Disclaimer: Don't own Gundam Wing. The kiddies are mine, though…
Thanksgiving at the Maxwells Part 2
by Dorothy Winner
~*~
Next to arrive were Quatre and Dorothy with their two daughters, Genevieve, five, and Morgiana, four. Duo had pretended to recoil with horror at Genevieve's birth when he peered into the baby nursery and saw her forky eyebrows. It seemed like Genevieve hadn't inherited anything from Quatre at all; she was looking more and more like Dorothy every day, down to the long blonde hair she had grown out almost to her knees. Morgiana, named after the heroine in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, took more after Quatre, with wavy blonde hair and Quatre's sweet smile.
"Hey, everyone!" exclaimed Duo. "Quat and Dotty and their kids are here!"
Duo had started calling Dorothy either Dotty or Catsy, which irked her to no end. Dorothy sighed and shook her head. "Duo, how many times do I have to ask you, don't call me that."
"It's pointless, Dorothy, there's nothing you can do," said Wufei, thinking of the new nickname Duo had coined up for him (Wu-ster).
"Hello, everyone," said Quatre. "Happy Thanksgiving! It's an American holiday, right? Who began it?"
Duo scratched his head. "Well… um, ah… uh…"
"It was a holiday started by the first Pilgrims who came to America, giving thanks for their plentiful harvest," stated Heero.
Everyone turned to stare at Heero.
"I did research," said Heero. "I didn't want to come uninformed to celebrate a holiday without knowing the reason why."
"Oh… I just like Thanksgiving because of all the food," said Duo.
Wufei shook his head. "And I suppose you like Christmas because of all the presents?" he asked sarcastically.
"Well, yeah…"
"Duo, Thanksgiving and Christmas are a time for friends and family," said Relena.
"I—I knew that too," stammered Duo.
"Sure you did, Maxwell…"
Hilde came down the stairs with Helen and Christopher just then, saving Duo from any more grief he might have gotten. "Hi, you guys, I'm so glad you're here! Sorry I'm late, this little guy's a handful," she said, shifting Christopher in her arms.
"Oh my goodness, he's grown so big!" exclaimed Relena. "Hello, Christopher, do you remember who I am?"
Christopher paused for a moment, his chubby face furrowing in thought. "Auntie Lena… an' Unca Hewo," he said, pointing to Heero. Hilde let him down from her arms so he could walk around. "Auntie Sally, an' Unca… Wufei, an', an', Unca Quatwa, an' Auntie Dory."
"Good job! You're so smart!" said Relena, bending down and hugging him.
"Careful, Relena," said Duo, "that kid has ulterior motives; he'll run you into the ground if he can." The doorbell rang again. "I'll get that," said Duo. He opened the front door. "Hey, it's Mil and Lucy!"
Milliardo and Lucrezia Peacecraft (although everyone was still inclined to call her Noin) stepped inside with their seven-year-old twins, Lucian and Elena, and two-year-old son, Alexander. Lucian was a carbon copy of his father, and Elena looked exactly like Noin except for her long platinum blonde hair. Alexander, who had his mother's black hair and his father's ice blue eyes, had come as a sort of surprise five years after the twins were born, but both Milliardo and Noin were very happy to have another child.
"Hey, Duo, I brought you this," said Milliardo, holding up a bottle.
"Sweet! Wild Turkey!" exclaimed Duo. "That stuff's the best…"
Noin rolled her eyes. "What is it with you and your Wild Turkey?"
"But it's in the spirit of Thanksgiving, Noin," said Milliardo, pointing to the picture on the label, "you know, turkey."
"Somehow, Zechs, I don't think the Pilgrims had drinking bourbon in mind when they had turkey for Thanksgiving…"
Jason Maxwell suddenly appeared, with what suspiciously looked like pumpkin pie crumbs on his chin. He quickly wiped them off with his hand and stared at Elena Peacecraft, adjusting his tie nervously. "Hi, I'm—"
Genevieve and Helen came running, each grabbing one of Elena's wrists. "Elena, c'mon, Helen's got a new dollhouse, you have to see this," said Genevieve, the two girls running upstairs with Elena in tow.
Jason scowled. "Stupid Helen and her dollhouse. Who invented little sisters anyway?" He would have been very eager to show Elena any of his toy Gundams. He spotted Jonathan Yuy. "Hey Jonathan, wanna see some of my Gundam models? I have one that looks exactly like your dad's Wing Zero…"
Jonathan was struggling to get his hated bowtie off. He looked up. "Sure," he said, following Jason upstairs to his room.
Meanwhile, Christopher, Morgiana, Mia, and Jade had taken to playing hide and seek. It was Christopher's turn to be it, and he had closed his eyes and was counting. "One, thwee, theven, nine, ten. Ready or not, here I come!"
"No fair, you weren't even counting properly!" exclaimed Morgiana. "You missed two, four, five, six, and eight," she said, counting on her fingers.
"I know all my numbers in Chinese and English," Jade said proudly.
Christopher looked dismayed. "It's hard, I can't remember them all!"
"It's okay, I can help teach you your numbers," said Mia.
"Really?"
"Sure." Mia and Christopher sat down on the carpet. "All our daddy's names are numbers. Uncle Heero, he's one. Your dad, Duo, is two. Uncle Trowa is three, Uncle Quatre is four, and my dad, Wufei, he's five. Try to remember them in that order, and it'll be easier."
"Unca Hewo, one, Daddy Duo, two, Unca Trowa, thwee, Unca Quatwa, four, an' Unca Wufei, five," Christopher recited.
Morgiana and Jade quickly got bored. "We can't play hide and seek with just two people," said Morgiana. "Let's go upstairs, Jade; my sister says Helen's got a new dollhouse."
The two girls reached the top of the stairs and peered into the first room on the left. Jason and Jonathan were sitting on the floor, with a rather large collection of toy Gundams spread out around them.
"Oooooh, are those Gundams?" asked Jade. She plopped down by them on the floor and picked up a Shenlong Gundam. "My daddy's Gundam is the strongest," she declared proudly.
"Nuh uh, Deathscythe's way cooler," said Jason.
"Yeah well, Wing Zero can take on both of your Gundams at the same time and win," said Jonathan.
"Oh yeah?" said Jason and Jade.
"Yeah," said Jonathan.
The three toy Gundams were soon clashing in the air. It became evident that Jade would be staying, so Morgiana went into the next room. "Hi Morgiana!" said Helen. "Aunt Relena gave me a new game. Wanna play 'Pretty Pretty Princess' with us?"
"Sure," said Morgiana, sitting down next to them. "How do you play? I've never played this game before…"
Downstairs, Wufei wondered at the sudden absence of the children. He looked around and spotted Christopher and Mia sitting together. "Maxwell! What is your son doing with my daughter?"
"What? They're not doing anything," said Duo.
"Awwww, how cute, look, Mia's teaching him how to count," said Sally, watching as Mia held up four fingers. "Sit down, Wufei, I don't want you going over there and yelling at them; you'll just frighten them and make them cry."
Wufei's jaw clenched; it seemed that any Maxwell having a relationship with his daughter, even at the innocent age of three, was more than he could stand.
The doorbell rang once more. "Eh heh… I'll go see who that is, okay?" said Duo, avoiding Wufei with a wide berth on his way to the door. "Hey, Trowa, Midii, glad to see ya!" Midii was holding four-year-old Matthew's hand, and Trowa was carrying their eighteen-month old daughter, Isabella, fast asleep on his shoulder. Matthew had the same shock of dark brown hair as his father and had green-gray eyes. Isabella had strawberry blonde hair and her father's emerald green eyes.
"Come on in," said Duo, "we've already started without you!" They went into the living room and found that the women had taken to sitting together and were talking eagerly, while the guys were casting wary, furtive glances in their direction.
"Hey Midii," said Hilde, "we're planning to hit all the stores for all the after-Thanksgiving sales tomorrow. Do you want to come?"
"After-Thanksgiving shopping? Wouldn't miss it!" exclaimed Midii, quickly going over and sitting by them.
It was the one word that could strike fear into the God of Death. "Shopping?" Duo said in a high-pitched voice, going pale.
"I don't like this," said Heero, "I really don't like this…"
"Okay!" Hilde stood up, smiling brightly. "So, which one of you would like to go shopping with us tomorrow?"
The look in her eyes made all the other guys cringe. 'Going shopping' with their wives meant following their wives around the mall from store to store, laden with shopping bags, sitting on the mall benches amid all the purchases, enduring stares and snickers from other mall shoppers.
"It's not me!" Quatre cried out, his eyes brimming with tears. "I had to do it last year!"
"W-w-why not Pagan?" suggested Milliardo.
"Pagan is getting on in years," said Relena, "I'm not sure he'd be up to it anymore."
"Hmm," said Sally, "what about you, Wufei?"
"NO!" Wufei shouted vehemently. "Carrying around shopping bags for a… for a woman is dishonorable! It is an injustice to all men who are made to do this!"
"I don't ever want to do it again…" moaned Quatre.
"You're being very quiet, Trowa," said Midii. "Why don't you come with us?"
"I'd—I'd just be in the way," said Trowa hastily, "you should just go without me…"
"Well then, since you're all just so eager to go shopping with us," said Hilde, "we're going to have to draw straws."
"Straws?!" The men exclaimed in unified horror.
"Yep," said Hilde. "Be right back with them." She went to the kitchen and after a couple of minutes in which the men fidgeted nervously, Hilde returned with a handful of straws. "You don't have to draw, Quatre, you already went last year."
Quatre sank back onto the couch pillows with relief. "Allah be praised…"
"As for the rest of you guys, who wants to go first?" asked Hilde, holding up straws.
Wufei got up in a huff. "I want to get this over with. Give me a straw, woman." He snatched a straw and looked at it. It was long. "Sorry to disappoint you, onna," he said to Sally, and sat back down.
Hilde held out the fistful of straws to Trowa. White and shaking, he held out a trembling hand and drew a straw. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw that the straw was a long one. Milliardo came forward and took a straw from Hilde's hand, and was very glad to see he had drawn a long straw as well.
All eyes turned to Heero and Duo. Duo was visibly green now, while Heero, though maintaining a stoic façade, was more scared than he had been in any battle he had fought in the Eve Wars. There was no way the Perfect Soldier would be going shopping…
Hilde held the last two straws out to Duo. Duo squeezed his eyes shut and drew a straw. He opened his eyes.
"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Heero cried as Hilde revealed the last straw, the short straw, in her hand. "Mission denied! Mission denied!"
The men were looking at Heero with a sort of sympathy in their faces, even Wufei, while the women were looking very pleased. "That's good," said Relena, "the kids can stay with Milliardo while we go shopping."
"Oh joy," said Milliardo. "I get to baby-sit five kids… still, that's better than shopping…"
Heero was ashen-faced. "This… can't… be… happening…"
"It's okay, Heero," said Quatre, patting his arm comfortingly, "you learn to ignore them after a while…"
~*~
Lady Une and Mariemaia were the last to arrive. Mariemaia, now eighteen, had grown into a beautiful young woman. Her red hair had darkened and grown out down to the middle of her back, and there was something of Treize in her poise and grace and the way she would look at you with her clear blue eyes. Lady Une was looking very nice in a long black skirt and a burgundy cashmere turtleneck sweater. "It's so nice to see everyone again," said Lady Une, smiling.
"Yeah, it's just been so hard for all of us to get together nowadays, with our families and jobs, you know?" said Hilde. "So I said to Duo, 'You know what, we should have some kind of reunion, some of us haven't seen each other in over a year,' and Duo says, 'Yeah, how about Thanksgiving?' and so here we are."
"Mother and I were planning to have a girl's night together at home," said Mariemaia, "but this sounded much more fun, so we kind of stole one of the Preventers jets."
"You stole it?"
"Well, the Preventers jets are only supposed to be for official missions," said Lady Une, "so technically, we're not supposed to be using it."
"But Mother's the Preventers' boss, and she made up that rule herself, so she bent it a little just for us."
"Oh," said Hilde, nodding. "Don't worry, I won't say a thing." She turned to Mariemaia. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Would you mind sitting at the kids' table? Of course, you're no longer a child, but someone needs to keep an eye on them. Having them all together could be potentially chaotic…"
"I can do it," said Mariemaia. "I don't mind."
"Thank you so much," said Hilde. "You guys can go ahead into the living room with the others; I'm going to be setting the table for dinner."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" asked Lady Une.
"Actually, yeah, the food's all on the kitchen counter; could you bring them over to the dining room, please?" said Hilde.
"No problem." Une went into the kitchen. "Hey, is the pumpkin pie supposed to look like this?"
Puzzled, Hilde went into the kitchen and saw what Une was talking about. A third of the pumpkin pie was gone, with what looked like child-size finger indentations in the rest of it, and there were crumbs all over the table. Hilde immediately figured out who had done it.
"JASON!!!"
~*~
