Blood Bonds

By Tygerlilee

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The End or the Beginning?

*Disclaimer: My cousin went to a fortune cookie factory this summer and bought three huge bags of them, but none of them foretold me getting GW, so–BURP!– (hehe, excuse me...) for now, don't sue me because I'm not getting any money out of this.

She looked at him nervously, watching for a reaction. Everything had been made ready for him, now she just had to see what he'd do. Somehow, no knowing that he was her son, she was a million times more nervous to have him here than when he was just a visitor. Could she ever call him Tai? Or would he always just be Heero Yuy, the assassin? Could she help him grow and learn and heal? It was the pain of motherhood–the unconditional love of the child yet complete incapability to help.

He walked slowly into the room. He looked thin and worn and he walked unsteadily, his frame thin and pale. His face was that of an old man, prematurely aged, sagging yet stretched and tired. A puff of wind could have knocked him over.

The room was light and airy with the blinds open. There were bunk beds on one side of the room with similarly patterned patch-work quilts and a tall chest-of-drawers standing next to them. A closet and desk were on another side. Several posters of basketball stars dotted the walls and the pull-up bar in the doorway signaled Huy's presence. Heero smiled hesitantly and sagged slightly.

"Heero! Are you alright?" Ai rushed to his side, ever conscious of his every move. Heero nodded slightly. "Here, sit down," Ai said as she pulled him to the lower bunk.

After cautiously siting down, Heero looked up and smiled at her. "Thank you."

Ai's eyes began to water. "It's no trouble. But you must be tiredwould you like to take a nap or something to drink?"

"I ought to sleepI'm feeling a little peaked"

Her watery smile almost made him laugh as she forced a smile and nodded, helping him to lay down. She took so much pleasure in helping him and mothering him. Huy had said that she had nearly gone insane when she lost him–maybe he should let her baby him for a while.

Her soft figure swished out of the room shutting the door quietly behind him. Heero leaned back, settling into his pillow and mattress, the springs crinkling downward. His eyes closed with the slight burning and stinging from eyes too long open. The past month had been filled with sleepless nights and painful dreams, as usual. But they were a little different.

/Why? I just can't understand why. Why me? After all that I have suffered, I was supposed to live here, with these loving kind people that I never realized existedI never knew any kindness existed before I met RelenaDr. J had tried to help me, but he wasn't kind like thiswhy? It doesn't make sense

/What reason was there for me to suffer soto make the sweet seem so much sweeter? But why me and no one else.am I so important? How/

Faces swirled before himAi's bloodied tears streaming down her face as she cried helplessly for her baby. Ryuzou looked on hopelesslyhis wife falling apart before him, her sanity shaken, his little children that he watched over so carefully and loved and protected, his precious babies falling away from him, and all he could do was watch, he was powerless. Toshi holding his little brother's writhing body, pained and lonely, separated from his companion, friend, even from the womb, a little mass of brown hair shaking in his arms, and all he could do was hold on a little longer. A tiny girl standing in a corner watching her family in shambles, her lower lip trembling, longing to be held close, cold air filling her little lungs, a small sob finds it's way to the open air, but no one to hear. A boy is imprisoned in his private hell on a hot street, his mind frozen and incapable of logical thought. A girl is running from prying handslittle puddle of mud defies gravity soaking upwards to coat them, their minds, their hearts, survival, hate, anger, sorrow, and no one to see, no one to care

/I'm not the only oneI'm not the only one/

Duo sat glaring at his computer screen, his eyebrows crunched in concentration.

"DUO!! Duowhere are you?" Hilde's voice called out.

"I'm back here!" Duo yelled without looking up from the computer and the offending accounts.

"Are you still wrestling with that stuff?"

"Yah.." Duo's voice trailed off as he typed in a few numbers.

Hilde sighed as she leaned over him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a loose hug, resting her chin on the top of his head. "Wellmaybe it would help if you took a break to eat something. You'd be able to think better, the brain needs sugar to operate."

"I've just got so many stinkin' numbers floatin' around in my head, I don't know what I need to put down in this columnstupid taxesthey are so much easier when you're not doing it for a business."

"Maybe we should have hired someone to do it"

"But if I can do it myself then that's just an unnecessary cost," Duo said firmly.

"Ooooookay.whatever you say" Hilde said sarcastically as she swaggered off.

Zecks sat quietly at his cherry wood desk, the sunlight on his back from the half open floor to ceiling windows behind him. His eyes were tight and serious as always, bent in concentration over seven or eight files all strewn around his desk. He had several papers in his hands when he let his fingers go limp and they fell through and landed on his desk.

He swiveled around to face the open window. "Why do I even try any more" he muttered softly to the bluebirds. "They just keep on coming."

Zechs jumped in his chair as he door flew open and a harried Noin rushed in. "Zechs, Relena is one her way here. I just received a call about it. She flew in safely to the airport and she has ten Preventor Officers bringing her here." Noin panted softly and her bright smile waned as she looked at Zechs' sour expression. "Zechs, what's wrong?"

"This is all pointless Noin."

"What is?" She looked at him in confusion.

"Thisprotecting and rescuingit's all pointless. They just keep coming after her. No matter what I do." He swiveled to face her. "It doesn't matter where she goes, someone finds her, harasses her, hurts her.it's too much. She's only a child. She shouldn't have to deal with this. Not now."

"But if she doesn't, who will? She's a true daughter of the Peacecraft line and she is upholding her beliefs. With that will come pain and strife, but she has chosen her own path."

"But she's a teenager Noin. She should be worrying about a biology test or literature paper or giggling over a dumb boy and" He rested his elbow on his desk and leaned his forehead on his knuckles, sunlight playing off of his hair.

Noin sighed and sank into a leather chair in front of Zechs' desk. "I really don't know what to say to you Zechs. This is what she wants to do. She chose this path and there's nothing else to it. She's got a strong spirit."

"Nobody's got that strong of a spiritall spirits are broken eventually. That's how horses are trained." His voice trailed off. Then he sat up and started to put all the papers away. Several escaped his hands in the breeze and fluttered to the plush forest green carpet. "I think," he said as he shoved several files in a drawer, "that I want to find a way to give Relena her childhood back."

Noin got up to pick up the papers hiding the surprise in her face. "How?"

"I'm not entirely sure yet. But she shouldn't have to suffer this right now. She's still a child and she deserves to have her childhood for at least a little longer. SheI thought, maybe it would be beneficial for her to finish school"

Noin carefully laid the papers down on his desk. "That sounds like a wonderful idea to me"

"But" Zechs prompted.

"But what?" Noin said with exaggerated wide-eyed innocence.

"Don't pretend with me, Noin. You're about as innocent as a cobra. What's wrong with that idea?"

Noin walked around the to the back of the desk behind Zechs to look out the window at the vast streets and towering buildings. The streets were quiet and birds flew freely. "I just worry that she won't blend in. Her face is too well knownshe'll be recognized anywhere she goes andI guess I just worry for her safety. Maybe if you found her a companion, a body guard."

Zechs narrowed his eyes as he looked at Noin's back. "And just who would you have in mind?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought maybe Heero would be good." Noin quickly explained when she saw his expression. "You did mention the giggly girls stuff, and she was giggly about him for a little while. And he could protect her."

"Noin," Zechs sounded irritated. "Heero would never work. The point of this would be to shelter Relena until she is an adult. Heero is too noticeable. His idea of camouflage would be to walk down the street in biker shorts with a pistol in the back pocket. And he's too talented. People will notice his talents. He would undoubtedly take classes in his specialties and rise above all the others. No, that would never work." Zechs looked nonplussed for a moment then said, "you are suggesting Heero for another reason aren't you?"

"Mabye" Zechs gave her a rather elastic look of disbelief. "Okay, okay, I was thinking that Heero might be more effective in convincing her than you would be. You know how she cares for the people. She won't agree to leave them, not in a million years."

"And why would she listen to him over me?" Zechs asked calmly. "If she won't leave them she won't leave them."

"I told you, she likes him! Zechs, you are her big brother and she automatically fights against what you try to do, but Heero is someone that he cares for and listens too and believes in. If he"

"Noin," Zechs said firmly, "Relena will not listen to him either. She listens politely to everyone but then she goes and does whatever she feels is right. It has nothing to do with who is speaking to her." The tension was growing slowly.

"Well, I really don't know how you're going to pull this off at all. She'll need protection, and companionship, andand a total make-over! Everyone on Earth and on the colonies knows her face."

"NoinI can take care of my own sister," Zechs insisted.

"I know Zechsit's just" crunching wheels below caught Noin's attention and she walked to the edge of the window, pushing the green brocade curtains as far back as they would go so she could see the white van below. Reports swarmed around the vehicle as the back doors opened and several men with guns jumped out, arm-in-arm with a petite blond in a blue skirt suit. "It's just I worry for Relena"

Zechs came to stand behind Noin. "I do too. That's why I'm going to do this."

SNAP. POP.

Wufei winced at the annoying saliva noises coming from Sally as she popped her gum loudly, knowing full well that it drove him batty. "Sally, if you do that one more time I swear I'm going to cut your tongue out"

The room was silent. Wufei sat bolt upright from his work with one eyebrow cocked. Surely he hadn't actually scared her. Usually she just came over to pop her gum in his ear. He looked around to see if she was in the room. And she still wasat her computer That's oddWufei thought to himself. But then he did a double take and noticed that one hand was at her mouth, her face was completely drained of all blood making her truly look like an albino Chinese.

"Sally" Wufei called over to her. "Sally, what's wrong?"

Sally didn't even look up. "Sally?" Wufei called out as he got up from his swivel chair, striding over to her, papers still in hand. He stood behind her, reading what she was looking at.

"Oh my" he whispered hoarsely as the files dropped to the floor. His knees grew weak and he hardly noticed as he fell on them to the tile below. He rested his head against one of Sally's desk draws brining in shallow breaths, slow and wispy. "Heero can't behe can't be"

Life finally came back into Sally and she turned to look over at Wufei. "He's dead. Leukemia. I don't believe it."

Wufei swallowed loudly.

Trowa scaned the room quickly looking for his friend. His eyes rested on a blond boy waving fervently from across the room. He strode over across the crowed room filled with clinking glasses and scraping silverware to the window seat where Quatre was.

"Trowa," Quatre smiled happily as he got up from his seat behind the table hugging him. Trowa nodded as they both sat down. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in forever! I saw the advertisement for the circus so I just knew that I had to arrange to see you!"

Trowa nodded again. "I've been good. Lot's of traveling. I even saw Heero a while back."

"You did? How's he doing?"

"He seemed happy. And Duo's been emailing me regularly."

"I know," Quatre said somewhat sternly. "I think that Hilde should regulate what he does on the computer a little more"

Trowa almost chuckled. "Catherine asked me to say hi to you for her."

"Oh, did she?" Quatre asked as he sipped his water. "That was kind of her. Tell her I said hi back. How is she doing?"

"As protective as ever. Maybe she'll realize I can take care of myself once I'm 18if I knew when that was anyway" Trowa said softly as he drew pictures on the white table cloth with his forefinger.

Quatre smiled sympathetically. "I'm personally hoping for when I become legally eligible to run the company. My sisters area little over enthused when helping manage it"

"I can see that," Trowa said softly looking down at the prisms of light dancing off the glass of clear liquid as the sun hit it. "I can see that"

Her hair had been done up in her favorite red ribbons, her back pack was pink with little animals all over it, she had been good at school and did not have any homeworkand Heero was going to be home when she got there!!

Yachi skipped off the smelly noisy school bus and ran to the front door, flinging it open and throwing her bag down she sprinted up the stairs, little pig tails flying behinds her.

The house was silent but she didn't care. Heero was home–well Tai. Mom said that his name was now Tai and she had to call him that, but she didn't much care. He was still Heero. She crept to his door and opened it quietly to see what he was doing. His patch-worked back was to her and he was sleeping peacefully, his side rising and falling softly.

Yachi walked over to the bed and climbed up, carefully avoiding stepping on the sleeping boy. She laid down next to him and looked at his closed eyelids. Resting her head on the pillow next to his, she molded herself to him and sighed deeply. Heero was here againmaybe he'd let her play make-up on him this timeif he's living here he can't escape

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A/N I'm soooooo sorry that this is short and that it's taken so long. Let's just say that a few things pushed all the imagination and gumption I had out for a while and I couldn't write and I didn't have time to either. But I just felt like writing again for the first time in a loooooong while so I did. Hopefully you can see that this little chapter is setting up for a sequel. This was not a romance story or anything like that, but hopefully you've enjoyed it all the same. I will say that the next story will be a romance with Relena and probably several other Gundam Pilots in it, and undoubtedly Zechs. I'm going to try and get started on it but it may be this summer before I get that one going. I won't have too much time to write this semester with all my classesmicrobiology and biological chemistrybut I will be taking my second semester of Japanese!! I'm soooo excited!! Maybe I'll even get to Japan some day. Anyway, I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season. I'm personally dreading going back to schoolI want to write!! But once I get it going, it will go fast, I think.

Thank you so much for sticking through this with me. This is my first really long and complicated fic and I can't believe that I've actually finished it. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading it half as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I hope you'll read more of my stuff in the future (not my old stuffit stinks). Thank you again.

Toodles for now, Tygerlilee =^.^=