Thanks to LaiN for reviewing! Here's chapter 2 for you! :)

Kazoku
by ReySolo and Tori Sakana

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Chapter 2 (In which stuff starts to happen)
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Juuni sat on the swing, moving slowly back and forth, her pumping legs lending practically no speed to her motion. "I need a push!"

"Me, too!" Ventuno yelled, though his swing was moving rather rapidly compared to his sister's.

Duo moved forward, but Juuni protested, "No, Tousan! He gives better pushes!"

Duo quirked an eyebrow up at Heero, who looked back smugly and moved behind Juuni. Duo smiled as Heero easily sent the chains on the swing to almost parallel to the ground and Juuni squealed with delight. He then moved toward Sifir, who was sitting a few feet away playing in the sand. He was building a sand castle... no, a sand base? With full armory?

Suddenly Sifir stopped. He stood and reached up to pull on Duo's shirt. He looked at his dad expectantly.

"What?" Duo asked.

Sifir just kept looking up at him.

"What is it, Sifir?" Duo asked, getting impatient.

"He has to go to the bathroom," Heero called, now giving Ventuno a push.

Duo looked up at Heero, dumbfounded. "How do you do that?"

Heero just grunted.

Sifir pulled on Duo's shirt again, and Duo nodded. "Okay, Sifir, I'll take you. Heero, I'll be right back..."

Heero nodded, still giving the older two children enough momentum to fly high into the air.

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"Dad, who are those men?" Sifir asked as they were walking back out toward the park.

Duo looked at his son. "What men?"

"The men that have been following us," he replied matter-of-factly.

Duo turned his head slightly, trying not to look like he was looking around. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed three men coming up toward them. There was something in their bearing that seemed… dangerous. "Sifir," he said quietly, "When I say the word, run back to Tousan as fast as you can. I'll follow when I can."

Sifir looked slightly hesitant, but stated calmly, "Mission accepted."

Nodding, Duo waited for a few seconds, then commanded, "Now." As his son took off toward the park, Duo ran in the opposite direction. Looking back, he swore as he realized the men were still heading after Sifir, not chasing him as he'd hoped. He turned and raced to protect his son.

Unfortunately, the men were faster. He saw two grab Sifir, while the other looked in his direction and nodded. His forehead wrinkled in confusion. Suddenly realization dawned, and he turned around—just in time to see a tree branch heading right for his head.

Then he saw nothing.

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"Haven't Dad and Sifir been gone a while?" Juuni asked.

Heero looked at her, realizing she was correct. Where were they?

"I'll go check!" she shouted, and ran in the direction of the bathrooms.

Ven continued swinging, but called after her, "Baka! You can't go in the boys' room!"

Heero turned back to him. "Ven, don't call your sister a baka."

"Well, she is one," he retorted.

Heero sighed, then looked in the direction the rest in which of his family had disappeared. Juuni had raced beyond the corner of the building by now.

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Juuni turned the corner just in time to see her father collapse to the ground, a small trail of blood flowing down the side of his face. A muscular man stood over him with a large branch, apparently making sure he was indeed incapacitated. To the side, two men were holding a struggling Sifir, dragging him toward a blue van waiting nearby.

Eyes wide, Juuni opened her mouth to scream, but was prevented from doing so by a hand that closed over her lips. At the same time, strong arms lifted her up and began carrying her toward the van.

Juuni did what came naturally: bit down, hard. Unfortunately, the hand merely jerked a bit and remained in place. She continued to gnaw on the flesh, but the grip remained solid.

She kicked out her legs, but could not manage to free herself. She was forced into the van behind Sifir, her mouth still covered until her dad was hauled in and the doors were all shut.

At this point screaming would probably do nothing. She screamed anyway.

As the four men and their captives sped away, Juuni's piercing scream echoed through the van. "TOUSAN!!!!!!!!"

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"Juuni?" Heero called into the empty bathrooms, feeling uneasy. "Duo? Sifir?"

"Dad?" Ven added his call.

Silence was their only answer.

"Tousan, where did they go?"

Heero looked around the empty restroom. "I don't know, Ven." He spotted something on the grass outside and walked over to it. Blood. "Kuso." [1]

"What does that mean?" Ven hadn't heard his tousan say that Japanese word before.

Heero looked up at his oldest son, a dark look in his eyes. His soldier's instinct told him what had happened. "They've been kidnapped."

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As Juuni opened her mouth to begin screaming again, the man in the seat beside her turned and glared at her silently, the threat clear. Though the glare did not in any way compare to her tousan's, she closed her mouth. Her throat was starting to hurt, anyway.

She turned to look at her brother and father. Sifir was glaring daggers into the back of the driver's seat, at the man who had knocked out their dad. Her father himself was still lying unconscious on the floor of the van, the blood on his head mostly dried. Glancing worriedly down at him, she demanded, "Why did you kidnap us? Why did you hurt my dad? Are you going to take care of his head or what? He's probably got a conc-conch-cushion-that bad thing you get when you've been hit on the head. Don't you have a first aid kit in here somewhere?" She didn't care if their captors got mad at her, she wanted her dad to wake up.

The man in back with Sifir sighed. "This kid is so annoying…"

Annoying? Juuni thought. I can be annoying. You think that was annoying, you ain't seen nothing yet… Maybe she could annoy their kidnappers into letting them go. "Where are we going? Are we there yet?" She whined, drawing out words as long as irritatingly possible. "Huh? Are we? When are we gonna get there? I'm hungry…" She glanced back at Sifir, who was still glaring at the seatback, but she thought she could detect the hint of a smile on his lips. He found this amusing. Good, well, she had more of a show for him, and for their captors. Now let's see, what else besides whining does Dad use to annoy Tousan into getting off his computer? Oh, yeah, that one always works… Well, if you call Dad stopping because Tousan smacks him "working"… It's worth a shot. She began to sing.

"Ninety-nine bottles of pop on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of pop, take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of pop on the wall. Ninety-eight bottles of pop on the wall…"

The man in back groaned. "Shut up, kid!"

"…Ninety-eight bottles of pop, take one down, pass it around, ninety-seven bottles of pop on the wall…" she continued cheerfully.

The man was starting to lose it. "Please, can I just shut her up now? We have the kids' father, won't he be enough to convince the boy to cooperate?" He pulled out a handgun and cocked it.

Juuni noticed Sifir's expression had lost its amused look. He glanced to his sister, trying to convey a message, then turned his glare on the man beside him.

She realized her brother wanted her to stop, that it was probably very risky to continue, but something inside her just wanted to hurt these mean guys, and her only way of doing so at this point was annoying the heck out of them. "…Ninety-seven bottles of pop on the wall, ninety-seven bottles of pop…"

"Please?" the man in back begged.

"No." The man in the front passenger seat spoke for the first time. "It's bad enough we kidnapped an ex-Gundam pilot and two of their kids. You think any of us will survive if we kill their daughter?"

Juuni smiled, liking that logic. "…Take one down, pass it around…"

The man beside her sighed and pulled out a gag, wrapping it around her mouth. Then, realizing she'd just pull it off, he wrapped another piece of cloth around her wrists. She glared at him.

"Thank you," the man in back proclaimed in relief.

Juuni took in a deep breath through her nose, and began to hum through the cloth, starting where she'd left off. This time was louder and more irritating to make up for the gag. "…Hhhnng-ngh hnnk ghhngh hn ghhn hn ghh hnnn…"

The man in the passenger seat, who Juuni figured was the leader, sighed. "Fine."

The man in back grinned evilly.

Juuni's eyes widened with fear, but somehow her voice continued to sing/hum against her volition, even as she felt the cold of the gun muzzle against her head.

"No," the leader commanded. "We can get rid of her, but we're not going to kill her. Stop the van," he told the driver.

The van pulled to the side of the road. Juuni looked out the window, realizing they were in the middle of nowhere. What was she supposed to do when they let her out? And she hadn't even been watching the route like she should have; she'd been too busy annoying the kidnappers. What would she do?

"This way we don't face the wrath of having killed her, but she won't be able to do anything to stop us, or help them find us," the leader explained, gesturing for the man next to her to shove her out of the van.

Help find them, Juuni thought, remembering something. She'd made a neat little transmitter thing from an old radio her dad had found for her, and it was in her pocket. If she could only manage to drop it in the van without them noticing…

"Out, you little brat," the man in back ordered, as the man beside her opened the door and yanked her out.

Juuni worked the tiny device out of her pocket just in time to drop it onto the van floor. Just as the door was being shut, she caught Sifir's eyes. It terrified her as she saw a hint of fear in the usually emotionless eyes of her little brother. Fear for who: himself, her, or Dad?

As the van sped off, she thought after him, Take care of Dad—and yourself.

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TBC
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Footnote:

[1] "Kuso" = "Shit." (Tori note: Tee hee. Hee-chan cursed.)

Co-author Rant: Hi everybody! It's Tori, your friendly neglected co-author! Rey stepped out of the room for a minute, so I've stolen the keyboard for my own nefarious purposes. Muwahaha! I hope anyone reading is enjoying our lil story so far, and believe me it gets better later on! So keep checking for updates! And go look at the pretty pictures I drew! The kids are sooo cute! I want a little Sifir to cuddle. *pouts* Anyhoo, Happy Wednesday! Ja ne!