Hello! Yep, I'm still alive! I'm sorry about the horrible wait, but exam season sprang upon me with the force of four seriously heavy classes. And then I think my computer decided that the Internet is the devil and wants nothing to do with it, so that made the wait even longer!!!! Anyway, to make up for the really short chapter I last posted (thanks for not sending me any serious death threats about that, by the way) and also to kinda eat up some months, I give you a much longer diary chapter. Enjoy!

Me no own Gundam. Me *want* Gundam, but me no own. But all other stuff me yes own. No touchy.

Note: I mentioned that December 12th is Quatre and Wufei's birthday. I got this info from a site entitled "I Love Bishonen" or something to that effect. So, here is the list of birthdays in its entirety. If anyone knows if this list is true or not, please contact me at phoenixdagger@hotmail.com . Thanks! --Lady PhoenixDagger *//.^*

Heero Yuy-- May 2

Duo Maxwell-- June 11

Trowa Barton-- January 2

Quatre R.Winner-- December 12

Wufei Chang-- December 12

Relena Peacecraft-- April 8

No, It's not a typo, Quatre and Wufei's birthdays are the same day. -_-*

*****

Cathy's Diary

November 7th:

It's been a week since that Mortis Gour bastard came to the Keep and needless to say, it's been a week since he's left it. The media has been hounding the Keep officials since about an hour after Gour was killed and the Shira'an banished and it's driving everyone nuts. The reporters even keep hounding us and the Broman family at our homes. One of them even tried to lure Shinigami-kun into her news truck for an "exclusive scoop"!

I wonder if she's healed yet? Those little scythe cuts tend to go in pretty damn deep.

Even as I speak, Gil and Belle are at the Keep with the other officials giving a press conference. They're also going to mention that since the lands around here property of the Keep and we technically have our own set of laws, the Keep has decided that martial law is to be declared against any unescorted news people. Those who are found will be sentenced to an unspecified sentence in the Keep dungeons. Period. I've actually seen the dungeons before, and the word "dungeons" is a gross overstatement. It's just a scary way of saying "plainly furnished guest apartments with no doorknobs on the insides". Still, the media doesn't know this, and all the Keep officials really have to do is throw the word "dungeons" around, sit back and watch the press suddenly be on its best behaviour.

The boys are still in the Keep infirmary still, and Relena, Kari and I can't visit them, which makes me so angry! But those bard twins, Gaelin and Declan, came by to tell us that the boys will be out soon! I can't wait to see them again! Kari and Relena –especially Relena- have been so depressed by last week's…events, that it would be great for them to see the boys again. As of now, all the boys have been healed, but because it was done with magic, there's a string attached (isn't there always?). The boys know they've been healed, but deep down, their bodies have no idea. So, running on down the list:

Duo: His arms and chest muscles should still be torn up. They aren't, but his body has yet to clue in, so he can't move his arms at all yet.

Wufei: His spine was snapped and then fixed up, but he still can't walk yet. Belle is thinking we should borrow a wheelchair from the Keep infirmary for him until his legs "wake up".

Heero: He suffered third-degree burns all over his body, poor guy, but they're all gone now. Yet, he's still not able even to twitch without terrible pain, though you'd never know it unless you looked really hard. (He's going to have to stay at the Keep longer than the others)

Trowa: His eardrums were ruptured when the dragon basically roared in his face. They're better now, but it'll take time for him to be able to hear again.

Quatre: Quatre's coming home tomorrow!! Out of the five, he was the only one to come out marginally okay, since it was his mind and not his body that got hurt. He woke up yesterday and though he'll still be weak, he's still coming home before the others.

Walker: He's back in the isotubes and according to Dulcet, the fight took a helluva lot out of him, so he might not wake up until after Christmas. I hope he does. Nothing would suck more for the Bromans if he missed it completely.

Anyway, I have to start getting ready for work, so I've got to go. I'm starting to hate my job. My boss keeps leering at me all the time. Too bad there's nowhere in my uniform to hide my knives.

November 8th: Quatre's home!! In other words, Belle's mothering instinct has kicked into hyperdrive. I tell you, if she feeds that boy any more, he'll explode all over the kitchen table. I wonder who would have to clean that up?

November 15th: Everyone's home! Heero's healing up faster than the Keep doctors initially expected, so he came early. He and Wufei are bedridden, which is driving Wufei absolutely insane. Trowa is wandering around the house, barely saying anything, so it's a lot like he never got hurt. He's been spending a lot of time with Kari, too. The mute dating the deaf. Who knew? She "talks" to him and he thinks his replies at her. Duo is still his zippy, bouncy self, which is delighting Shinigami-kun, who's had no one to play with for the last two weeks. The only difference with Duo is that his arms are in slings strapped across his chest, making them totally useless. Duo, of course, is absolutely loving this. For the last hour and a half, he's been asking people to do menial tasks for him, like "Relena, would you braid my hair for me?" and "Cathy, will you take my socks off for me?". To top it all off, he does it all in this annoying baby voice that makes me want to squish his head. He's stopped bugging Kari, however. Whenever he even starts to ask her for something in that stupid voice, she just fixes him with one of those Looks she's so famous for and his voice dries up before he even gets to the second syllable.

Gotta go now. Duo's yelling for a drudge to brush his teeth for him.

November 20th: Declan and Gaelin came over to check up on the boys today. You know, I think that Declan guy is hitting on me. Anyway, they passed along an invitation from Darien to go out on the town with them tomorrow night. I'm excited, but kind of nervous, I mean, I'll be the youngest one there by four years. I'll tell you how it all goes tomorrow.

November 22nd: I know I said I'd write about yesterday, well, yesterday, but I got home really late, so I put it off until today. Deal with it. We went to this amazing bar and grill downtown for dinner and drinks (I love Canada! I'm legal here!!) Then we hit the local karaoke bar. Needless to say, with two bards, I knew I was waaay out of my league. Did you know it's possible for two men to sing all five parts of "YMCA"? We danced a bit after the DJ got there around eleven. Me with Declan, me with Darien, Declan with some other girl he knew, me alone. Did you know Darien is actually shy around girls???? But the best times were with Gaelin. As soon as I got into those arms…well…damn!!! Out of Declan and Gaelin, Gaelin is the absolute cutest. Yes, I'm quite aware that they're identical, thank you very much, but Gaelin is kind and funny and smart and sweet (not to mention drop-dead gorgeous!!!) Declan's a great guy, don't get me wrong, but he's more of a buddy-type. He's fun and cool and a great joker, but he's just not the same as his brother.

I wonder if they'll come over today?

November 24th: Gaelin came over today! We're going out on Friday night!!!!

November 26th: Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!!! Gaelin sent me a rose at work today with a note saying he can't wait either!!!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

November 28th: My boss keep leering at me. I'm going to have to pummel him one of these days.

November 29th: Date tomorrow night. Work tonight. Managed to get some daggers with wrist sheaths from the Keep this morning. Fredrik, the weapons master on duty said that they were out of throwing knives, but I could always go to Glas and Ciaran in the forge and get some custom made for me.

Hmmm…not a bad idea….

November 30th:

HE KISSED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December 1st: Okay, so my last entry was a little vague. As you can probably tell, my date was last night. Gaelin and I went out for dinner at this incredible Chinese place (I highly recommend the Cantonese lo mein, by the way) and then out to this tiny club that Gaelin, Declan and Misty play sometimes. It was a jazz band on stage last night, though. We danced like crazy idiots until about midnight. Hot damn, I forgot how well the man can dance! Then, all danced out, we took a walk by the lakeside, hanging off each other and chatting about nothing until about one-thirty when he drove me home. Everyone was asleep, but I invited him in for a cup of coffee anyway, which he accepted. This ended up in us chatting quietly for another hour until about three. Finally, he said that he had to be at the Keep for nine (Being a bard is a paid position in the Keep. Gaelin and Declan are full-time and Misty is part-time because of school) and I walked him to the door. Then, right out of the blue, Gaelin leans over, wraps his arms around me, and…

And the rest is history, I guess.

We're going out to see a movie this Saturday and he's going to be my date for the staff Christmas party next week.

I think I'm in lo-ove!!!!

So far the boys are getting better every day. Heero and Wufei are out of bed (Wufei refused the wheelchair Belle borrowed for him. The stubborn idiot refused to be "wheeled about like an invalid". Go figure) and are shuffling slowly around the house, although stairs are still a challenge. Trowa's hearing has gotten better to the point that he can hear us if we raise our voices and Duo's still numb from shoulder to elbow, but now he can grip things and use his hands to a point. And Quatre –bless him!- has been doing all he can to help out. Shinigami-kun is also trying, but there's only so much a bundle of magical fallout smaller than a teacup can do. He fetches little things like aspirin (we're using a lot of that) and relays messages and plays with anyone who'll let him. Everyone thinks this is just the cutest thing, except for Wufei, who has taken to keeping a flyswatter by his bed.

December 5th: Christmas shopping today! We're doing secret Santas here at home, and I picked Quatre's name out of the hat, so I have to find a gift under $15 for him. Maybe some sheet music? And I have to get a gift for Gaelin. Something really nice. Maybe something to keep his head warm? When we were out at the movies last night he told me he doesn't have a winter hat and his poor ears looked like someone had glued strawberries to the sides of his head. But he looked so cute with his hair flipping around in the wind and his cheeks-

Oh, man. I sound like a love-struck seventh-grader.

Ah, well. Whoever cares can kiss my ass.

Now if you don't mind, I have to go lie on the floor and swoon for a while. Excuse me.

December 7th: The employee Christmas party was last night. I took Gaelin as my date like I said –or did not I remember to write that down? Anyway, apparently my boss had no idea how close I am to powerful Keep officials who could easily have him fired in an instant if he tried anything stupid with me.

Gaelin filled him in.

I had no idea a great big perverted middle-aged man could squeal like that.

It looks like my job is going to be just a little bit easier from now on.

Oh! More terrific news! Walker is finally strong enough to live without the aid of an isotube! He's still very weak, but at least he'll be home for Christmas, which made Misty –she was over here when Zach called and gave her the news- so excited. Of course, mix this with Duo and it was like having two happily insane toddlers on caffeine highs running around the house. I mean, we all love Misty and Duo and they make a great couple, but there's only so much of them we can all take. I remember Christmas when I was with the circus. All the performers already in their costumes exchanging gifts under the little plastic tree in Ringmaster's trailer before for the Christmas Day show, dressing the show horses like reindeer and stuff like that. Trowa was the only one that was able to get the antlers on the lions last year, though. We're doing it differently here, though. You see, Duo, Relena, Trowa and I are Christian as far as I can tell; Heero is Shintoist; Wufei's Buddhist; I have no idea what Kari is; Quatre's something Orthodox and the Gil and Belle are Jewish. According to them, we'll just have a "Festivus" -the name was all Duo's idea, go figure- on December 25, mainly because that's when all the Christmas specials are on. If you go to the window by the front door right now, you can see the lights on our Christmas tree and the candles glowing on our menorah.

December 11th: At last! Duo has regained full use of his arms! We're free! And I managed to keep myself from pummelling him (I did dump a full glass of orange juice on his head, though. Oopsie.) Trowa's almost back to normal, though he told me everything still sounds a little bit muffled. Heero and Wufei are almost themselves as well, tackling the stairs almost as well as before. Quatre's girlfriend Mira has been coming over a lot and Misty's been over a lot as well. Already they, Kari and Relena and I have become a bit of a clique. Anyway, it looks like Mira's going to be spending the Christmas holiday with us since she lives alone and in Belle's view of this, it is Simply Not Right. Basically Belle said "Oh, incidentally, dear, you're staying here over the holidays and the woodstove goes out sometimes in the middle of the night, so you might want to pack a warm sweater or two," and that was that.

I finally got to meet the newest guys to come from the Bond. The blondish guy, Mackenzie, is a big sweetheart and smart, too. I liked him as soon as I met him. But that Roth!!! First, he spent about five minutes insulting me and Kari (who came with me) and then he turns his attention to Walker, who's still bedridden but sitting up, by the way. He actually said that the Keep should just execute him and get it over with!!!!!! This ended up with Kari slugging him and then Roth belting her back and then it takes me, Mackenzie and seven other Bhaarliads to get them off each other. Apparently she broke his jaw and I saw a lot of scrapes and bruises beginning to fade after we got them apart.

Geez.

Anyway, I've gotta go. Gil's calling me for dinner. I think it's leftovers. Yuck.

December 12th, Quatre and Wufei's birthday: Urgh, I am so full. When Belle makes a cake, she makes it huge. And today she made two. One with "Happy Birthday" written in frosting in Arabic and the other had it written in Mandarin. Belle's good for little details like that. It's funny that both Quatre and Wufei share the same birthday. They're so un-alike! I mean, Quatre is sweet and gentle and kind and pleasant and Wufei…well…isn't.

December 18th: Went to see Walker this afternoon. He's sitting up and on solid foods already. Apparently, he and Darien had a huge pizza-wings-ribs-beer feast the night before to celebrate that. That bugs me. Because of their scary-ass metabolisms, Walker, Darien, Kari and Ryu (Remember him? He's Ria's fighter boyfriend with the red eyes and no sense of humour) are simply incapable of gaining more than a single pound before automatically losing it again. I've seen how much Kari can eat –especially during Thanksgiving dinner- and all I can say is WHERE'S THE JUSTICE!?!?!?

Stupid waistline.

Anyway, Walker's sitting up and feeding himself like I said, but most of all, he's bored out of his tree and it's driving his mom, who's staying home with him, absolutely nuts. And I thought Duo had been bad. When we got there (Gil, Belle, Relena, Kari and the boys went yesterday while I was at work. I went today with Gaelin and Declan.) Walker was somewhere around seventeen bottles of beer, which he was singing at the top of his lungs. Poor Marrigan Broman looked like she was about to pull up a tree with her bare hands and kill him with it. So Gaelin and Declan share this evil twin look and joined in at about fifteen bottles. Have you ever heard the New England boys choir sing a ten-part hamony of ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall? Needless to say, this scared the crap out of Walker. He was cheerful when we saw him, but you can't help but notice the IV in his arm and how haggard he looks, especially around the eyes and he's alarmingly pale. His girlfriend Amy was there as well. Turns out she was also singing along, though not nearly as loudly as Walker was. She was sitting on the bed with him, wrapped up in his arms. They made a game of sneaking kisses when they thought we weren't looking. Gaelin and I ended up playing the same game and "aww"s were exchanged on both sides. Declan looked like he was going to be sick the entire time. What a spoilsport. Maybe I should set him up with Tama Broman or something.

December 21st: The boys, Relena and Kari are off school until January! You know, now that I look at them, Relena and Heero are actually a cute couple. Relena's been sick these past few days and Heero's been really sweet in his own quiet, unobtrusive way. Little things like heating up soup or tea or picking up lozenges from the candy machine at school for her. I think a little bit of the kissy-kissy has been going on as well, for now Heero is the one who's sneezing and Relena's bringing him soup, tea, and on occasionally Shinigami-kun. He's so cute! (Shi-kun, I mean) Actually, he's sitting at my elbow drawing pictures with some broken off leads from a few of Quatre's pencil crayons.

Mira's "moving in" tomorrow morning after Gil and Belle return from the synagogue. It's obvious that Quatre is excited. He's been cleaning the house top to bottom to kill time all morning and he's been practising for music class on the big piano downstairs all afternoon (the high school hasn't got a strings section, which really disappointed Quatre. Trowa's in his class and the teacher was delighted to have them. Mainly because both of them can actually play two notes in pleasant-sounding succession and Trowa *gasp!* has his own flute). With Heero and Relena, Trowa and Kari and now Quatre and Mira, it could get very interesting around here.

Plenty of opportunities for blackmail, anyway.

December 23rd: Mira, Kari, Relena and I stayed up until 3am gossiping and giggling like twelve-year-olds, mainly about the boys. Did you know that Trowa is extremely ticklish? I have no choice now but to use that against him.

December 24th: Christma sorry. Festivus Eve! We're doing secret Santas and gift exchange tomorrow. We made a gingerbread house today and Duo took pity on Shinigami-kun and gave him a chocolate kiss, which he ate most of. This may not sound like a lot, but when your stomach is barely the size of a jellybean, most of a chocolate kiss is a lot. Wufei's been chasing him around the house with his flyswatter for a good half-hour already.

See you in the morning!!!

*****

Okay, so the dates are a bit behind compared to the present. Ah, well. I was busy. Deal.

Ja ne, minna-san!!!

-LPD *//.^*