her waist. The look on her face, unlike her mother's, held a sense of superiority, her deep green eyes showing her disdain for the other women near her.

"Eloise," Zerina heard her friend murmur fearfully. "What the hell is she doing here?"

Zerina stared numbly as her nemesis continued making the rounds with her mother, completely unaware of the stares she was receiving from the Peacecraft and Winner girls. "Why would your mother even invite her?" she whispered back fiercely.

Tetra had slowly regained her senses and shook her head, taking the name tags from Zerina's grasp. "Knowing my mother, it's for monetary reasons as well as just to see what would happen with you two in the same room. She always did enjoy a good sparring match." She gave her friend a little nudge with her elbow, trying to wake her from her stupor. "You said it yourself, she's devious. I wouldn't be surprised if she already placed bets with Uncle Duo to see who would win." At Zerina's raised eyebrows, Tetra gave a small laugh. "Oh, please, you know she would bet on you every time. She just enjoys the show that leads up to it."

Zerina's eyes narrowed as the pair met up with Dorothy. "I can't believe my mom didn't tell me."

Tetra gave a small toss of her shoulders. "She probably didn't want you to have a good reason to quit, since you were already fighting with her about it." She smiled at Zerina, her hopeless optimism shining through her aqua eyes. "That is, assuming, she even knew. I can safely say that my mom most likely withheld that information from your mother since, as we already established, she enjoys the show that ensues from these types of situations." She ignored Zerina's annoyed stare and chose to glance back to her mother, who was now leading her bully and her mother towards...

"Why is she taking them to your dad?" she asked loudly, her voice ringing in alarm.

"Because your mother is the devil, T, " Zerina answered, her eyes narrowing further as Eloise's mother seemed to linger on her cheek kisses this time towards her father, and going so far as to hug Heero and grasp his hands with hers.

Eloise seemed just as disgusted with this display as Zerina and had wandered back to one of the younger girls she had greeted earlier.

Tetra was making a face and lifted one of her gloved hands in confusion to motion at the adults, a sincere smile on Heero's face. That man hardly ever did that. "Why the hell is she hanging all over your dad? I mean, women always do that, which is so weird by the way, but he's not even stopping her!"

Zerina thought back to her pregnant mother, and her parents usual acts of affection towards one another, something that only she and her brother were unfortunately privy to, and shook her head. "No," she said confidently. "He's just being polite..." Her brow furrowed at her father's behavior. "But I think he knows her. Very well in fact."

Tetra stared at her in shock. "Did he go to the Academy for the fight? I thought your mom handled that, cuz he was off at work for a few weeks."

Zerina shook her head at the question. "He never talked to El's mom about that."

The two continued to gawk at the adults, before Dorothy stepped away, leaving Heero alone with Eloise's mother. She had finally relinquished his hands, but had settled instead for leaning closer to him, the two sharing a laugh. Zerina's hatred for the day had suddenly grew exponentially, and she couldn't stop her hands from clenching into fists.

Why was her father acting so chummy with her arch enemy's mother? She clearly wasn't a Preventer, as her incredibly thin and delicate looking body showed. And her father never spoke to the secretaries, more from a lack of any need for interaction, since he was usually just called in personally by Ms. Une, Duo, or Master Chang,

Before she could say anything more to Tetra, or approach her father, they were interrupted by the sound of a microphone turning on and Mrs. Winner's high, yet demanding voice instructing the guests to gather round. Zerina made a face and looped her arm within Tetra's as they slowly walked to the front, making a mental note to confront her dad later on the matter. Now, however, she had to focus on her main task: finding a way to get out of cotillion.