(A?N: Heya! Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! I was ready to give up for a while, but inspired me to keep it going! So now, on with the fic!)
Heero's Prussian blue eyes opened blearily, taking in the familiar surroundings of his room on the Preventers Base.
He became aware of a foreign weight pressing against his chest and was wide awake in seconds, hand wrapping around his Haskell .45 Auto Pistol located on his nightstand.
Heero prepared to empty the clip…but took a pause when he saw it was just Michiru, sprawled in sleep across his front in a pair of blue footy pajamas, sucking her thumb.
He lowered the gun away from her head, setting it back down on the bedside table, then slid the Miniaturized Michiru off his midsection, while being careful not to wake her.
As Heero quickly changed into his trademark green tank (his spandex shorts having been worn to bed), he remembered Noin's words the previous evening; today, Heero would have no help from Relena whatsoever when dealing with Michiru (not that she had helped much to begin with)
Meaning that he would have to recall everything the Vice Foreign Minister had told him about changing diapers, feeding, and such.
Things like quieting Michiru's cries had been easy enough to learn; he, or anyone else for that matter (koff-Quatre-koff), merely had to pick her up and she would stop crying within seconds.
Keeping her entertained was another easy matter; he simply had to sit the child down on his foot and bounce her a little and she she'd be giggling like mad.
Heero discovered this little trick on accident.
He had in fact, been trying to shoo her off so he could walk around the Mess Hall freely.
Heero was almost positive Trowa Barton would never look at him the same way again after that little incident.
The look on his face spoke volumes even if the teen himself had not.
Heero was just thankful it had been Trowa and not that hyperactive chatterbox Duo Maxwell; if Maxwell had been the one to see him try and liberate his leg of the Miniaturized Michiru, he would have had to go into hiding as killing Pilot 2 was out of the question (thank you very little Dr. J)
With a quick stretch of the shoulders, Heero set off to the Mess Hall for an early breakfast.
Quatre rubbed his aquamarine eyes groggily and did all he could to restrain the yawn welling up in his throat and chest.
He was slightly surprised to find, when the drowsy haze cleared, himself staring at the bad rather than lying it and tried his best in his sleep clogged state to recall the events of the night before.
He recalled meeting up with the rest of the Pilots in the Mess Hall with Iria and Miniscule Mitsuki, they had conversed for an hour or so before retiring to their rooms.
Quatre had managed to get Mitsuki to sleep without much fuss and then had gone to bed himself after a quick goodnight to his sister…only to be loudly awakened, what seemed to be only minutes later (it was actually two hours later) by a bawling Mitsuki.
He remembered, quite clearly, falling out of bed, whacking his head on the pointy corner of the nightstand and wondering why he suddenly had three closets.
"That's right." Quatre thought to himself, looking down to view the still sleeping child slumped in his lap, "She woke up with teething pains and I rubbed more rum on her gums and…I must have fallen asleep trying to calm her down."
Quatre carefully rose from the chair, extracted one hand to pull back the covers of his oh, so inviting bed…and laid Mitsuki beneath them.
"As pleasant as that sounds…" Quatre thought, sighing a little as he pulled the blankets up over her, "I need to get moving."
Running his fingers through histhe bed head that was desperately in need of brushing, he let loose the long restrained yawn outside his room as he shut the door.
"I'm on my own today." Quatre murmured thoughtfully to the ceiling as he walked along, "I'm, as Duo would so eloquently put it, the baby of the family. I've never cared for a child in my life."
The ceiling though, seemed to be in no mood to talk to the heir of the Winner Foundation that morning and remained completely silent, offering no helpful advice whatsoever (what a creep; see if I invite YOU to my next Christmas party)
Duo walked hurriedly down the hall, a scorching hot bundle in his bare arms, burning his chest.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn." he grumbled under his breath, "Why OH WHY did I think that her becoming a baby would make her ANY less sick? Can somebody say, 'brain fart'?"
Duo had awakened that morning feeling thoroughly refreshed and found, to his great relief, that Mimiru was still sleeping soundly…
…however, it only took him a moment to notice how unnaturally still she was.
He had paused only to tug on a pair of black jeans before checking on her anddiscovered how pallid she had become.
A quick palm to the forehead was all that was needed to tell Duo that "Mini Mimi", as he had dubbed her,was spiking a very high fever due to negligence on his part.
Even now, Mimiru slept her unnaturally deep slumber as her now tiny body tried to fight off the infection itself as Duo, who had the most experience with children, inwardly swore like a sailor and wondered how he could have forgotten something so crucial.
"Sally, please tell me you had that Page buy baby meds." Duo said as he burst into the Infirmary, making Sally glance up from the tetanus inoculation she was administering.
"Now why would I do something like that?" Sally asked, watching with a twinge of sadistic pleasure as Duo's face drained of color, "I kid, I kid. Third shelf."
Sticking his tongue out at Sally, Duo stalked forward and retrieved the necessary bottle of grape Triaminic while Mini Mimi continued to snooze away, sucking on her pacifier.
"By the way, Maxwell, you may want to check out the second drawer to the left while you're at it." Sally said as she finished doling out the shot, "You're all set Paynter."
"Thank you ma'am." The man known as Paynter said, leaving the Infirmary as Duo opened the indicated drawer.
"A syringe?" he asked quirking an eyebrow.
"Hey, by th' looks of it, she's pretty comfortable right where she is." Sally said, "This way, you won't have to deal with trying to convince a cranky toddler that the meds tastes good." (we all know they don't! yet we were all spoonfed that little lie by our 'rents as kids!MEH! how annoying!)
"Proooooooooobably a good idea." Duo said with a devil-may-care grin, taking a seat in a nearby chair, "Well you're th' doc. How do I do this without, y'know, drownin' her?"
"Aim for the inside of her cheek." Sally said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world (which it's NOT), "SHE will take care of the rest herself."
Trowa watched Duo run down the hall, wondering what his hurry was.
Mikura rode piggyback, not quite awake yet, clutching her teddy by one arm.
"Good morning Quatre." Trowa said calmly, shifting Mikura slightly as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, determined to go back to sleep, no matter what Pilot 3's sleep schedule was.
"G…g…g'm…aawwwwwnin' Twowa." Quatre yawned, apparently on the same wavelength as Mikura right now.
Trowa watched for a moment as Quatre continued on his way to the showers and then turned to make his way to the Mess Hall.
"Good morning Heero." Trowa said mildly, entering the Mess Hall to find Pilot 1 gorging himself with pig parts (he's eating bacon and sausage)
"Hn." Heero grunted through a mouthful of food, motioning for Trowa to take a seat with his free hand as the other was busy stuffing more food in his mouth.
"Thank you." Trowa murmured, sitting down beside the boy who could hack into the most sophisticated of computer systems but couldn't for the life of him tame his hair.
"Heero must be unsure of when he'll eat his next meal because of this whole…incident." Trowa thought to himself, "He's planning ahead…not a bad idea."
The Miniaturized Mikura, arms not even close to making around the belly of her bear, drooped forward in Trowa's lap, finally dozing off in a bowl of oatmeal Heero had half finished and abandoned after remembering to the degree at which he despised the substance.
Rescuing his charge from drowning in the gloppy gunk, Trowa laid her down on an empty table on top of the bear (the toy's bigger than her so it works out) before going to serve himself.
Trowa piled on the bacon and sausage as Heero had done, poured himself a small bowl of oatmeal, mixing it with apples, cinnamon and raisins to disguise it, and inwardly cringed as he bypassed the scrambled eggs (he's not an egg person and neither am I…Duo is tho', but I forgive'm cuz he's cute)
Tray filled to capacity, he turned to return to the table.
Wufei awoke to find a little foot buried in his cheek, Micro Misaki appearing to have kicked him in her sleep.
Cursing in three different languages, Wufei threw his clothes on and was about to storm from the room, when…
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUGH!"
Wufei's skull nearly split open as it said "Hello" to the ceiling, the Chinese teen's martial art's reflexes working against him and sending him careening into the metal surface.
Misaki had awoken with a jolt at the sound of Wufei's loud cursing (light sleeper) and in her terror, began to bawl…sending Wufei spiraling into a dimension of pissed off that one wouldn't think was physically possible.
"If I don't start meditating now…I'LL KILL HER!" Wufei fumed, holding his head, which pounded dully between his hands.
He regulated his breathing and centered his mind, blocking out the horrible sound being emitted by the tiny girl.
"Almost." Wufei thought, pain fading, sound evaporating, "All...most…"
"HEY! CHANG!"
Wufei was hurled back into the land of pain and loudness faster than a bullet leaving a gun.
Duo Maxwell, of course, stood in his doorway, a rather ill looking Mimiru slumped against his shoulder in slumber, sucking a pacifier.
"What do ya think yer doin'?" Duo asked, disbelief in his voice as he stared down at Pilot 5, "Don't tell me you were just gonna leave her like that!"
"No…" Wufei growled ferally, "I was trying…to build up the patience…to deal with her…SO I WOULDN'T KILL HER YOU BÙYÀOLIĂN HÙNZHÀNG! (1) HOW STUPID ARE YOU?"
Mimiru's eyes snapped open and the pacifier fell from her mouth as she let loose a mournful, terrified wail, harmonizing with Misaki.
"Waaaaaaaaaaay t' go, Wufei." Duo said, rolling his eyes as he began to jiggle Mimiru lightly in his arms, "She wasn't gonna be wakin' up any time soon either but noooooooooooooooooooo. So goes THAT dream."
Wufei let loose another growl and stormed over to his bed, snatching Micro Misaki off of it and miraculously, the simple act of picking her up was enough to pacify her.
Duo stooped down, wiped off the pacifier and stuffed it back into Mini Mimiru's mouth, silencing her cries and sending her back to dreamland in seconds.
"Well…that was…easy enough." Wufei said, surprise leaking into his normally even tone as Misaki buried her face in his neck, sucking her thumb.
Duo just shook his head and walked out of the room.
"Socket wrench if you would, J." Instructor H said absently, extending his hand to accept the tool Doctor J handed him.
"My, this is going much faster than expected." Professor G stated composedly, as he worked a screwdriver, "Noin certainly knows how to choose her threats."
"She certainly does." Doctor S muttered grimly, involuntarily shuddering, "Soldering gun if you will, O."
Master O practically shoved the thing through S's head so determined was he to keep his symbol of manhood.
"No need to be so hasty, O." Doctor J chided, "Wouldn't want to die before finishing now would we."
"Speak for yourself, J." Master O snapped, "I would rather die completely intact than die any less of a man than I am now. Drill, H."
"You're not alone, O." Instructor H said smirkingly, "And what's the magic word, O?"
"Please, now give me the damn drill." Master O snarled, taking the electrically powered tool from H's hand as the black haired man snickered.
"If you two are quite finished." Professor G coughed, looking a little impatient, "I hope you realize you two are merely wasting us precious minutes."
Slightly panicked looks filled the men's faces and they redoubled their efforts on the time machine.
"Please let us reach the deadline." Doctor J silently begged, sparks flying as he welded at a furious pace.
"If I'm made a Eunich, I think I shall have to kill myself." Doctor S thought as he frantically used a rivet gun on a sheet Gundanium.
"We stake our MANHOOD, if somewhat unwillingly, ON IT!" All five unwittingly thought as one, "We WILL make that deadline!"
(AN) The early morning hours pass into late morning and noon and the Sugino Quints are wide awake and ready for mischief (well...the four that are up for it are) Fun with Toothpaste, Lunch time, and much, much more. R&R!)
(1) BÙYÀOLIĂN HÙNZHÀNG! - Shameless Son of a Bitch