Title: Hers, Yours, and Mine 2/?
Author: Sony_Mouse (
Pairings: 1+2+1, R+1 (in the past).
Warnings: 1 G-boy is already dead, angst, OOC (Just for the fist part or so).
Disclaimer: Not mine, nor every shall be, well the story is mine, but not the G-Boys
Archive: Gundam Wing Addiction (http://www.geocities.com/fenris_wolf0/)
NOTE: In case you were wondering WHY I called Relena, PEACECRAFT in the last fic and still mentioned that she was married, I did that on purpose. In Royalty your known last name is that of the ruling family NOT that of the married spouse (in the case of a Woman at least). Hence Charles Windsor, William Windsor and NOT William what every the poor Duke's last name is. Either Way for tradition's sake and for the fact it will piss off Duo more, I kept the last name for the kids like they would be taught.
**************************
In Part 1: HERS…
Duo stood up, grabbed the only blanket in the house, his, and made his way over to one of the spare bedrooms. The two kids lay quietly huddled together with dry puffy eyes, softly sleeping in the moonlight. It hurt so much to look at them, but he could hardly tear his eyes away. His breathing started to become haggard, and he realized that he was starting to hyperventilate. Quickly pulling the cover over the small children, he ran out of the room as fast as he could.
Later while lying in his bed, Duo still couldn't get to sleep; he shivered for the rest of the night, but knew it wasn't from the cold.
*********************************
Part 2: YOURS!
Duo woke up the next mourning with very little sleep and a huge headache. At first he thought it might have been from the alcohol, but quickly realized he hadn't drunken anything strong enough to give him one.
The cause was nagging in the back of his mind, but he couldn't place it. While he pondered over this, Duo heard a small voice from the left side of his room. Standing there watching him think, was a small girl with long blond hair and prussian blue eyes.
Her hair was done up in a too familiar sight, with two small parts being braided at the front, and tied up at the back. Her mother's old hair style. It was very badly done, and Duo could tell that she was used to having some servant do it.
As he sat there staring at her, she made a second attempt to get his attention. "Ummm we're kinda hungry…could you make us some breakfast?" She knew it had been a bad questions even before she had asked it."
"I told you where the fridge was yesterday."
The small girl sighed slightly then looked up at Duo with a bit of fire in her eyes. " Well there's nothing in it. You can't starve us out, you know."
Duo was taken aback at how she had a hidden wit to her, but just shrugged his shoulders and grinned. "I can try can't I."
She wanted to say something else, but he stopped her with a look. "Listen, I don't want you two to starve. I honestly thought that that I still had some food left. Guess I haven't eaten in awhile. Anyways, Quatre will be here soon and he can take you to get some food."
"Why won't you?"
"Fine I'll give you some money and you can go to the story to buy yourself something."
"I don't know the way. Why can't you take me."
Duo had been sure that these two were the quiet type last night, but he was starting to rethink that as he heard her endless questions. "I don't want to take you to the store, so just take the money and leave."
"You're afraid to go outside aren't you?" This got Duo really mad and he reached over to his nightstand and threw the money at her. "Will you just GO!" She let out a scream and ran out of the room, leaving Duo to slump back against his bed, the same one he had shared with Heero many years ago.
He didn't have long to think before a rock flew in from outside and hit him on the top of his head. It was the same window he hadn't bothered to fix these past three months.
Picking up the rock so that he could through it outside again, he noticed Quatre standing on his lawn or jungle as it was now, smirking. "How was last night Duo, kids give you any trouble." Duo practically growled at Quatre while he threw the rock straight for him, but Quatre dodged it easily.
"Duo, Duo what am I going to do with you. You should learn some more manners with two kids around."
"You little conniving punk, they are not staying here, so I suggest you take them now."
"No"
"Quatre you are not honestly saying that you're going to leave them with me. Ask them yourself, they're miserable, and it's all because of me."
"I have no doubt that you're making them miserable, but I am sure that your sense of right and wrong will kick in sooner or later, and you will start treating them like little gods. All you need to do is get to know them, I bet you STILL don't even know their names."
"I don't want to get to know them OR know their names, it's probably something like Relena and Heero Jr. I am NOT living with a Relena or a Heero."
"Well, then you're in luck, that's not their names, so now you can have no problem living with them. I brought some food with me, I didn't think you would have anything fit for children, and I also got some videos for them to watch. But please take em out, they need some outdoor activities in their lives, the two are almost as lazy as you are, if you can believe it. Tell 'em I love 'em, and I'll be back soon. Good Luck Duo."
"Wait you-you-you get back here. I'm NOT taking care of them."
Quatre pretended not to hear Duo and reentered his fancy car that was waiting for him. With a little wave out the window he drove off, leaving a screaming Duo in the window.
Duo was about to turn away when he saw a little figure run out of his front porch and grab the bags on the middle of the lawn. She looked up at Duo and grinned, sticking her tongue out at him before she ran back into the house with her prize.
Deciding he needed to know what was going on, he made his way downstairs muttering over and over again. "They're all against me, I swear they're all against me."
*************
By the time he got downstairs, Duo found the two children pouring milk all over his floor, trying to get it into their cereal bowls.
No such luck. Duo wined at the site
"Ahhhhhhh my beautiful dirty floors, what did they ever do to you?" The small girl looked up at him with large willful eyes. "Well you weren't going to help us, and I think the milk would do your floors some good."
"Well sorry for living, some of us didn't get raised with butlers and maids to do our housework."
The girl practically slammed down the milk and glared at Duo. "Neither did we, dad wouldn't let us." She then went on to attempt pouring the milk into the almost empty bowls.
Duo swore to himself and bent over the table to grab the milk away from the girl. She tried to protest but he was stronger than she was. "Here let me do that. I guess you are my guest for today, I could at least try to be nice to you."
Neither the girl of the boy believed at word of it and gave him looks that said as much.
Duo almost smiled at the looks he was now receiving, they were mini-glares their father used to give him. It was almost adorable.
He walked over to the sink and took out an old smelly cloth, which he used to clean up the milk. When everything was cleaner, he poured the bowls full of cereal and then added some milk. He even went so far as to take out some dirty glasses, clean them with his shirt and fill them up with Orange Juice. The girl looked weary but the boy dug happily into his food. Glad that there was something to eat after not having had supper last night.
Duo sat down with a loud thump and tried his best to not glare at the children, it wasn't a smile but it wasn't threatening either.
"So I suppose you have names."
The girl rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah I suppose we do."
"Well then what are they?"
"Since you asked so nicely I'm Elisabeth Peacecraft, and this is Nathaniel Peacecraft."
Duo couldn't help but cringe at not only the formal first names, but also the Peacecraft at the end of them. "And here I was thinking that you two were Yui's kids."
"We are, it's just how it works…"
"Fine, fine, so do you want to know my name?"
"We already know it, Uncle Quatre was yelling it when we first arrived."
"Oh yeah, well I'm Uncle Duo I guess, nice to meet you."
"You're not our Uncle, and I'm not calling you that."
"I am too, and why not?"
Elisabeth gave her "uncle" a funny look before replying. "If you're our uncle how come you never showed up at our birthday parties like Uncle Milliardo, and Uncle Quatre, and the rest?"
The reason was obvious to anyone who knew Duo personally; he didn't want to be there, but also because he had only known about one of the births. As soon as the first child came Duo refused to even speak of Heero. He never even found out if it was a girl or not. But he didn't tell this to them, not that he really knew himself. "Yeah well I was busy Lizzy, and I didn't see you showing up for any of MY birthday parties."
"You never invited me! And don't call me Lizzy. I'm going to be your Queen one day, just like my mother."
The conversation almost turned nasty again, but Nathaniel decided at that moment to accidentally drop his glass, spilling the precious juice all over the unclean table.
For the millionth time that day Duo swore under his breath as he got up to fetch the milk towel to clean up the newly spilled juice. He expected the small child to start crying again, but all he did was sit there and wait for Duo to fetch him some more juice.
" There ya go Nate, Maxwell's own moonshine, otherwise known as homemade Orange Juice."
It wasn't really homemade, it had come with the milk in the bag that Quatre had brought, but little Nate smiled sheepishly none the less. "Hey Lizzy, doesn't this boy ever talk?"
Lizzy only curled up a bit and her eyes become sad and moist, her voice barely above a whisper. "Not since mom passed away, not that you'd understand."
Not wanting to argue anymore that day, Duo just shook his head sadly and walked over to the life saving bag of food. Looking for movies, he only found a cartoon based off the life of Queen Relena called "Princess Relena", and some other equally brainwashing cartoon. There was no way he was going to show them these and Quatre knew it. Damn that Quatre was smart. He also wasn't just going to let them run around his house, messing it up more than he had already.
Looking at the young royalty, Duo noticed that they were both finished their food and was quietly waiting for him to say something. "So what do you want to do now?"
Elisabeth, who was feeling just a bit more comfortable with Duo, mainly because she felt she had something over the lifeless man, jumped to her feet with a bit of joy. "Let's go to the park, I saw one on the way." Her little brother soon was on his feet too, jumping with a big grin on his face and clapping his hands.
"Fine, fine, the park is to the left of the house. Have fun." He waved them off and prepared to go back to whatever it was he did all day alone.
"But…but…Duo, we can't go alone. What if somebody kidnaps us?"
"Then I am sure that some knight in white armor will show up and save you, your family has that luck ya know."
Despite being still weary of Duo, Lizzy was more scared of going to the park alone. Neither she or her brother had ever been alone; their father had always been with them. Then after he left, bodyguards had always followed them around.
"Duo can't you come with us?" A look of fear passed over Duo's eyes and he shook his head.
"Nah, I don't like the sun." Hurt and upset Lizzy fell back into her chair, intent on glaring Duo to death.
"You just don't like us, just like you hate Mom, and you hate Dad, and you hate going outside. What did they every do to you?" Losing his temper again Duo was about to throw the videocassettes at her when he realized what he was about to do. He had almost harmed a child.
Had he become that cruel and uncaring? He gently placed the cassettes down and lowered his head so that he wasn't staring into either pair of prussian blue eyes.
"You're too young to know."
"Then what did WE ever do to you?" This left Duo speechless. She was right, in her own pissed off eight year old way, what HAD they ever done against him? Finally looking into their eyes, he spoke with quiet forced words. "You were born…and then you killed me." Turning away from the upset children, Duo ran up the stairs and locked the door, afraid to face those eyes for a second more. They would be his undoing, he was sure of it.
**************************
Duo didn't come out of his room for the rest of the day. Lizzy thought that maybe he was crying but when she and Nate put their ears to the door they heard nothing. The funny thing was, that Lizzy was starting to feel sorry for Duo. She no longer feared him, just felt sad for him. Something must have happened to him to make him this way; or else their Dad wouldn't have given them to him. Maybe that was why he did it, so they could watch over him, he looked like he needed it.
The kids spent the rest of the day wondering in out and out of the house, looking for anything of interest. They had found the movies Duo had placed on the counter, but discovered that the TV had been destroyed along time ago. Feeling the need to go outside they had run around the lawn, playing hide-and-seek for as long as they could. Some of the neighbors had given them looks, and others had just warned them to get away from "Crazy Maxwell's place".
At one point Lizzy had looked up to the windows and saw a dark figure pass one of them, she knew it had to be Duo, but he didn't' even cast a look in their direction, she was sure he was in a world of his own.
It wasn't until later that night that Lizzy realized she couldn't do this on her own. She didn't even know how to take a bath with out someone else's help. It made her sad to realize that Duo might have been right about her and Nathaniel needing people.
She changed her cloths and helped get Nathaniel ready for bed, but even the simplest task was very hard for her to do, being so small and everything. But somehow she eventually got it done, and went to tuck herself and her brother into bed.
Things just had to get better; she just didn't know what she would do if they didn't.
************************
Not ever 5 hours after that last thought, Elisabeth woke up with Nathaniel kicking her in the back and screaming out loud. He was having another nightmare about their mom's death. It had been Nathaniel who had found the body.
She was about to try and comfort him, but before she could, she realized that their bed was now wet. Nathaniel had wet his pants again. It was normal for a five-year-old, but still annoying. She quickly saved the blanket and woke her younger brother up. But by then she was fresh out of ideas, she didn't know what to do afterwards.
Elisabeth was left with her last resort, DUO!
Quietly creeping down the hallway with her sniffling bother in tow. He had the blanket tucked under his arms, and dragging behind them as they walked. She knocked on the huge dark door, and at that moment, felt like it could eat them both whole.
When she received no answer from Duo, she knocked even harder. Again no answer, but the dark was now starting to get to her. The longer they stayed there, the more scared she became. Banging on the door with all her might she started to cry out Duo's name. "DUO, DUO!!!"
Elisabeth heard a clicking noise, and the door opened with a tired and worried looking Duo standing in the middle of it.
"Wh-wha-what's going on? You guys ok? Is anyone hurt? What's wrong?" Surprising both Duo and herself, she ran up to his legs and hugged him as hard as she could.
"Duo I'm scared, Nathaniel's having his nightmare, and he wet the bed, and I saved the blanket, but it's still so dark and I think there's something in the shadow and I don't wanna be alone."
Duo looked down in shock at the now crying girl. Nate didn't seem to be much better and was sniffling in the corner scared to even move.
Duo looked positively lost, but only for a minute. Before he knew it some inner instinct had finally kicked in, and he hoisted up the crying child into his arms. Patting her back he comforted her in a soothing voice. "Shhhhhhh it's gonna be ok, it's alright now, I'm here, don't' worry, I'm not going anywhere." He motioned for Nate to approach him, and he did so, still dragging the blanket behind him.
Duo took the chance to lay the girl down on his bed while he went to get Nate all cleaned up. By the time he got back, Lizzy was already fast asleep, and Nate was getting very drowsy.
He laid him softly on the bed, wrapped the blanket around the two, and prepared to leave the room. But before he could, he heard a noise from Nate, who had tears in his eyes. The boy obviously didn't want Duo to leave, so against everything his insides where telling him, Duo snuggled up inbetween the two children, wrapping his arms around Nate. He slowly drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
************************
The next morning, Duo was the first to wake up. At first, it was just like the previous morning and he didn't know what was going on. He thought he was alone, but could feel two small figures on either side of him.
After realizing who they were, and what had happened, Duo's breath began to quicken just like it had before a few nights ago. He could feel himself starting to panic, and threw the covers off himself, trying to get some distance between him and the kids.
The action woke up the both Elizabeth and her brother. They watched in horror, as Duo stated to hyperventilate and then just as quickly, stop breathing all together and collapse to the ground. Both kids screamed and ran for their uncle. Hoping it wasn't too late.
Leaving Nate with Duo, Lizzy ran down the stairs in search of a telephone. Her Uncle Quatre, had given her the number before, just incase anything bad happened. As soon as she got a hold of him, she burst in to tears. "Uncle Quatre, it's Duo, he cant' breath, he fell to the ground and we can't wake him up."
Quatre told the child to stay put and to wait for the ambulance, it would be there soon.
**********************
Milliardo Peacecraft made his way up the stairs in search of room 101. He'd been informed about the accident and made his way over as soon as possible. But he was more concerned about the kids than he was about Duo's well being.
The whole situation pissed off Milliardo to no end. Why HIS Niece and Nephew had to live with a man that couldn't even take care of himself, he just couldn't understand. He had fought the court's decision, but didn't have much luck with Quatre and the other pilots standing behind Heero's wishes 100% of the way.
They had even gone so far as to hide where Duo lived, just to keep the kids away from him. But he hoped that this would be the turning point. Even Quatre couldn't deny what had just happened. With any luck, he was there to pick up the kids for good.
As he made his way down the hall, he spotted Quatre standing in one of the doorways. He wasn't moving or even talking, just standing there and observing the room. Upon closer examination, he noticed that Trowa was also with the ex-pilot, comforting him in every way possible.
He came up to the couple, tapping Quatre lightly on the shoulder and asked about the kids. "So how are they?"
"Oh the kids, they're fine, Still in their PJ's but I couldn't get them to budge, they have too much of their father and mother in them. Stubborn as hell. Duo's doing fine too. He already woke up, and is just resting now. It was an anxiety attack." Quatre sighed. "I guess it was just too much for him."
Milliardo looked at the man funny. "You mean to say that the kids don't hate him? They're standing by his bedside?"
Quarter turned around and pushed Milliardo out into the hall. "Shh the kids will hear you. And no they don't hate him. Duo must still have that ability to make everyone love him"
"Ha I think it's just that kids are too trusting." Changing the subject, Milliardo stared Quatre in the eyes. " We have to get them out of there. He is in no position to be taking care of children, and you know it. I don't know what Heero was thinking, but we have to stop this."
Quatre looked uncertain, sure he loved Duo, but Milliardo had a point, this was getting to be too much, it might have been a mistake from the beginning.
"Quatre, I'm their Uncle, at least let me take them home tonight?"
Before Quatre could answer they both heard a very defiant reply from behind them.
"NO!"
Quatre spun around on his heels to stare straight into very familiar glare.
"Elisabeth, what do you mean?"
"We're not leaving him"
"But don't you want to leave that house, and Duo. I'm sure he hasn't been the nicest to you."
She crossed her arms and held her chin up high, "He's been great when he needed to be. He helped us with our nightmares…a-a-and made us breakfast, even though he didn't want to. He's just sad and lonely. We can't leave him. WE have to watch over him. That's what my dad wanted, I know it."
It was Milliardo's turn to knock some reason into the girl. "But honey it's not your responsibility to watch over a grown man. Wouldn't you rather come live in a clean, warm house with your uncle?"
"He IS our uncle, and dad gave us to him, so we're staying with him. We love you, but he needs us more than you do."
Trowa walked over to where the commotion was and saw the look of surprise on Quatre's face. The surprise soon transformed into a grin as he turned to address Milliardo.
" Well I'm sorry too Milliardo, I'm willing to give Duo another chance. He must be getting better. He made them breakfast, BREAKFAST!! He doesn't even make himself breakfast. We'll give another chance and see how he does. If it ends up like this again, I promise I will fight your case for their custody."
Mad at the turn of events, and still very worried about his relatives, Milliardo nodded, knowing not what else he could do.
The kids were no longer under custody of the Peacecrafts; their fate now belonged to Maxwell…
TBC…
I hope you liked. PLEASE reply. I really need to hear those replies. And yes I know Duo was being tough, but I think he is action like a person would who wants to be left alone. Plus I promise you he is going to get better. The best is yet to come :P
Sony_Mouse@hotmail.com
