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The Portrait

Part 2

"Hello, anyone there?"

Duo let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding when Milliardo's platinum-blond head popped through the hatch in the floor. "Man," he complained. "What are you trying to do, give us a heart attack?"

The older youth frowned slightly at the sight of the raised walking stick in Duo's hands. "Please tell me you were pretending to play golf with that thing and not trying to split open my head?"

With a somewhat sheepish grin Duo finally put the cane back into the corner where he found it. "What are you doing here anyway?" he wanted to know. "Come to check up on us?"

"I was driving past here on my way home from work and thought you guys might like some breakfast." Milliardo held up a carrier with two drinks and a couple of paper bags from a nearby fast-food place. "But if you keep being pissy I'll eat it myself." In spite of those words he handed the food to Wufei who then passed one bag on to his friend.

"You are just coming home from work?" Wufei asked. "I thought you were working at that internet café. Don't they close at midnight?"

"That's ancient history. The place doesn't pay enough to even keep the cockroaches in my apartment fed. Once I turned 21 I found myself something a little more… lucrative and classy."

"No kidding, huh?" Duo grinned as he looked the older youth up and down. Milliardo was wearing a white suit with a black shirt and his long hair open.

As the two younger men settled down on one of the old couches and started to unwrap their breakfast Milliardo looked around the attic, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "This stuff really brings back memories. Grandma was still using some of this furniture when I was a kid." With a few steps he walked over to the piano and pulled away the white sheet covering it. "I was wondering where this thing went."

He pulled out the wooden seat and settled down in front of the instrument. After a few quick finger stretches and a couple of warm-up exercises the young man started to play.

"Wow,' Duo mumbled around a mouthful of French fries and breakfast burger. "I had no idea you can play the piano. And you are pretty good, too."

"Grandma used to be a music teacher." Milliardo turned his head and looked back over his shoulder without interrupting his play. "She was already retired by the time I was born, but she was still tutoring kids from home. Naturally, both Relena and I had to take lessons. I hated it as a child, because it cut into my playtime with my friends."

"I never learned to play any instrument, other than the triangle maybe. Sister Helen tried, but gave up soon. I'm totally tone-deaf. What about you, Wufei. You play anything?"

"Recorder and violin." The other youth shrugged. "It was required in our school."

Milliardo closed the lid on the piano and turned around on the seat. "You know, I had no idea how much of my grandmother's things are still up here."

"Yeah we were wondering about that, too." Duo nodded.

"Do you mind taking only a few things out today? Like those broken chairs and the rocker… I think I should talk to my parents about the rest first."

"I don't think we could take everything at once, anyway. I'd need a much bigger truck for that. But what about all those boxes and trunks?"

"I don't even know what's in those." Milliardo somehow managed to hook his foot around a smaller cardboard box and pull it closer. He sliced through the scotch-tape with his car keys and opened it to reveal nothing but old clothes. "Well these can definitely go, too."

The next box he reached for was filled with old photos and albums, some dating back to his father's childhood. "I think we'll have no choice to get through them one by one."

Milliardo checked out a few more boxes and started to sort them into piles, depending on if he thought they should be tossed out or were worth keeping, and once they had finished their breakfast Wufei and Duo were helping him. There were many boxes of old books and more photos, some of them so old that they were beginning to fade.

"Wow!" Duo flipped through a little chest with old, black and white pictures dated around the turn of the century. "Do you have any idea who any of these people in those photos are?"

"Not by just looking at them," Milliardo replied. "But they are probably family, so if I would check the family genealogy I'd probably come up with names to some of those faces."

"Sweet!"

"Maxwell, Wufei…Are you guys up there?" Relena's voice suddenly reached them from the floor below.

"Yes, up here in the attic," her brother confirmed.

The wooden stairs squeaked and moaned as she made her way up and a few moments later first her head and then the rest of her body appeared in the hatch. "So it was your car I saw parked out in front, Milliardo," she greeted her brother. "But what are you doing here?"

"Apparently the same as you." Milliardo gestured at the paper bag with the logo of a nearby bagel shop she was carrying.

"Oh," Relena looked at the bag then back up at her fellow classmates. "So you ate already?"

"Don't worry," Duo assured her with a grin. "There is always room for more. Are there any chocolate chip bagels?"

"Actually, there are," Relena tossed him the bag. "I figured you for a sweet tooth, Maxwell."

"What's with the outfit?" Wufei asked as he looked the young girl up and down. Relena was wearing a pair of paint-stained coveralls, steel toe boots and a plaid flannel shirt. "Are you planning to help?"

"Don't be silly. I have more important things to do."

"More important? Let me guess…" Duo's grin grew even wider. "You need to pick up the Indian, the policeman and the cowboy and then…you're going to the YMCA…YMCA." He suddenly started to sing and dance to the village people song.

Relena rolled her eyes. "Wufei, will you slap him for me?"

"With pleasure."

Still laughing about his joke, Duo tried to dodge, but he wasn't fast enough and his friend smacked him in the back of the head.

"Wait, isn't today that Habitat for Humanity thing you were talking about?" Milliardo asked.

"Oh, you actually do occasionally listen when I tell you something?" his sister gave him a little smirk.

"I always listen," he countered with a grin. "I just pretend not to."

Relena gave a lighthearted huff. "Will you walk me back to my car?"

"Sure."

As the two siblings left the attic Duo gazed after them thoughtfully. "Relena working at Habitat for Humanity; who would have thunk?"

"Actually, come to think of, she also helped organizing the "Kicks for Kids" event at my dojo last month," his friend added. "All the proceeds went to the Children's Hospital."

#

"Miri," Relena asked as she followed her brother down the stairs. "Will you be coming to my Debutantes Ball next month? Mom needs to know how many tickets to order."

"Can I bring a date?"

The young girl hesitated for just a moment. "If it was up to me you could bring anyone you want, you know that Miri, right?"

When Milliardo looked back over his shoulder he was smirking at her. "I was just kidding. Don't worry I wouldn't do anything to ruin your big day. I'll be there, and I'll bring a date; someone even mom and dad would approve of."

"Thanks."

"So, who did you asked to be your escort?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet, Relena admitted. "Mom says I should ask Randolph Baker because we have known each other since kindergarten, but dad thinks Michael Forester might be a better choice since he is taller. It will look better in the pictures, he says."

"Mister Boring or Mister Dull, tough choice really," her brother teased.

"Oh…I know." Relena slipped her arm into her brother's and strolled side to side with him to the front door. "You could escort me. Rebecca's brother is presenting her."

"Yeah, right," Milliardo snorted. "I could also wear that purple blazer I inherited from Uncle Oswald to the next family gathering, but that's not going to happen either. Good try though."

"You are mean," his sister pouted.

"What about that boy in school you have an eye on; why don't you just ask him?"

"Heero?" Relena hoped desperately that she wasn't blushing. "I couldn't. What if he said 'no'? I could never face him again. Besides, how did you know about Heero anyway?"

"I didn't," Milliardo grinned. "I just figured there had to be someone in school you have a crush on."

"You!"

The young man laughed softly as she tried to kick him from behind. "That was not very ladylike, Miss Debutant," he chuckled.

#

By the time Milliardo made it back up to the attic Duo and Wufei had moved aside a few more broken chairs and sorted out a couple more boxes filled with clothes.

"What about this one?" Wufei gestured at a smaller trunk beneath the window. "It has a lock."

"Try one of these." Milliardo tossed him a bundle of keys that had been hanging on a hook.

There were at least three dozen keys, but most of them were too large to fit the small lock on the chest. After eliminating those, Wufei was left with little more than a handful. The first one he tried didn't work, but when he inserted the second key and turned it he could hear a little click when the lock sprung open. The first thing he saw when he lifted the top, was a picture, the painting of a young, beautiful woman in a very old-fashioned wedding dress with a large hat and a young man in a black or dark grey tail coat.

"Seems like your grandparents' wedding painting. Amazing how much your grandfather resembles you, Milliardo."

"I want to see." Duo had to get up onto his toes to look over Wufei's shoulder. "Wow, he is right. It looks totally like you, well except for the hair. I guess if you ever plan on cutting yours, this is what you will look like. Even his age seems to be about the same as yours."

"Let me see that." Milliardo reached out and Wufei carefully passed him the oil painting. As he looked at it closely the young man found the artist's signature in the lower left corner, along with the year when the picture was painted. "1902. I thought so, it's not my grandparents. Grandpop wasn't even born till 1905, so I suppose this could be his parents then."

Beneath the wedding picture was another, somewhat smaller painting; a portrait of a young man with ginger-blond hair and blue eyes. "Who is he?" Duo wanted to know as he picked up the painting.

Milliardo shook his head. "No idea. Maybe a relative from my grandmother's side. He can't be a Peacecraft."

"Why not?"

"It looks like he is wearing a uniform of sorts. My family has always been pacifistic, no one ever enrolled into the military."

"He could have been a sailor," Wufei pointed out. "They were wearing uniforms even on civilian ships."

"That's true." Milliardo admitted as he studied the paining closely. The young man was quite handsome, and probably only a little older than him. The painter had done a wonderful job catching the highlights in his hair, his high cheekbones and his rather unique eyebrows. But what fascinated Milliardo most was the color of his eyes, so deep and piercing. It's like he is looking directly at me. I can almost feel those eyes studying me. I wonder who he was.

"What else is in that trunk?" he asked as he set the painting aside very carefully.

"Hmmm…" Duo reached out to push aside a layer of old bunched-up newspapers that probably were meant to protect the content of the chest. That and the fact that the box trunk had been locked, seemed to indicate that it was filled with someone's very precious possessions. Beneath the paper he found a small leather-bound book. The very moment the young man's fingertips touched the soft leather binding he felt a gust of cold air pass over him. He picked the book up and turned his head. "Wufei, close that window, it's freezing outside."

Wufei gave his friend a strange look. "What the heck are you talking about? The window is closed. Look at it; it's not even possible to open it."

"Weird. I could have sworn I just felt some cold wind."

"You are imagining things." Wufei snorted. "So, what do you got there?"

"I'm not sure. Looks like a notebook or maybe a diary of sorts. But it's locked." He turned the book onto its side to show his friend the tiny latch and silvery lock that was holding it closed. But at the very moment as he did so the lock disengaged with a soft clicking sound and the diary open up on him." Wow!" Startled Duo almost dropped the book.

"What now?" his friend asked.

"The lock…it just opened by itself."

"Yeah right." Wufei nearly rolled his eyes. He had been tricked one too many times by his friend to believe this kind of stuff.

"But I swear I didn't do anything. I never even touched it." Duo insisted.

In the background Milliardo chuckled. "Maybe it was the ghost."

"G…ghost?" Duo's head snapped around.

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T.B.C.

Author's Note: