Holiday Thorn
The Second Floor of a Troubled House
Author: Madisonne
Part: 3/?
Warnings: Yaoi, angst, Christmas-time fic, but couldn't wait to post it!
Disclaimer: For some reason, the people at Bandai keep on forgetting to return my calls... So, no, I don't own them yet. Operative word: YET! MWA HA HA HA HA!!! Ahem... Don't steal, or else I'll sic my demon-chibis on you. Stop laughing! They can strip a cow of its meat in one minute! Or is that piranhas? Hmmm...
Notes: As you can tell, this is a sequel, but one can understand it without having read December Rose. Basically, Milliardo and Treize survived the war and are living together and have adopted a deaf daughter. In this chapter, old wounds are reopened and a few of the problems the two have to solve begin to show themselves.
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Unlocking the door, Treize let his impatient daughter into the house, where she promptly threw down her jacket and went on a search for her "other daddy".
Becoming slightly unnerved at how quiet the house was, he began his own search. "Miri?" He called up the stairs.
"Up here..." The voice floated down the stairwell.
Treize retrieved their child and brought her upstairs with them where Milliardo was closing the guestroom door behind himself.
December Rose made a 'happy' noise and launched all six years of herself at him.
Prepared for the attack, the blond caught the child and gave her a kid-sized bear hug. Pulling away, he signed. How was school?
Good. We made decorations! The young girl was clearly excited.
Very cool! Can you go find your paints? Daddy and I need to talk for a little bit.
December smiled and nodded, thumping down the stairs noisily.
"Where's...?" Treize began.
"He's in there. Someone showed up to talk with him, they began to argue, and Wufei passed out. I figured he should sleep it off." He explained simply.
Treize sighed heavily. "He's going to need to stay here for a couple of nights."
"But..."
"I know you're not the best of friends with him, but he really needs some help right now. He's been through a lot more than you'd think." Treize explained. "Besides, you know as well as I do that there's nowhere for him to stay, holiday times are packed around here! We'll just let him live here until his... Friend comes back from Nevada."
"I don't think he's coming back. Their argument made that fairly clear."
"You weren't eavesdropping, were you?" Treize looked utterly mortified.
"No." Milliardo snapped back. "They... The other one was quite loud enough to be heard."
"So the good little beetle played hero and sent the evil away?" There was only a hint of humour in the sad voice.
"Yes. Wait! I am not a beetle!"
"Shhh..." He warned, motioning to the room behind them. "Yes, you are."
"I don't like having him here." He sighed. "I mean, what are we going to tell December? That her daddy's old "friend" is ill and staying with us?"
"We'll tell her precisely that." Treize responded.
"But what if he's not just here to see an adopted child?"
"For Christ's sake, Miri, he's in... was in a relationship!"
"Well, that didn't stop you, now did it?" He spat back, realising the moment the words fell from his lips that his response was ill-advised. "Treize, I'm sorry..."
He shook his head in near disbelief. "That was low, Peacecraft. Very low." And he promptly turned on his heel and left the blonde alone in the hall on the second floor of a troubled house.
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