Chibi Kisses 08 – School Daze

(written for Ery, co-conspirator in chibi plot bunnies! ^_^)

Pairings : Barest hints of 1+5 and 13+6
Ratings : PG
Warnings : AU, chibi cutesiness, fluff
Disclaimer : Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, Sotsu, Sunrise and associated affiliates, not me.

Summary : It's Feifei's first day of pre-school and he's totally excited! Our Feifei is growing up (learning to be good!)! ^o^

A/N : *huggle the chibis* Maaa...I missed them! And I dunno why but having the G-boys as little tots is so gratifying! LOL. Hope this puts a smile on your face as it did to me! And ah, thanks for all those who reviewed! ^_^; Considering this is a chibi fic...


"Stand up and let mommy take a look."

Never was an order obeyed as readily as it was. The boy, all of four years of age and proud as anything, got up onto his little legs with endearingly childish clumsiness. He was all blue and white today. Stripey blue-and-white shirt, navy-blue shorts, white socks topped with sparkling white school shoes on his feet. And clearly, he was feeling all pleased with his crisp new uniform. His small, round face was beaming as brightly as a sunbeam, making his big black eyes crinkle into winking crescents.

"Do a turn for mommy."

"Uhn!" Throwing out his arms like he was trying to hug the world, Feifei swung himself in a little twirl like he was a top...and then another twirl...and another.

She chuckled indulgently, stretching out her arms. "Enough, enough..." And she shook her head with a sigh when he plopped himself fully into her embrace. Raising an eyebrow, she appraised her young son. Just ten minutes into the new uniform and it was already starting to look creased. Feifei's bright eyes twinkled back at her with a mock serious expression and she couldn't help tickling him on the tummy and laughing when he burst into boisterous giggles and squirming.

Today was the first day of pre-school for her Feifei. By all means, she was as proud as any mother would be, but she was also worried. Would Feifei get along with the other little boys and girls? He was an only child, and practically the lord of the house most of the time.

"Mameee..."

"Hmm?" she glanced down in surprise. Feifei was already sitting up, his eyes pleading and earnest.

"IwannagoNOW."

She nodded, laying aside her concerns for the time being. "Go get your bag." Then, she watched as Feifei trundled to fetch his new school bag. It was a gaily-coloured affair with prints of robots – or mechs as Feifei often corrected her – from the action cartoons he liked to watch. He returned with the back strapped to his little shoulders, looking all puffed up with pride. Now he was a real pre-schooler!

"Ready?" she grinned.

"Uhn!" he gave an enormous nod.


++++++++++


"I expect all your times tables to be learnt by now. No, don't make that noise. Wasn't the homework your times tables? Come, hush, sit yourselves properly in your rows. We'll have the little test now."

There was even more scraping and chattering and griping as a whole class of seven-year-olds began the rather messy operation of getting back into their seated rows.

Heero returned to his seat by the window. By sheer chance and luck, he had been allocated one of the window seats, and he loved it. He could see out of it and into the playground below. And further still, he could see the big green field and next to it, the little nursery school for the pre-schoolers. Only a fence of bright yellow and blue divided the nursery school from the primary school that Heero was now studying in. In fact, if he peered hard enough, he could see right into the nursery school where already it was starting to fill up with the newest batch of little pre-schoolers.

"Now remember, the row that gets the most right answers will get a treat."

He was barely listening to the maths teacher. This batch of pre-schoolers included a certain cute and impetuous Feifei. By this time, he should be able to spot Feifei among the little ones. From somewhere on the other side of the classroom, he vaguely heard Trowa's name being called. Then came the question : eight by nine. Trowa's answer was quick and sure, and Heero wasn't surprised. The only classmate he had whose schoolwork was as good as his, was Trowa.

He was still staring hard out of the window, craning his head this way and that. But...there was no sign of any round little black head.

A sharp thud against his head startled him out of his little mission. He swung around and realised that Zack Myers was the one who had thrown the eraser at him. He was just going to glare at the offender when the teacher's voice suddenly boomed just above his head.

"Why aren't you paying attention, Heero?"

He jumped as he stared upwards at the teacher, who looked like a looming giant to him now. Thinking the better of it, Heero stood up quickly.

"Tell us. What's twelve by eleven?"

Heero did a quick scan around the classroom, seeing the wrinkled faces of his classmates' as they mentally tried to work out the answer. Trowa on the other hand, had one hand propping his chin with a most serene expression on his face. A little smirk tugged at the corner of his lip as he glanced Heero's way. Heero had to fight down the urge to stick his tongue out at Trowa.

"A hundred and thirty-two," he answered clearly.

He watched in satisfaction as the disgruntled maths teacher walked up to the board and wrote down the marks he had scored for his row. But his little burst of delight faded when he turned back to the window and realised that the pre-schoolers had already disappeared into their respective classrooms. All that were left behind was a whole bunch of harried-looking parents watching on anxiously, and listening even more anxiously for the slightest sound of distress that might have came from their kids.

++++++++++

"I don't understand *why* I have to be here."

Zechs hid his grin behind a hand. If he so much as hinted his amusement, it'd probably send his best friend striding straight back to the pool hall from where he had been dragged.

Said best friend had one fist propping up his cheek, a posture which somehow managed to look graceful on him. That was how Treize always was. Distinguished and stately, no matter his level of indignation.

Turning away from a moment, Zechs waved as he saw Trowa emerged from the canteen of the neighbouring primary school. The young boy looked surprised to see him, and even more surprised to see Treize, but he recovered so smoothly he was a picture of calm by the time he reached them.

"Hello, Tro," Zechs smiled at the kid, and this time, he could barely suppress a chuckle when he saw Trowa and Treize greet each other with a non-committal nod of head. Amazing, the two brothers' non-verbal communication. The familial resemblance had never been more striking than it was now. Treize and Trowa, despite the significant age gap, were both staunchly independent and self-preserved. And both had the same auburn hair that tickled their faces in the most comical way. Therefore, nobody could understand why their littlest brother, pre-schooler Duo, was just so very different from the two elder boys. Duo had enough voice and energy to outlast his two older brothers for sure. Zechs remembered once Treize had informed him, with the wryest expression on his face and an armful of bawling Duo, that Duo took after no one in the family.

Well, whatever it was, he managed to drag Treize to the nursery school to keep an eye out for both of their baby brothers. Treize hadn't wanted to come, but it didn't take Zechs too much effort to wheedle his way through Treize's protests. Besides, Zechs was worried when his little Q-ball had to go off to nursery school looking all teary-eyed. If not for Mum not being to stay for the whole day, he wouldn't have needed to come.

"Ah, where's Heero?" Treize suddenly asked.

Oh true...other than Q-ball and Duo, it was also little Feifei's first day at nursery school. And there was no way Heero would not be around where Feifei was.

"There," young Trowa said solemnly as he pointed.


+++++++++


Heero wondered if he was just like these tiny kids not so long ago. Everywhere he peered, there were all these little faces, some already scrunched up in tears, others giggling and chattering, and some just wide-eyed with bewilderment and nothing much else.

Where was Feifei?

Puzzled, he walked along the bright-coloured fence, still peering into each nursery class, and finding no Feifei, until he reached the last class. Spotting lil' Duo and Q-ball instantly brought a smile to Heero's lips.

Q-ball's huge, baby-blue eyes were still rather red-rimmed from earlier crying, but now he was giggling at the mischief lil' Duo was up to. Clearly undaunted by unfamiliar situations and even more unfamiliar fellow pre-schoolers, the little russet-haired boy was grinning impishly as he reached a chubby hand towards the little girl classmate sitting in front of him. Wrapping his hand around one of the girl's long ringlets, he tugged hard, before letting that ringlet go and chortling when it bounced like a spring.

Heero's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets, and made a mental note never to let Feifei do something as naughty as that.

Where was Feifei, anyway?

Heero was just about to walk back to the head of the fence to start checking the classrooms all the way from the first one again, when he just glimpsed a flash of black. His smile grew when he saw Feifei emerge from the playhouse that was at the back of the classroom. He wanted to laugh when Feifei, as imperious as ever, began holding court with the little circle of pre-schoolers that surrounded him. Heero couldn't hear what was going on; it just sounded like childish babbling to him. Yet, it seemed perfectly understandable to the kids. Then Heero realised that Feifei had just assigned roles to his fellow classmates, and all those roles clicked in once they began playing house again. Ah, Feifei was as bossy as ever, but Heero wouldn't deny the twinge of warmth he felt to see his cute little friend getting along well with the other kids.

He had came here wanting to make sure that Feifei was fitting in okay, but from the looks of it now, there was no real need to. Also, he didn't want to interrupt the kids' game of house. With this thought in mind, he turned to leave. His break would soon be over anyway.

"Heero!HEERO!"

Surprised, Heero wheeled around, just in time to see a round little ball of energy barrel towards him. It stopped only when it nearly crashed right into the fence. Heero blinked down at the beaming, upturned face of Feifei.

"HEERO!" Feifei squealed in delight as he extended one chubby arm through the grilles towards Heero.

Breaking into a smile, Heero stooped and patted that arm, trying not to wince when Feifei's fingers caught his hair and began tugging. So much for his plan to teach Feifei that fingers and hair didn't go together.

"So, what did Feifei do today?" he squeezed his hand through the grilles and patted Feifei's rosy cheek.

"Iplaywifmyfriends, missannateachfeifeitosing, Idrawheeroandfeifeitogether!"

"You did so much!" Heero exclaimed. "Where's your drawing?"

Grinning proudly, Feifei turned and pointed excitedly to the classroom. Heero raised his eyes and saw that indeed one of the walls of the classroom was covered with drawings tacked to them. Well...technically they were drawings. They looked more like doodling to him. It was hard to differentiate one from the next.

"Where's Feifei's drawing?"

"THERE...THERE! Theblooooandgreeeeen one."

Ohhh...now he knew. Heero stared at the blob of blue and green streaks, and then he saw beneath the childish strokes, how Feifei had carefully painted two different figures – a blue one and a green one – and also made sure that the blue figure was longer than the green one. Heero and Feifei. The more Heero looked at the painting, the more it looked like them.

The school bell rung suddenly, chiming its reminder all throughout the primary school. It was time for Heero to return to classes.

Reluctantly, he turned to Feifei and again. "I have to go back to school, Feifei. You go play with your friends."

Feifei's face fell, but other than a tiny whimper, he made no protest, apparently having learnt what a school bell meant and that no matter how much he wanted Heero to stay, school was still school.

Heero relented for the moment. Stooping down even more, he gestured to Feifei. "Come closer and give me an Eskimo kiss."

It was like he had pressed some switch and sent the sunniness flooding back into Feifei's sweet little face.

"EskiMOkiss!" Feifei pressed his face to the fence, the gaps wide enough for his little nose to poke through.

Heero grinned as he dipped his face and nuzzled his nose against Feifei's. Then, pulling back, he couldn't resist giving a peck on Feifei's button nose. The little one was just too adorable!

And for the whole walk back to his classroom, Feifei's bright giggles rung in Heero's mind, keeping the silly smile on his face for the rest of the school day.

~*~ fin ~*~
May 2004