Chapter 2: Caught
"Nii-san!" a little girl's voice called, and Aiden turned to catch the small flying body that flung itself into his arms. "Fly!" Obeying the request, he lifted the slender body into the air, whirling her around as she squealed in delight. Kia was turning six the next day, and the family was having a barbecue together in the backyard this evening before her big party with all her friends tomorrow. The fence around them was freshly painted, and the house bore marks of new carpentry.
"Aiden, you're going to make her throw up," the man standing at the grill told him, smiling at the fondness between the siblings. He was a tall man, though not very broad, and he had obviously given the little girl his thick black hair.
"Gomen," Aiden gave his brightest smile – a half-quirk of his mouth and a shining light in the same deep blue eyes as the man he spoke to – and set the child down. It had been three years since he had come here at sixteen, and he had fallen completely in love with his family. His mother was a sweet woman, gentle and sickly, and often needed help in things neither of his younger siblings could do. He had done household work, dishes, cleaning, and repairs, then immediately offered to paint the fence and take care of the yard. Since then, he had fixed various things like the porch, the heater, and the car every time it broke down. It had been a relief to have something to do with his hands, and a comfort to work in machines again. It was even better, he had decided, since these machines were not made for mass destruction.
His father worked a great deal at his shop in town, and Aiden had helped him off-and-on until Yamashi was old enough to work there part-time. Yamashi was a belligerent boy, now fifteen, and had never really adjusted to Aiden's presence. Yamashi seemed to sense the lingering traces of Aiden's military training, which made him antagonistic toward his new older brother in the pacifist home.
Aiden had never told them of his past, and they had gotten used to the gaping void in their knowledge of him, if not comfortable with it. They knew nothing but the fact that he did not like talking about war, and always watched the news. His mother had even noticed that an odd light came in his eyes when Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian came on. Yamashi helped in the endeavor of watching Miss Darlian, for he had become obsessed with her as an idol figure and had posters of her spread across his walls.
Aiden rarely went into his brother's room.
"Yamashi, help me cut this," Aiden heard his mother call, and the boy went to cut the watermelon for her. He noted that her hair had gotten silver streaks, and her fragile hands shook as they handed Yamashi the knife.
"Carry!" Kia demanded, breaking into Aiden's thoughts, and he obliged as she leapt onto his back.
"Alright," he grinned and carried her to the table, about to set her down when a voice stopped him.
"Heero, I didn't know you were good with kids!"
Aiden's demeanor changed from friendly warmth to black coldness in moments, and he set Kia down on the bench with excessive care before turning around.
His family watched, his father setting his spatula down on the grill, and Yamashi pausing with knife embedded in watermelon.
"Duo."
The young man leaning by the side of the house laughed and came forward, chastising him, "Don't use that tone of voice with me, Aiden."
Aiden took in the Preventers uniform, perpetual smile, and long brown braid in one sweeping glance. "How's Hilde?" His question held no warmth for all its personal aspect, but Duo shrugged the tone off as he always had.
"Fine. She wanted to join the Preventers, but I wouldn't let her. She's got a cute little repair shop." He grinned. "Engaged. You?"
"Fine." He left it at that one syllable, and his mother shook herself to politeness.
"Would you like to stay for dinner, Mr . . ."
"Maxwell, Duo Maxwell," Duo smiled, accepting her offer, and she let him sit beside Aiden.
"Isn't there a Gundam Pilot named that?" the father asked, frowning, as he set the meat on the table.
"Ex-Gundam Pilot, yeah," Duo nodded, eyes alighting on the food.
"Aiden, why don't you tell us how you met your friend," his mother said, her eyes searching his.
"I'd rather not," he sent a glare to Duo, telling him not to say a word, and the Deathscythe pilot shrugged, his mouth full of pickle.
"Why don't you tell them, Hee-chan?" Duo asked almost gently, sending Aiden an acute side glance. The silence that fell upon the table was uncomfortable, and Aiden's insides boiled. After a long moment, Duo got up with a sigh. "Whatever. Come on, 'Aiden,' I have to talk to you." And walked away from the table, expecting the other to follow.
After a pause, Aiden did.
"I have a business proposition," Duo said, his face serious for once as he leaned against the robin's-egg blue of the house. His profile to Aiden was clear and perfect, bangs ruffling slightly in the artificial wind.
"I'm not interested," Aiden replied, his glare cold and unfeeling. "Now get out of my home." He turned away, but Duo's voice stopped him.
"Not even to save 'Jousan?"
Aiden stared into the violet eyes. Duo had known how he would react. "Relena?" Aiden's head bowed a moment and he relented to his tumultuous feelings: "What's wrong?"
"Assassins. Somebody wants her dead, and there's already been three attempts on her life. If it hadn't been me teamed up with Wufei to protect her, she'd be dead by now. Already, the attempts have been pretty close."
In the next moment, Duo found himself being slammed up against the house by his collar, "And you left her alone?!" Aiden's face was twisted into a bestial snarl and his words were harsh and cruel. "Baka. Don't you know she could be dead by now?!" punctuating the terrifying word with a shake.
Duo glared back, unfazed by the treatment. "I have Trowa and Noin covering my spot, not to mention the extra precautions Zechs is making." When Aiden's fury only waned a bit, Duo drove his point home. "But I know that nothing we do is as good as what you can. You're the best, and 'Jousan needs the best right now. I'm good, but this is Relena, and I'm not taking any more chances than you would. Why do you think I came out here?"
Aiden's felt lost for a moment before releasing Duo from his place against the house. The latter adjusted his collar and shrugged more comfortably into his navy, tan-trimmed Preventers jacket.
"Your family can come with you and be put under our protection while you work. You get seven thousand for the initial job, plus four thousand for every extra month you're needed in it. What'd'ya say?"
"I have to ask them." Aiden walked back around the side of the house, lost in his thoughts. Duo followed.
"Are you okay, hon?" his mother asked, looking up at him in concern as he stood by the table.
"I've . . . been offered a job," Aiden didn't look at Duo, but was acutely aware of his presence. "It's on earth, and they would be willing to give you a paid vacation if you came along while I worked."
"What kind of job is this?" his father asked, standing up to face the two young men.
Duo looked at Aiden, who nodded for him to go ahead and tell them. Duo then outlined the basics of the plan, giving them just the factual details and leaving the rest for Heero to answer, including the identity of the person to be protected.
Aiden's mother looked perplexed. "Why do you want Aiden, and not some professional bodyguard?"
"Because Heero's the best," Duo shrugged.
"But Nii-san doesn't do that kind of stuff!" Yamashi protested, affronted that anyone would accuse a member of his family of being involved in such violent work.
"He did," Duo shot a glance at Aiden who sighed and uncrossed his arms, turning from is contemplation of a bluejay that had landed on the fence.
"I was a terrorist, okay?!" Aiden glared at Duo, who looked no happier for the outburst as his family stared. "Happy?" he ground out to the solemn Preventer. "I was a Gundam Pilot . . . I killed people. Killed them."
"We got it, buddy," Duo said softly, rubbing his friend's shoulder to calm him down.
"Damn it," Aiden turned violently away, tears stinging the backs of his eyes, "I didn't want to do this."
"Who are you protecting?" his father finally asked.
"Relena Darlian," Duo told him seriously, and Aiden could just see Yamashi's eyes widening to unnatural proportions.
"Re-re-re-re. . . ." the younger boy stammered, then leapt onto his brother's back, almost knocking the young man over. "You have to take this job!" Yamashi screamed.
Duo laughed heartily, "Oi, Heero, I need my camera." Calming, he told the eager, dismounting boy, "But didn't you know? Your brother could get you in to see Relena any time he wanted. All you need to do is mention the name 'Heero Yuy.'"
"I'm sure she's over that by now," Aiden grimaced, rotating his shoulder and ignoring his mother's questioning gaze.
Duo looked at him seriously, "Hee-chan, you know she's still in love with you. She carries that damn teddy bear everywhere."
Aiden gave him a carefully controlled glance before turning away. "If we're going, we should pack." He walked over to a small building that Duo had taken for a maintenance shed.
After a heartbeat, Duo followed him inside.
"Why did you say that?" Aiden asked after a moment, his voice unsteady as he moved precisely about the room.
"It's true," Duo shrugged. "She's always been in love with you, you just didn't care or had something better to do. You really had 'Jousan worried when you disappeared, and she's not any better for it, though she's trying to get on."
Aiden folded a shirt into his suitcase, clicking it closed and, reaching under the mattress, pulled out a gun and clip, then put it together and stuck it into the back of his waistband.
"We a'ready got guns and stuff," Duo said upon seeing this, "so you don't have to take that."
"I like it," was Aiden's only reply.
Shrugging, Duo looked around. "This building looks kind of new. Did they make it just for you?"
"I offered to build it," Aiden replied, glancing around absently. "I couldn't stay in Yamashi's room . . ."
Duo started to ask why, but soon found out as Kia came and dragged them both to her room, showing Duo her Pretty Pink Gundam collection, and then took them into Yamashi's room where their mother was helping her younger boy pack.
"Now, baby, I know you want to take your Collectors Edition Relena Doll, but I think you could do just fine without it," she was saying, and Duo simply stared at the walls. Posters of Relena Darlian covered them, magazine photos of her plastered across the dresser and mirror, two UFO Catcher dolls of her on his pale pink comforter, a cardboard standup model (the life-size type that tourists take pictures with), and a Collectors Edition doll of her dressed as the Queen of the World standing next to another of her in her ambassadorial garb. Aiden leaned against a large poster of her face, watching Duo's reaction, and gave a small smirk as the latter's wide violet eyes met his own, as if to say "See?"
"Eh . . ." Duo blinked, then turned, shaking himself. "If you guys are ready to go, we should try to make the next plane." "All right," the brown-haired woman said, her eyes moving pensively to her elder son, who looked away, almost guiltily.