Aishiteru

Chapter One

It Begins. . . .

10:20 AM Local Time, Friday, December 13th, Preventer Headquarters Building, New London, AC 201

A little girl of about four years old with unruly platinum blonde hair sat in the corner with her crayons and watched her Mommy and the Lady Une. They were talking about boring stuff again, and that usually meant that Mommy would have to go away soon. That had been her suspicion from the start when Mommy had told her that she was taking her to the Preventer Headquarters with her this morning. Hope hated it when Mommy went away. She would have to pack up a suitcase and go stay with her grandmother, who would spend the entire time she was there talking about the world during the war, and how it had ruined Mommy's life. Hope never cared much for that type of conversation. The war ended years ago, and if telling stories didn't change anything, what was the point of worrying over how everything was so terrible for Mommy? Not to mention, she severely doubted that it had been as hard on Mommy as Grandma had made it out to be. Mommy didn't seem too "ruined" in Hope's eyes. As a matter of fact she seemed quite healthy right now, arguing with the Lady.

Presently, Hope sighed and put down the picture she had been drawing of her old teddy bear with the big red ribbon around its neck and decided to explore the big house her mother had brought her to. She looked up again at her mother and the Lady Une to see if they were paying attention. Of course, they weren't. They were bickering over something about a Peace Summit Meeting on the Moon. Trying to understand the big words made her head go spinny, so she crawled along the perimeter of the room, careful not to let a board creak, and slipped past the heavy metal door that had been left ajar.

Once she was out of earshot, she stood and looked both ways down the corridor. She knew from which end she and Mommy had come, so she turned in that direction and walked silently down the carpeted hall. If she remembered correctly (and she always did), they were on the third floor, which meant she would have to go down four flights of stairs to get to the mess hall, below the main entrance. She had smelled French-fried potatoes from below her in the stairwell when they had come in earlier, and now she wanted to see if she could "cute" the cook into giving her some for free.

At the end of the corridor, she saw an Asian man staring intently at the documents on his clipboard and mumbling about "the iniquity of paperwork" come out of a doorway, and caught a glimpse of the stairway behind him, just where she remembered it to be.

When the man absently turned and walked through an open door, slamming it behind him, she dashed to the door and pulled on the handle. To no avail. Why are all the doors here made of heavy steel, and weigh twenty kilos? This did not deter her, however; she just gritted her teeth and pulled harder. After several seconds of huffing, the door inched out of its frame just enough for her to get her small fingers around the edge and give it a good heave. The door swung open and she scrambled inside.

The metal latch closed with a loud click that resonated in the empty stairwell, and Hope sat on the landing, panting as she waited for a few minutes to catch her breath before proceeding in her mission.

She walked to the edge of the stairs and looked down. The stairs seemed to loop around the shaft forever, making her dizzy, and she gripped the rail firmly. Hope averted her eyes and focused on the step immediately ahead of her and began placing one foot in front of the other, inching her way down. About two landings down, the scent of food cooking and the sounds of people talking wafted up to her nose and ears, steeling her resolve. She hurried her pace and in no time at all she had found the fourth landing she had been looking for. Thankfully, the door was wedged open; she didn't want to repeat the effort it had taken her to open the other door.

As she walked through the doorway she shielded her eyes against the room so bright in comparison to the dimly lit stairwell. Her eyes quickly adjusted and she scanned the room for any familiar faces. She didn't see any, which didn't surprise her since her mother hardly ever took her out anywhere where she could meet people. The only people she knew outside of her family and the house servants were the Lady Une and her doctor, Dr. Sally. That made her wonder why she had even bothered to scan the room, a thought which she quickly dismissed for lack of relevancy to her present situation.

She walked along the edge of the large mess hall, catching the attention of only a few of the Preventer officers, who would pause to point her out to their table mates. While she was walking, one man caught her attention and held it. He seemed very friendly by the way he was standing in the corner talking with a huge smile on his face to a girl with very dark hair, occasionally laughing loud enough that she could hear it on the other side of the room, despite the din. But that wasn't what seemed so peculiar about him ... no, it was definitely the chestnut braid that reached past his knees that had snagged her attention.

She had no idea how that girl he was with could keep from pulling on that wonderful meter-and-a-half long braid! It was just hanging down his back, calling to her from across the room. She couldn't make herself look away! She just had to give it a tug! She yelled at herself mentally the entire time she walked across the room, weaving in and out of legs, eyes intently focused on her prize. Before she realized what was happening, she was standing behind him with her arm outstretched. She put her other arm out to pull the right back, but somehow they both wrapped around the braid and-

"Yowch! What in the--?" Duo spun around looking for the assailant to his braid. Everyone who knew him also knew that only Hilde was allowed to pull his braid. Under penalty of death.

When he turned and saw no one, he was almost just as shocked as when he heard a short gasp and looked down into intense violet eyes that seemed to see through you to the soul.

The small girl with his death-defying friend's gaze quickly bowed her head, her bangs falling to shield her eyes, and stuttered, "S-sorry," before dashing off through the crowd. Hilde gripped his shoulder, jarring him out of his stupor.

"Duo, who was that girl?"

"I dunno ... but I mean to find out," and with that, he began pushing through the crowd, in pursuit of the child. He caught a glimpse of a streak of blonde bolting through the open door to the stairwell and forced his way through the crowd to the afore mentioned doorway. When his eyes adjusted to the darker lighting, he saw the child a flight above him, running up the stairs two at a time -- quite a feat for someone her size. He jogged after her, catching up on the fourth landing.

He saw her panting and pushing fiercely at the heavy door, apparently unable to make it budge. When she saw him coming up behind her, she backed away, feeling the wall with her hands. She eventually backed herself into a corner, where she crouched down, pulling her knees in for protection, and glaring at him defiantly. Duo flinched under her glare. The eyes were exactly the same, with the exception of hue. Watching her there, infringing on the copyrights of the patented Heero-Yuy-death-glare, was the proverbial automaton shouting "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" while waving its robotic arms madly inside his cranium.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, Shorty! I'm not gonna hurt you," he said, trying to calm down, himself. He knelt to her eye level, flinching again as she continued to glare. "Well, that's a good 6.5 on the 'creep-factor' scale," Duo muttered under his breath, before sighing and continuing with, "What's your name, little one?"

The girl hesitated, then her eyes softened (much to Duo's relief) and replied, almost inaudibly, "Hope."

"Hope what?" he pressed. She drew back again, and he tried another question, "Where are your parents?" She remained silent, but Duo persisted, "I need to know where they are if I'm gonna bring you back."

"But I'll get in trouble...."

"Does that mean your parents don't know where you went?" She paused, apparently considering her options, and then nodded. "Then I really hafta take you back. Your mommy and daddy are probably turning this place upside down looking for you. Now where are your parents?"

"Mommy was talking to the Lady down there," she pointed at the door, indicating the offices on the other side.

"The lady? Oh, you mean Lady Une?" She nodded. This was getting more and more incriminating, and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear what he was about to find out. This kid shows up out of nowhere at the Preventer Headquarters looking frighteningly like Mr. Perfect soldier, Heero Yuy, and tells him that her mother is somewhat close to Lady Une. Oh, man -- and this had started out as such a good day, too! He had one last Hope ... "What's your mommy's name?" She looked at him blankly.

"Mommy."

"Your mommy's name is Mommy?" She nodded. Duo groaned. He let out an exasperated sigh and took her hand, practically lifting her off the ground when he stood, and opened the door.

*

"How could I have let this happen!? What kind of mother am I, that I've lost my four year old daughter! I'm not fit to parent!"

"Calm down, she couldn't have gotten far."

"You don't know my daughter! She broke the lock on her play pen when she was 18 months old!"

*

Duo groaned. Again. He led the child down the hall to where the shouts in familiar voices emanated, all the while steeling himself to the fact that he would have to face Relena. In his twisted mind, he thought of an ... original ... way of making his entrance and smirked to himself, imagining the look on Rel's face when he waltzed in with Hope. Duo swaggered the rest of the way down the corridor, coming to a stop in front of Lady Une's main office and leaned against the doorjamb, still holding the girls hand while she studied her shoelaces. Duo cleared his throat.

"Though it was not assigned to me as a mission objective, I nonetheless took it upon myself to intercept a suspicious personage for questioning on your behalf. I discovered her skulking around the base, possibly collecting information for use against the Preventer organization. I believe you will be most interested in what we've uncovered thus far."

Relena spun around and in a blink of an eye had swooped up her daughter, apparently oblivious to Duo. She proceeded to assail the child with questions.

"Where on Earth have you been? You know better than to run off by yourself! Do you know what you've put me through? I was scared to death! Don't you ever do that to me again, missy! You are in BIG trouble!"

"Hey, hey, easy Rel! She was on Preventer property the whole time; it's like a giant playpen."

"Oh, well that's reassuring."

"Preventer Hades, may I remind you who signs your check?"

"Look, I just made a delivery. If my services here are unappreciated, next time I'll just sit back and let the situation progress naturally."

"Effectively defeating the purposes of a Preventer."

"Well what was I supposed to do? Wait for her outside your doorway? I would have, if someone hadn't conveniently forgotten to inform me of her existence. Anyway, kids'll be kids, and Heero's kid is bound to be a little ... adventurous. Call me when she starts blowing up her doll houses or something. "

Duo dejectedly turned to leave, when Relena called out, "Duo, wait!" Duo turned around, half expecting her to make him sign a gag order or something. "Thank you for bringing her back. I owe you." Duo was surprised out of sulking.

He made a quick recovery, however, and came back with, "Sure, no problem."

"Where was she, anyway?"

"The cafeteria," Duo smirked.

"The cafeteria?!"

"Might never have seen her, among all those Preventer jackets, if she hadn't pulled my braid," Duo added. Hope now seemed intensely fascinated by the threading on her mother's lapel. Relena turned to face her daughter.

"Did you pull Duo's braid?" she asked, aghast. Hope, never meeting her mother's gaze, merely nodded. "Did you apologize?" Hope now seemed very offended and was adamant in making sure that her mother knew that she had, in fact, apologized for her actions.

"I most certenlly did!" she said, tripping over "certainly."

"Properly?" Relena added. Hope seemed less forthcoming. "I'll bet you didn't even introduce yourself. Has all my work been for nothing?"

Hope gave an exaggerated sigh and wriggled down from her mother's hip, first tugging on the leg of her bib overalls in an attempt to curtsey and then quickly amending it to a curt bow.

"My name is Hope Nadeshiko Darlian Peacecraft," she said monotonously, extending her right hand, "I am pleased to make your appendage."

"Well, she certainly has her father's verbal flair, doesn't she?" He grimaced playfully at the recollection of Heero's talents regarding the upkeep of his appendages. His grimace metamorphosized into a charming smile as he returned the bow and took the offered hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Peacecraft," he said smoothly. "I am called Duo Maxwell; I may run and hide, but I will never tell a lie. Especially not to pretty young ladies, such as yourself and your youthful mother." She blushed and again studied her shoelaces as he gently pecked her small knuckles.

"Now Duo, don't you have a wife wandering around this compound?" Lady Une chided.

"Ah, yes. And I must remain forever faithful to my beloved. Therefore, I fear I must leave your presence, my ladies, lest I find myself beyond deliverance from the temptation of your feminine wiles. And so I bid you farewell, my seductive seraphs, my singing sirens, my -"

"Duo..."

"Adieu, adieu! Auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, and gesundheit!" And with that, Duo gave a second, exaggerated, bow - his nose almost touching his toes, and his braid falling over his head to coil on the floor. He rose from the bow quickly, so that his braid flipped back over to slap his backside, eliciting a giggle from Hope, and then he was gone - disappearing down the hall.

*

"Well, that's one more person to add to the list," Relena said with a sigh.

"And we know he will tell Hilde," Lady Une added. "So that's two, really."

"I'm glad. That's two more people I don't have to keep it from." Relena smiled reassuringly at Lady Une. Meanwhile, about a meter lower, Hope was puzzled about this new friend of hers.

"Mommy?" Relena turned her attention back to Hope.

"Yes, Nadey?"

"How does Duo know my daddy?" Relena smiled and prepared to weave a not-quite-lie for her daughter about how Duo and Daddy were allies during the fight for peace, and had battled side by side to protect the known universe.

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