Okay; Standard Disclaimer: We don't own any Gundam series, nor we claim tenure over Sailor Moon…just over Sailor Mnemosyne and Sailor Phoenix…and their children…and the plot…and…
On with the show!
To Find Their Way Chapter 4
"Sai-oba, how can you eat that stuff?" Saira gave Drake half a glare.
"This coming from the boy who ate only sushi for the better part of a year." He crossed his arms huffily as his sister came to his defense.
"He has a point, Oba. Your food is, well, weirder than usual."
"What's weird about it?"
"I think they're referring to the fact the your eating apricot jam on pickles, onna."
"Thank you for pointing that out, Einstein," Saira jabbed at Wufei with her fork. Quietly slipping into the room Marle leaned against the doorframe, observing.
"It's because of your extra heartbeat," Hope said nibbling on an apple.
Five glares were trained on her. Swiftly walking into the kitchen, Marle picked Hope up and started to back up when she bumped into Dou.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Why didn't you just tell us you were pregnant, onna," Chang mumbled. "Then we wouldn't have thought you were insane."
Grabbing Dou by the arm with one hand she nodded her head in one direction and then dragged him out of the room with her children following.
Looking at Marle, Dou asked, " Is she really pr...."
Marle covered his mouth with her hand as she said, "Shh." However, Saira heard it.
"Yes, I really am!" She said angrily. The woman was in a dangerous mood. "Hope, no offense, but I had hoped to keep this under wraps a little bit longer before the whole world starts treating me like a china doll." Her outburst done, she rested her head atop her folded arms on the table. Eating was out of the question now. Hope walked over to her and tugged on a sleeve. "What is it, P-chan (1)?"
"When is our cousin coming?"
She couldn't resist smiling. "In a bit over five months, little Hime (2). Five months..."
Sighing Marle let her hand drop, "Well, if you don't mind me, I'm going to get some supplies so we can leave. Ja."
Marle started to walk away but her children thought better of it as Hope grabbed her legs while Drake gave her a push. The end result being that she fell right into Dou's arms.
They blushed slightly, Duo a little more than Marle. Both, however, were equally aware of just how close their faces were. Quatre looked away, Trowa looked at Saira as she nearly dove into the pantry in search of chocolate, and the other two pilots didn't seem to care.
"Umm. Thanks." Marle started to push herself out of the embrace when the kids decided to push their mother a little closer. Falling forward Marle's lips caught Dou's. They almost had time to enjoy it. Almost. Her children began climbing all over the two with questions such as, "When are you getting married?" "Did you kiss before?" "Can I play with your braid, Dou-toosan (1)?" Dou's eyes went wide enough that a casual observer could see the cortical nerve.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! That, that wasn't a kiss," he stammered. "That was an accident." The children began crying.
"You mean you don't like us?"
"You don't like Okaasan?"
"I didn't say that. I, I, I just..." The two little Kou's gathered around his legs.
"Then does that mean you're staying with us?"
"Do you promise not to leave us?" The youngest one asked. Sighing Marle sat down on the floor.
"Children," she said. "Come here."
As they gathered around her Marle said, "I know you miss having a father around, and I know Dou reminds you a lot of him, but that doesn't mean I will marry him after knowing him only a few hours."
Cocking her head to the side Hope asked, "But why not? He's a nice guy and we like him."
"It just the way things are," Marle answered pulling her into her lap. "Just because you like someone doesn't mean you love them in that kind of way, munchkin."
"Love them in what kind of way?" She looked down at her daughter.
"They call it romantic love. Just like they call my love for you parental love. But it's very different. Romantic love is something that grows, while I loved you all the second I knew you were coming." They digested that for a moment, and then looked up from their musing.
"How long does it take to grow," Drake asked. Marle shrugged.
"Don't know. It can take days, weeks, months, or even years." Looking sternly at her children she said, "And don't even think about playing match-maker, I get enough of that from your Aunt. I don't need my children to help her any." She shot her sister a glare, and Saira put up her hands with an innocent look on her face. 'Innocent, something I don't think she's ever been,' she thought to herself. 'Especially when she has a 'project' in mind.'
Saira looked at her sister and said smugly, "It's none of my business." Before Marle could respond, Saira grabbed Wufei.
"Come on, Dragon-butt. You're taking these kids for ice cream." He scowled at her.
"Then why are you coming?" He would not act pleased at the warmth of her delicate hand in his, he would not be pleased.
"Because you need someone who can handle them."
"By suggesting I can't control these children you are…"
"Absolutely right."
Hope ran up crying, "I wanna sit up front! And I wanna get chocolate and strawberries on my ice cream!"
"Nuh uh! I get chocolate," came an indignant holler.
"You can both get chocolate," Marle chided them. "And you are all walking so no one sits up front, and neither of you are to con the adults into a piggy-back ride." The younglings didn't even bother bemoaning their fate.
As Saira and the children dragged Wufei out of the house Marle sighed and stood up saying, "Poor Wufei, he has no idea what he just got dragged into."
Looking at Marle curiously, Dou asked, "They're just kids, they can't do anything, except annoy him."
Chuckling, she replied, "Dou, Dou, Dou, you don't know my children very well do you? Do you remember what just happened a couple minutes ago?" Taking his slightly flushed face as an affirmative and Marle continued. "That simply happened because my children were playing matchmaker." Marle chuckled as she shook her head to clear it of the schemes that her children were going to play on the unaware pilots. "When they want to play tricks or pranks they usually manage to pull them off, one way or another."
"I thought that's why Saira said she was going with them." Quatre spoke up.
Shaking her head, the Time Guardian answered, "When they want to pull something off, the only one that can stop them is me, Saira just doesn't know that yet, simply because they are waiting to pull the perfect prank on her."
"The perfect prank?" Heero asked, not even looking up from his laptop.
"Yeah, not even I know what it'll be." She chuckled slightly. "And I don't want to know."
"They can't be that bad," Quatre said.
"Ooohh, yes they can."
"I agree with the Q-man," Duo said. "A few little kids can't be that bad."
Looking straight at Dou Marle asked, "Dou, do you like to play pranks?"
With no small amount of pride he grinned and replied, "Of course, who doesn't like a good prank?" He looked over at Heero and Trowa, and then he remembered about Wufei, and how Quatre thought practical jokes were mean... "Well, normal people anyway."
Slightly smirking, Marle
replied, "Well, here's an example. Take one Duo Maxwell, minus his
Gundam training, add one hundred points to his IQ, multiply his love of comedy
by 20, change his height and coloring, then spilt him in two parts and you have
my kids."
* * * * *
A child no taller than his mid-thigh was dragging Chang Wufei along with enough force to pull his arm from its socket. Needless to say, he was not happy about it.
"I want to go to the toy store," cried the little brunet.
"Why don't we wait for the shopping until after the food, Drake?" Saira commented. The pilot silently thanked whoever was listening for the account Quatre had set up for the group. He had the feeling he was going to need it.
"How much are you going to eat today Sai-oba?" exclaimed the boy with green eyes.
"Drake Tane Kou, that is not a polite thing to ask."
"But I want to know." Saira rolled her eyes.
"Don't ask impolite questions if you want polite answers."
"Your aunt is correct," mumbled the Chinese pilot. "It's not the place of the young to ask such things of their elders."
"Why not?" Hope asked, her eyes sparkling.
"It's not proper."
"Why not?"
"Because young children don't have enough sense to…"
Hope glared and waited for Wufei to say something else. He almost twitched.
"Why not?"
"Because you need more life experience."
"Why?"
"Because that's the way things are."
"Why?" Wufei was slightly perturbed.
"Because."
"Why?" Twitch.
"I'm not having this conversation." With great purpose he shook off the set of little hands trying to reach his wallet and strode a few feet before the other three. Suddenly, Hope ran in front of Wufei and with a glint in her eyes asked, "Where do babies come from?"
He blinked, twice. "You'll...find out when you're older."
"How old?"
"Old enough to have children of your own."
"How old is that?"
"I'm sure your mother will tell you."
Glaring at Wufei, Hope stamped one foot demanding, "I'm old enough to understand now. Where do babies come from?" While he was still flustered, Hope ran behind the dark boy and gave him an almighty push.
Drake ran behind Saira and helped Hope push the pair into position.
"What the hel…" Saira barely managed to call out. Wufei wasn't much better off.
With a last push, Saira and Wufei's lips came together in a kiss. A second later camera clicks could be heard before being replaced by running feet; the children had already put the cameras in their space pockets. Startled out of her slight reverie, Saira groaned in frustration.
"Why did Jac give them cameras?" She turned to Wufei, and saw his face set in perma-scowl mode. She started laughing. "Come on, we need to catch up to them," she said grabbing his hand.
1) P-Chan-If you watch Ranma ½, you'll get the joke. If not, why aren't you watching Ranma!?
2) Hime translates to princess.
Added bonus for those of you who are still reading!
Matt the Evil Mecha Engineer's secret weapon plans!
Hehe: my ideas are finally going to see the light of day! You probably guessed, but I'll tell you anyways. I'm not the author; I'm her consultant and one of the editors.
And now; THE GUNS!
No. 1 is the charged particle rifle, Duo gets this one, and it'll be explained properly in later chapters. You know how things that move really fast hurt a lot? Hehehe, near-light speed muzzle velocities, hehehehehehehehehehehe………
No. 2 is the Nova buster, this is Saira's, and she'll be really surprised when she uses it the first time…………
No. 3 is the Collimated plasma rifle, review and tell us who gets to play with this, even we'll be surprised about this one….
No. 4 this one's really cool, and you don't get to find out about it until later. It is a man-portable gun though; I'll let you think on this one.
Two last things: 1) Watch the rest of the Gundam series (Gundam X, Stardust Memories, etc.); I know they haven't been on TV, and might be hard to find, but they're worth it. 2) Duo's the coolest one!
(You can really tell that wasn't me now can't you minna-san?)-Phoenix.
Ja from all of us!
