Thanks as always to our loyal Shichan (I swear, these gushing reviews of yours really help my low self-esteem... :) ) and Sparda (Happy Birthday!), and our new reviewer, Gayln! (Just to clarify, Whenever Duo has Ven "steal" something, they do always return it. He doesn't encourage true thievery.)

Almost done here, folks! After this, just the epilogue... Enjoy!

Kazoku
by ReySolo and Tori Sakana

~~~~~~~~
Chapter 14 (In which everyone finally stops hanging from that darn cliff)
~~~~~~~~

The door opened, and Duo and Heero stepped out. Immediately, Duo was mauled by three young children, all of whom wrapped themselves around his legs.

He grinned. "What, didn't trust your tousan to get me out of there okay?" He ruffled each child's hair, then turned to his partner, smirking. "After all, he was known as the 'Perfect Soldier.'" Suddenly noticing the other's arm, Duo's eyes widened. "Hee-chan, you're bleeding!" He raced to his partner's side and examined the wound.

It was Heero's turn to smirk. "What, don't you think the Perfect Soldier can handle a little flesh wound?"

Duo playfully glared at him. "Oh, right. A man who will set his own broken bones shouldn't have trouble with a minor bullet hole, right?"

Ven looked up at his tousan admiringly. "You set your own broken bones?"

"Cool!" Juuni agreed. After a moment of thinking about it, she amended, "Actually, that sounds kinda gross…"

"That's what I thought when I had to watch him do it," Duo told her, then looked back up to Heero mischievously. "So, Mr. Perfect-Soldier-It's-Just-A-Flesh-Wound, think a kiss will make it all better?"

Heero raised an eyebrow. "I don't know; why don't you test it and see?"

Their lips met, and soon the kiss became a passionate outpouring of all the worries, stresses, and fears both men had endured in the past few days.

"Ewww, parents aren't supposed to kiss!!"

Juuni's cry broke the two apart, as Duo began laughing. His eyes met Heero's in amusement, and the other's look promised that the kiss treatment would be further explored later in privacy.

"You don't seem to mind when Uncle Trowa and Auntie Quatre kiss," Ven told his sister.

"That's different, I don't know…" she trailed off. Then, realizing what he'd said, she burst out in indignation, "Hey! He's Uncle Quatre! He's a boy!!"

"Well, he sounds like a girl, he wears pink…"

"Ventuno! Tousan, make Ven stop calling Uncle Quatre 'Auntie'!"

Heero smirked. "Well, he is kind of…"

"Hee-chan!" Duo interjected. "In case you hadn't noticed, you're gay, too, you know!"

"Well, it would put a bit of a crimp in our relationship if I wasn't, wouldn't it?" Heero retorted.

"As much as I hate to interrupt this loving family reunion," Dr. White broke in, "Might I suggest that we get out of here relatively quickly, as there are still people after us?"

The bickering stopped as Heero and Duo realized she was right.

"What are you doing with us, anyway, White?" Duo asked as the party began heading towards the exit.

"I… decided I was on the wrong side," she answered truthfully. She glanced at the youngest in the group. "I guess part of it was my getting too close to Sifir," she added quietly. "My superior even warned me against it, but I couldn't help it. He's… he's a wonderful child; I realized I didn't want to take his childhood away from him."

Duo looked at her appraisingly. "You made the right choice," he told her.

Dr. White gave him a smile, glad he apparently believed her good intentions.

Suddenly, Heero stopped walking. When Duo looked at him in concern, he stated, "The MS bay."

"MS bay?"

"We keep several mobile suits here," Dr. White explained, realizing they probably wouldn't be leaving quite yet.

"We can't just leave it and let the Preventors deal with it later, can we?" Duo asked with a grimace.

Heero sighed. "You get the kids out of here; I'll take care of—"

"By yourself?" Duo interrupted. "When everyone here is already on alert for intruders? No way, Hee-chan."

Ven, Juuni, and Sifir were silent through this, watching the adults try to figure something out.

"I could assist him," Dr. White suggested.

Duo met Heero's eyes, but spoke to White. "It's not that I don't want to trust you, Doc, but—"

Suddenly Heero's eyes widened, and he rose a hand for silence.

Duo froze. Listening intently, he heard footsteps approaching. Cursing mentally, he saw there was no place for any of them to hide. He motioned for Heero to stay with the kids and Dr. White while he took care of the approaching enemy.

Heero glared and shook his head vehemently, silently letting Duo know that the braided man should be the one to stay behind. But Duo simply shook his head and turned the corner before Heero could stop him.

In tense silence, the Japanese man waited for gunfire, hoping with all his heart that his only recently rescued partner would return unharmed.

A moment later, the uneasy quiet was broken. "Maxwell!"

Heero blinked in surprise. He knew that voice.

"Wuffie! Quat! Tro-man!"

Hearing his partner's jubilant voice announcing the presence of their friends, Heero gestured for Dr. White and his now grinning kids to follow him around the corner.

"You're okay! Where are—?" Quatre broke off his question as the others came into sight.

"Are you all okay?" Trowa asked, just before noticing the blood on Heero's arm. He looked at the Japanese man in concern.

Heero shrugged. "Relatively."

The kids ran over to hug their "uncles," who all wore looks of relief at finding the family intact.

Wufei noticed Dr. White and eyed her suspiciously. "Who's the woman?" he asked.

Duo looked at her, then back to his fellow ex-pilots. "Guys, this is Dr. White. She used to be on the bad guys' side, but then saw the error of her ways," he explained with a grin. "Dr. White, these are Quatre Winner, Trowa Barton, and the grumpy-looking guy is Wufei Chang."

The Chinese man glared at him. "I'll forgive that, only because you called me 'Wufei' for once, Maxwell." Still eying White somewhat distrustfully, he asked, "Doctor?"

She stared back at him defiantly. "Got a problem with female doctors?"

"Yes; they're all stubborn, arrogant meddlers," Wufei retorted.

Duo grinned. "Troubles with the wifey?"

Wufei turned his glare on the braided man. "Do you have any idea how much convincing it took to get her to stay with the kids while I came with these two to save you guys?" He snorted. "Though it looks like we got here too late to do anything."

Heero and Duo exchanged glances. "Actually…" Duo began with a grin.

~~~~~~~~

"What's taking them so long?" Juuni asked worriedly.

"They'll be out soon," Duo assured his daughter.

Heero, Duo, the three kids, and Dr. White were all waiting by the car a safe distance outside the facility. Trowa's car was parked nearby. Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei had been sent in to destroy the mobile suits in the building. The Preventors had been called and a team would be sent in later to take care of the rebel organization, but authorization had been given for the illegal mobile suits to be dispensed with immediately. This not only took care of the largest threat of the group, but also gave the three late arrivals a way to feel better about their inability to help with the actual rescue. So, armed with explosives from both parties' vehicles and pertinent inside information from Dr. White, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei were fulfilling the mission.

Heero had intended to bring the kids and his partner home, but they had insisted on waiting for the others to get out. As long as they stayed alert and out of sight, he figured it couldn't do any harm. Besides, then the others could take Dr. White to the Preventors to be questioned, while his family returned home for some much-deserved rest.

Finally, the observers in the car witnessed three forms moving stealthily away from the building.

"Where's the boom?" Ven asked them the instant the three men entered the clearing.

Looking rather amused, Trowa pulled out a small cylinder. "This will activate the explosives we placed around the mobile suits." As he moved to place his thumb over the switch, Quatre grabbed his arm.

"I wanna push the button," the blond implored.

Sighing and rolling his eyes, the green-eyed man handed the remote activator to his partner. "Yes, dear."

Quatre's eyes widened in anticipation. He began to laugh in a rather eerie manner, causing Duo, Heero, and Wufei to look at each other warily. Trowa just had a look of patient resignation.

The creepy laughter stopped, but Quatre's eyes were still shining with glee as he depressed the button.

Several nearly-simultaneous explosions echoed through the air. Smoke began billowing out of the converted sections of the building.

Looking entirely sane once again, Quatre handed the now-useless remote activator back to Trowa. "Shall we head out now?" he asked.

Ven, Juuni, and Sifir just stared at the blond, eyes wide in a combination of admiration and fear.

Mental note, Ven thought to himself. Never call him "Auntie Quatre" to his face…

~~~~~~~~
TBC
~~~~~~~~

Coauthor Rant: Ta da! The last chapter of Kazoku is done! Hooray! But fear not, brave readers, for there is still an Epilogue to come! If only my lazy-ass coauthor would write it. *Whipcrack* Get to work Rey!

Rey: And how long did it take you to finish that picture?

Tori: That's irrelevant. Anyhoo, time for the announcement about last week's quiz. No one won! That's right. Sparda219 wins an imaginary dust bunny for correctly guessing Quatre's other instrument as the piano, but no one came up with the name of the episode. Well, my DVD-ROM has decided to rebel against my tyrannical rule and refused to play my Gundam Wing eps. So here's my answer: Episode 31, the Glass Kingdom. I could be wrong though.

Since nobody knows the answer, even me, I'll give you guys your prize anyway: The pic is done! Entitled 'Family Portrait', you can find it at:
http:// reyzone .ramen43 .com/fic/kazoku/ kazokuphotos.htm

It took me just about a year to finish - with some pretty long delays along the way - so please go take a look at it!

Anyway, finals are coming up soon for us, so they must be approaching out there in readerland. Good luck!

And that's the way it is.

Additional note from Rey:

For some reason, fanfiction.net keeps puking at the above web address, so you'll have to delete the four spaces from the url. Sorry.