Rocks in Sand
© Lady Pax
A/N- WOW! I'm on a roll!! ^o^ Fwee! *dances around like an insane chipmunky-thingamajig* Hehe! Thanks reviewers! *waves* Love you all! *g* So read and review!
A/N- People, please, excuse my French... I translated English words to French on an online translator...so I hope I don't offend anybody if the French is off! Achi!
Disclaimer: I don't know, what animes I own...the wind has a way, to tell me: "ze-ro"... Flowers speak a stupid disclaimer, I pray to Bandai: stop torturing me... War...mechas, calm me... oo~h Gundam Wing... someone, please...give me... the moon, and all it's colonies... maybe I'll own them someday... I don't know, what animes I own...the wind has a way, to tell me: "ze-ro"... Flowers speak a stupid disclaimer, I pray to Bandai: stop torturing me... my parody of disclaimers for the song "Hiru no Tsuki", the first Outlaw Star ending song. ^_^
Shae and Riana belong to me, btw. ^_^
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part | four
(this takes place in the time during part three)
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Relena stood up, and rushed to the door. Her voice floated over to the living room.
"Treize! Oh, I'm glad you could make it! Come in, please – come in. Wufei and the others are in the living room."
"Thank, you, mademoiselle," said a smooth voice. Footsteps echoed down the corridors until two people entered the living room, Relena and a tall, strongly built man. His eyes were a piercing frosty-blue, and a small curl of sandy-brown hair fell in front of his eyes. Jeans that fit his legs, and gray turtleneck hid the golden-brown tan he had, making him seem quite out of place (beyond Wufei and Trowa) with the slightly paler faces around him.
Wufei stood when he realized who it was, and he shook hands with the man. "I'm glad you could make it, Treize. I'm sure you remember everyone here."
"Oui," said Treize. [ Yes ] His eyes went over the people, and landed on Zechs and the girl next to him. Hm, who were they?
"Non, en fait, Wufei. The man, and the girl next to him – I don't know them," he said. [ No, actually, Wufei... ]
"Oh. Yes, those are the guests that just arrived today – that you didn't meet. Treize, this is Zechs Merquise. Zechs, this is Treize Khushrenada." Zechs stood, and shook Treize's hand, smiling at him.
"Nice to meet you, eh, Zechs?" He had trouble pronouncing the name.
"Yes, it's Zechs. And likewise, Mr. Khushrenada."
"Ah, no, call me Treize. That is what all my friends call me!" Zechs realized that Treize's accent wasn't totally French – there was hardly a trace of it at all. Maybe he wasn't born in Paris, or anywhere in New France.
Zechs smiled, and nodded.
"And who is this?" Treize asked, looking at Riana who had stood up as well.
"Mon nom est Riana Merquise," said Riana in fluid French. [ My name is Riana Merquise. ] She had been taking a French course since gradeschool now, and had learned the writing and reading already. She could speak it fluently. "C'est un plaisir, je suis sûr." [ It's a pleasure, I'm sure. ] She smiles warmly at him. He seemed nice enough.
"Superbe! Vous parlez très bons français! Mais le plaisir est toute mine, Mademoiselle Riana Merquise. Je suis sûr." [ Excellent! You speak very good French! But the pleasure is all mine, Miss Riana Merquise. ]
Riana smiled, eyes twinkling, and she nodded at him, and stopped shaking his hand. He smiled again, then walked over to the others to talk. The oldest Merquise daughter walked towards Relena, who was speaking to Mariemaia – something about the Merquise baby waking up. She blinked. "Can I see her then?" she asked. "Or is she crying?"
"She's not crying," said Mariemaia. "But I don't want to go back upstairs. Mommy...." She went off to go find Hilde.
Riana looked at Relena. "Will you show me the nursery? I couldn't find my way out of a closet in your house, Aunt Relena."
"I'll show it to her," said a new voice. The two turned. It was Wufei.
Relena smiled, and nodded. "Okay. I'll see you two later then." Then she walked off to speak to her guests.
The trek upstairs was silent until they had gotten to the very top. "I take it..." said Wufei slowly as he opened the nursery door open slowly, "that you don't like Duo very much?"
"Define like," she said heatedly before stepping in and looking through the room for a bed or crib that held Shae. Most were empty, except three. One held a baby with black hair – which she knew was Noin and Sally's; another held a baby that was bald now – she didn't know who it belonged to; and the last held Shae – the only one in a bed. "Sweety!" she said softly, reaching down an picking Shae up.
"Sissy!" Shae said in equal excitement and flung her small arms around her neck. "I missed you! When'd you get here?!"
"I missed you too, little one. And we got here a little while ago. Did you have a nice sleep?" Shae nodded her head vigorously.
"The plane was FUN!"
Riana laughed softly. "I'm sure it was. Do you want to go downstairs and see Dad? We'll do something fun later, I promise." Shae nodded, then bounced out of the room and down the stairs where Riana could hear Treize's distinctive voice say something that sounded like "qui est ceci?" [ Who is this? ]
Wufei and Riana were alone in the room. "What did you mean by what you whispered downstairs?" he asked.
She looked at him. "I was whispering lots of stuff to myself. It just depends on what you heard."
"About saying that Heero was weak, by not wanting to give his...sperm...to the egg and ovaries of the woman that donated them."
Riana shrugged. "Isn't it obvious? If my father cared about me, then wouldn't he have put of more of a fight and tried to give his sperm to me? His attributes? The way my father told ME, was that he barely argued about who's traits were going to be mine! Dad said he didn't really want a child when I was born!"
"They were young," Wufei said.
"Not my dad," she said waspishly. "And then, when Shae was going to be born, Heero jumped right at the idea of DNA mixing. I was old enough to understand that it was a dangerous procedure, and I told him the facts that Shae still had a large chance of dying – not matter how little the percents were. He told me he knew, but he wanted a child so badly now."
"Maybe he knew Shae would not die – she's here, you know."
She glared at Wufei. "Shae almost DID die. Dad and I were worried, and stayed in the waiting room all day. But Heero stayed at our house – lying in bed and doing nothing! It was as if he wanted her to die – like he didn't care! If he wanted a child so bad, he could've at least shown some worry! Or he could have been smart and done the egg and ovary donation setup! But no! By then he was already having an affair with that bastard Duo! And he didn't want Duo to take it the wrong way – if he knew he was trying to get a child with my dad!"
Her rant was cut short by a piercing child's wail. She turned, and saw the baby she didn't recognize was crying. Her expression softened, and she picked it up and rocked it back to sleep in her arms – all of it taking a few moments. When she stopped, she looked at the baby's face when she held it, and smiled. "He's beautiful," she said softly.
"I'm surprised you like that baby so much," Wufei said.
"Why is that?" she asked. "He's gorgeous."
Wufei didn't seem to hear her last comment. "It's Heero and Duo's."
Riana's arms gave way, and the baby's head hit the edge of the crib, but she recovered before she could drop him. But she didn't do anything to stop his crying this time. She just stared at the face of the baby, and looked at the thin locks of chestnut hair covering its almost bald head. And the violet-blue eyes that were wide open in pain. It was her former-father's child... Heero's child... Duo's child...
She had another sibling.
A brother that looked like the one person she hated more than anyone in the world...
Duo Maxwell.
As if on cue, said man with a braid, followed by Heero stepped into the room. "We just came to see why Akio was cry—" Duo's voice faltered when he realized who was holding their baby. "What are you doing? Did you hurt him?" Duo asked. He rushed forward, and Riana literally dropped the baby in his arms – making it cry louder. She suddenly felt very cold, and very...sick...
"Hey!" Duo exclaimed. "Riana, you can hurt him! Just because—"
"Duo, be quiet," came the quiet order from Heero. His koi reluctantly followed the order, and sat at the windowsill and calmed Akio down.
Wufei walked out the door, not wanting to get in the mix of things, while Heero walked towards his oldest daughter, and put his hands on her shoulders. "Riana...Riana look at me..." She followed directions, and Heero winced when he saw her eyes were cold...amazingly cold, as if someone had stuck a needle in her eye – and she had not tears to help it.
"How could you?" she said in a cracking voice, interrupting him.
"What?"
"How could you?" she said, louder this time. "How could you do that? Without telling us earlier?" she wrenched out of his grip. "How could you have sex with HIM," she pointed at Duo in a disgusted way, "have a child, and not let us know about it?! Either Dad doesn't know, or you told him not to tell me – either way, I still can't believe you! That child is a BASTARD, Father!" she exclaimed, and Duo yelled out something. Riana didn't listen. "He's an illegal child! You guys aren't even married! The divorce isn't even on paper yet! Don't you KNOW that!?"
"Riana, calm down," Heero said sternly.
"NO! You're not my dad! You can't tell me what to do!" She brushed past him, out the nursery, and the only noise that could be heard was the footsteps going down the stairs, and her voice calling for Zechs.
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A/N- VEEEEEERY interesting... Did you like it? Or did the parts seem a little rushed? It's not the end, I guarantee... ^_^
Review!