AN Orphan's Life
Disclaimer: Okay, if I owned Gundam Wing, Lady Une would've been slapped by Noin, Zechs wouldn't wear that damn mask helmet thing so much, Treize would've lived so he could be with his daughter, Trowa would remember everything, and Heero and Relena would not be acting the way they are in their relationship. So, as we can all see, I do not own Gundam Wing.
~ ~ ~
Elysia stared at the papers in her hands, trying to come to a decision.
Her uncle or her father?
Who did she want to see first?
She had never met her father or her uncle.
Her mother had told her stories about her father.
He was so strong and handsome and brave…
But her mother never told her about her uncle. Or that she even had an uncle.
She had wanted to see her father for so long, ever since she little.
She was angry with her uncle. He had turned her away, knowing that she was blood, knowing that she was his sister's child. He didn't want her. He left her in that hellish orphanage and probably never even given her a second thought.
Elysia gripped the papers tightly as she started to grow angrier at each thought.
Why?
Why didn't he want her? Why did he hate her? He had to hate her, if he didn't want her. Why did he allow his niece to be taken away? Didn't he want to see her? Didn't he want something left of his dead sister to have?
Elysia looked to Duo and tried to calm down. "I want to see my uncle. I want to know why he didn't want me."
Duo crossed his arms and nodded. "Okay. Do you want your father's address right now?"
Elysia thought about this, and then shook her head. "No. I want to see him when I'm happy. And alone."
She looked at Theo, and then turned to Shane. "Can you come with me?"
Shane looked at Theo, who was trying to hold back some sort of emotion, then looked to Elysia. "If he and Jennifer comes too, " he answered pointing to them.
Elysia nodded and looked back at the papers. "Fine. Whatever." She looked to Duo and froze, suddenly recognizing the man that stood in front of her.
He was…
She reached out to hold onto something, her legs starting to lose feeling.
Theo, having noticed her expression, ran over to her and held her just as her knees gave out.
"Elysia, what's wrong?"
She allowed Theo to hold her, not even realizing that he was panicking a bit, and pointed to Duo in shock. "H-he's… He's…" She tried to stand up, but couldn't. She looked to Jennifer for help.
Jennifer just frowned in confusion. She looked to Duo. Her eyes widened. "Oh, my god." She covered her mouth in surprise.
Theo looked at her, then Elysia in confusion. "What? What's going on?"
Elysia blinked a couple times, then managed to force out," He's the man that saved me that day…" She shook her head quickly. "My birthday…"
She gave a sigh of relief when she began to get feeling in her legs.
Shane frowned and looked to his father. "What is she talking about, dad?"
Duo, who had been trying to figure out what was wrong with the two girls, slowly nodded his head. "You were the little girl who almost drowned in the lake that day."
Elysia stood up a bit, but continued leaning against Theo. "Yeah… I never got to thank you for that. And all the gifts you sent me." She closed her eyes and tried to let this process all in her mind.
She opened her eyes and looked around for something to focus her attention on.
Again, she froze, this time her eyes falling upon an object up on the mantle of a fireplace in the adjacent room.
She slowly pulled away from Theo and walked over to the fireplace, her eyes never leaving the one object.
"My bear…"
She reached out and took it off the mantle, looking at it in shock.
This was the bear that had been taken away from her when she was a scared young child. This was the bear her mother had given her, saying that her father had in turn given it to her as a birthday present. This was one of the last few things she'd had to remember her mother.
This was the bear handed off to the owner of the orphanage as a gift.
The man who had saved her, who had given her some shred of hope when she cried at night in her room alone.
The man who was now helping her look for her father.
The nice man with the violet eyes…
Her eyes closed as she fainted for the second time that week.
~*~*~
Jade yawned and stretched out a bit in the driver seat. She had fallen asleep a few minutes after Elysia had left the van.
How long ago was that?
She looked at her watch and frowned.
What was taking Elysia so long?
She looked to the passenger side of the car when she heard a knock on the window.
She went to lower it down, when she recognized the face staring back at her.
"Oh, shit."
She narrowed her eyes and faced forward. She was not going to talk to that asshole.
Shane began to bang on the window.
Never in his wildest dreams did he ever think he would see her sitting outside of his house in a van.
He had come out to tell whomever Elysia's companion was to come in since it was going to be a while before she went anywhere.
But the sight of Jade Chang had shut down everything going on in his head.
Except for one thought.
And he needed to tell her what it was.
He banged on the window a little harder. "Jade! We need to talk!"
"Bite me, Maxwell!" The van started.
Shane paused, then ran in front of the van, arms outstretched to stop the van from going anywhere. "Jade, it's been too long. Let's work it out!"
"Screw you, you jerk!" The lights flashed on in a feeble attempt to blind him.
Shane slammed his hands on the hood of the van. "Damn it, Jade!" He stood still, trying to think of something to do.
The van moved forward a bit, then stopped an inch from him.
Jade stuck her head out the side window and flipped him off. "Damn it, Shane! Move!"
Shane stayed where he was at and smiled a bit. He always liked it when she tried to kill him. "No. I have to tell you something."
Jade glared at him. "What? That you love me?!"
Shane nodded and moved towards the driver side of the car. "Yeah."
Jade rolled her eyes and began to roll up the window. "Bullshit."
Shane ran to the side of the car and gripped the top of the window as it reached the halfway mar. "C'mon, Jade. Don't act like this. You know you missed me too."
Jade slapped at his hands, angry that he was there. "This is a rental. I am not paying for anything you break." She paused when she realized what he said. "Wait… You missed me too?"
She looked him in the eyes.
He nodded slowly. "I've been going crazy not having you with me all the time. It was a stupid fight we had and I'm sorry for acting the way I did." He paused, then added," I love you."
Jade stared at him silently for a few minutes, then smiled. "Ha! So you admit it! I was right and you were wrong!"
Shane frowned. "Now, wait a sec. I didn't say that. I just said I was sorry."
Jade made a face and rolled her eyes again. "Well, I'm sorry too, but I'm not going to say you were right. Because you weren't."
Shane shrugged. "Fine. You don't have to say it. And I won't say you were wrong."
Jade stared ahead and crossed her arms. "Fine."
He watched her silently, then smiled some more. How he missed these fights with her.
He leaned in through the window and kissed her.
Jade's eyes widened, then they closed as she fell into the kiss.
After a while, Shane pulled away and smiled at her. "I missed you."
Jade raised an eyebrow. "You better have." She opened the door and moved to the passenger side of the car to allow him in.
Shane smiled some more at this and climbed into the van.
He should've apologized a long time ago.
~*~*~
Elysia opened her eyes slowly as she heard someone calling her name.
She fought back the feeling of déjà vu when she saw Theo staring back at her worriedly.
She sat up and wiped her forehead, embarrassed that she had fainted again. She looked around and smiled faintly at Jennifer, Duo, and Hilde. "Sorry about that."
Jennifer waved a hand at her. "No problem. I don't blame you." She looked to Duo. "Meeting the guy responsible for the treatment we received at the orphanage would make anybody faint." She frowned. "I wonder why I didn't faint…"
Elysia made a face at what Jennifer said. "What do you mean? He wasn't the one that beat us."
Jennifer raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but he was the one who hired those people."
Elysia frowned. "Jennifer, he probably didn't know that they were that way." She looked to Duo, who was frowning and rubbing his chin, deep in thought. "Right?"
Duo continued thinking, then sighed. He looked up at her. "All these years and I never knew what was going on right under my nose." He looked at Elysia. "How many times did they beat you?"
Elysia stared at him silently, not wanting to answer. * Jennifer must've told him. How else would he know? *
Duo nodded at her silence, the answer obvious. He bit his lip, and then looked to Hilde. "Where's Shane?"
Hilde smiled slightly. "He went to talk to Jade. They should be done making up right about now."
Duo made a face and shook his head. "That son of mine…" He looked to Jennifer. "When you all come back, I want to talk to you and Elysia about all of this."
Jennifer nodded and crossed her arms. "That's fine with me."
Elysia hugged her bear a little, not liking where this was going.
She had never thought about talking to Duo about what went wrong in his orphanage. She didn't even want to talk about it. She wanted to forget the horrible place and move on.
She then remembered that she was supposed to go see her uncle.
She sighed and was about to move, when she realized that Theo had never moved away from her and had been holding her hand the whole time she was conscious.
She hid back her surprise at his behavior and gently pulled away from him.
Didn't he hate her?
She looked down and stood up slowly. "C'mon. We got to go."
Theo stared at her silently and stood up. He looked to Duo and gave a slight wave. "Goodnight, Duo."
Duo did the same. "Are you coming back?"
Theo frowned and looked to Jennifer.
She stood up and shrugged. "I want to talk to him. I don't really care. Whatever's convenient for him."
Theo looked to Elysia, then back at Duo. "I guess… We'll have to talk this out in the car."
Duo nodded. "All right."
~*~*~
The drive was long and awkward.
Shane and Jade hadn't spoken a word, since Theo, Elysia, and Jennifer hadn't talked. They were quiet the whole time they'd been together.
Which was bugging Shane really bad, because he wasn't one for being quiet. He looked uncomfortably to Jade, hoping she would comment first. He was getting close to saying the first thing that popped into his mind. Which was never a good thing.
Jade glanced at him and made a face, knowing that he was ready to explode with some idiot comment. She narrowed her eyes at him and slowly shook her head, mouthing the word "no".
Shane bit down on his lip and looked away from Jade. She was no help whatsoever.
He tried to restrain himself as much as he could, but the lack of conversation was taking its toll.
He looked back at the others, who were shoved together in the middle seat.
Jennifer was fighting off the sleep demon that was all over her and Theo was trying to contain his emotions, which he wasn't really succeeding at.
Shane sighed, sensing the tension between Elysia ad Theo.
He had figured out that Theo was the guy Elysia had been crying over the night he met her. What he didn't understand was why she said he didn't share the same feelings she was having. It was obvious he was in love with her.
Why the heck couldn't she see that?
Shane looked to Elysia, who was sitting behind Jade and staring out the window blankly. He wasn't sure what to say to her at this point, only because she hadn't said anything except one-worded statements.
He wanted to beat her up for being so dense. In a brotherly way. But he wasn't sure if she was blind to Theo's feelings because she was so preoccupied with her search for her father or because there was something else he didn't know about. Either way, it was getting on his nerves and if nobody was going to say anything, the he'd have to.
He crossed his arms and nodded. Yeah. That's what he'll do. Right now.
He turned and opened his mouth.
"We're here," Jade said, interrupting him.
Shane shut his mouth and looked to her angrily, even though she wasn't even looking at him. He made a face and faced forward, silently pouting.
She took off her seatbelt and turned to face Elysia. "Do you want me to come out with you?"
Elysia blinked and slowly looked to her, starting to comprehend everything. She bit her lip in concentration and looked at her bear that she hadn't let go of. She thought a while, then looked up. "No, that's okay. If it's all right with you," she looked to Jennifer," I'd kind of like for her to come with me. She has experience in this area."
Jade nodded and smiled faintly. "Whatever you're comfortable with." She looked to Shane and noticed his expression. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Shane glared at her and said nothing.
She rolled her eyes and looked at Theo. "Hey, so are you going out with her?"
Shane grimaced at the question, knowing that he wasn't the only one who caught the other meaning of it. He rubbed his forehead and put a hand on Jade's shoulder. "Good one, Chang."
Jade raised an eyebrow, not getting what he meant. She's noticed everybody had flinched at her question, but she didn't know why. "What? What'd I do?"
Shane just shook his head. "Never mind, my dear."
Jade stared at him in confusion, her eyes narrowed a bit. "And that's why I hate you."
Theo sighed and glanced to Elysia. "If it's all right with her…"
Elysia opened the door and shrugged, not wanting to show that she was somewhat happy that he cared about what she wanted. "Well, then, c'mon."
She didn't really care who came with her. She came to talk to her uncle.
She wanted to know. She had to know.
She marched up to the front door, a new sense of courage overcoming her.
She didn't care if he hated her. She didn't care if he got mad at seeing her.
She just wanted to give him a piece of her mind.
And maybe get a few hits in.
She knocked on the door as hard as she could, hoping the loudness would piss him off.
She was starting to like this new feeling.
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A/N: Wow, this was a long chap. Sorry. Had to end it there. Got to keep you all wanting more and have you come crawling back. Hehehe… And I've realized I had to change the rating on this thing, since I've been making everybody cuss a lot. I should probably stop doing that. Any who, R&R and make me want to update and I'll see you next chapter. Good-bye! ~_^