An Orphan's Life

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine, because I'm too young to have actually made it.

~ ~ ~

Elysia and Theo stood silently in the elevator as it slowly made it's descent to the old lockers.

Elysia tapped her hands against her legs absentmindedly and tried not to look at Theo.

Theo was staring off into space, wondering why the heck the damn elevator was taking so long to go down one floor.

He glanced at Elysia and watched her movements. * She must be nervous. * He sighed, remembering what he had sworn to himself just the night before.

There was nobody else around to witness anything he should say. Or any rejection he might receive. But should he do it now?

He thought this over for a couple of minutes, then decided that if he didn't say anything now, then he'd probably never get the chance to do it again.

He turned to Elysia and opened his mouth.

The elevator chose that moment to stop and open it's doors.

Elysia stepped out, not even noticing that Theo was about to say something.

Theo sighed and walked out slowly, knowing that he had blown his only chance.

~*~*~

Jennifer crossed her arms and looked to the other single girl in the hallway.

Jacob has taken off with Caterina, supposedly heading towards the computer room.

Lisette and Jennifer knew better.

Then, Shane had announced he had to go to the bathroom, to which Jade said the same. They left in the same direction, even though they had never been in the base before and Lisette hadn't really given them directions.

Lisette grew annoyed with the way her elders were acting, praying that she would never turn into a sex crazed maniac like they had.

Jennifer bit her lip and tapped her elbows impatiently. They had to stay and wait for Elysia and Theo to come back, since everybody else had left. Then, she and Lisette could go to the computer room, since Jacob and Caterina were obviously not going to find anything.

She stared at Lisette, wondering how the heck a girl her age could be so controlling. She, though, wasn't about to let some seventeen year old tell her what to do.

Jennifer Silverman answered to nobody.

She sighed, getting bored.

She knew she would have to make conversation with the girl eventually. She may as well do it now.

She stared at the elevator doors and asked," So, what exactly do your parents do?"

Lisette raised an eyebrow at Jennifer, wondering why she was talking to her.

She knew Jennifer didn't like her. * What's with the attempt at small talk? * She shrugged a bit and answered out of politeness. "They run the base and keep track of any problems that arise among the people of earth and the colonies."

Jennifer frowned at that. "Like secret groups out to kill world leaders?"

Lisette nodded. "Yeah, that too."

Jennifer looked at her for a second, then turned her gaze back to the elevator doors. "Elysia's mother was assassinated, wasn't she?"

Lisette frowned and looked to Jennifer. "Yeah… What are you getting at?"

Jennifer shrugged. "Well, I just find it weird that the person whose job it is to divert assassination attempts, couldn't even stop the one against his own sister."

Lisette stared at Jennifer, blankly, but said nothing when she realized that the older girl had a point.

Trying to avoid a fight, she sighed and focused on the doors as well, asking coolly," Well, what do your parents do?"

"They're dead."

Lisette's eyes widened slightly. She looked to Jennifer to see if she was lying.

Jennifer was staring at the doors blankly.

Lisette blinked, then looked back at the doors. "Oh." She made a face as she realized she was beginning to feel sorry for Jennifer.

Jennifer must've sensed this, because she then said," Don't pity me. It happened a long time ago, so it's not as painful as it used to be." She looked down slightly, knowing she was semi-lying at the last part.

Lisette nodded and stared straight ahead. "Okay."

Jennifer glanced at her and sighed. This was not going well. Elysia and Theo had better hurry up.

~*~*~

Elysia wandered down the long hallway, trying to find locker number 347 A. She sighed as she came to the 201 B.

No wonder the base was remodeled. Whoever had designed the locker area really screwed up. The first lockers you saw as you got off the elevator was 000 Z.

She looked back at Theo who looked really confused.

He looked to her and made a face. "Where the hell are we going?"

She smiled a bit and shrugged. "I have no idea. I just found the B section… I must be getting close." She looked at the row of lockers in front of her, hoping she was right. She walked down some more, aware that Theo was strolling up behind her to catch up.

She frowned when she realized that she had to have the combination ready to open the locker with. She stopped walking and dug around Shane's jacket that she still had on, trying to remember where she had put the wooden box with her mother's picture.

Theo walked past her, glancing back and forth at the lockers on both walls. He sighed and looked back at her. "It's so dark down here. You'd think they would've installed better lighting systems. I can barely see the numbers on these things."

Elysia shook her head at his complaining. * What a baby. * She smiled some, knowing that she didn't mind.

She found the picture, just as Theo gave a cry of triumph.

"Ah! Here it is!" He looked at Elysia and gave a little wave with his hands. "Locker number 347 A."

Elysia rolled his eyes at him and walked up. "Well, let's see what's in there." She pulled out the key and looked at the lock on the locker door.

It was a fairly simple lock. All she had to do was turn the knob for the combination, then stick the key in to unlock it.

She looked at the picture and smiled slightly when she realized the numbers were her birthday.

Twelve, five, twenty, and three.

December 5, AC 203.

She pulled the lock off the door and put into her pocket as she slowly opened the door.

She peered inside and looked at it's content.

There was a cardboard box taking up most of the space in the locker and what looked to be videotapes shoved in next to it.

She reached in and slowly pulled the box out. She handed it to Theo as she continued to pull out the rest of the items. "Hold that for me, please."

Theo shrugged and watched her as she pulled out the tapes and what looked to be a bigger version of the wooden box that held the key.

Elysia stacked the tapes onto the box Theo was beginning to have problems holding and looked at the wooden box somewhat excitedly.

She closed the door to the locker and replaced the lock, the turned her attention to the box. "I wonder what's in here…"

She looked at Theo as one of the tapes began to slip off.

She caught it as it fell and raised an eyebrow at him. "Need help?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Nah, I got it."

Elysia held back her laughter as two more tapes fell.

She caught them and took a couple more off of the box to lessen his load. "Sure you do."

She turned to walk back to the elevator, muttering," Men and their damn pride. Can never admit they need help."

Theo smiled, hearing her and followed her, almost dropping some more tapes.

~*~*~

Lisette gave a sigh of relief when Jacob and Caterina returned. "Finally! I can go now!" She glared at her brother. "What took you so damn long?!"

Jacob shrugged and held up a stack of papers in his hands. "I wasn't sure what I was supposed to get, so I just printed out everything." He smirked and looked to Caterina at her side. "And I kept getting distracted."

Caterina looked down as she began to blush.

Lisette rolled her eyes and grabbed the papers from her brother. She quickly skimmed over them and looked at him, a little surprised. "Where'd you find all of this?"

Jacob shrugged again. "I don't know. A click here, a click there. I didn't pay attention."

Lisette rolled her eyes at him, but said nothing.

Shane and Jade chose that moment to show up, both looking flushed.

Jennifer saw this and rolled her eyes. "God, can't any of you people keep your hormones in check?"

Lisette started laughing as Shane and Jacob fixed on her their best glares.

"We weren't doing anything," Shane said.

Jennifer raised an eyebrow. "Except each other."

Shane made a face. "No." He blinked and looked up. "I think."

Jade sighed and hit him upside the head. "You're such an idiot."

Shane smirked and wrapped an arm around her. "I know. But you still love me."

Jade rolled her eyes and pulled away from him. "Or, so you think."

Caterina looked at Jennifer, hoping to change the subject. "Where's Elysia and Theo?"

Jennifer pointed downwards. "Still there."

Caterina nodded and looked up at Jacob, studying his face.

He was still in a bit of denial of his aunt actually having a child. And that there was a possibility of his parents being involved in a conspiracy. He obviously couldn't grasp that.

Nobody could, actually.

She looked at the doors as the lighted numbers above them began to flash on.

"Oh, good. They're coming back."

~*~*~

Elysia had put down the videotapes she was holding and looked at the wooden box.

What did her mother put in it?

Theo watched her as she slowly opened it, still trying to hold the box and tapes that kept sliding off of each other.

He glared at the elevator doors, starting to hate the slow moving contraptions.

Elysia stared at the box's contents, a bit in awe. She looked up at Theo and smiled as she began to pull out pictures.

The box held all the pictures she had ever remembered taking.

The snowball fight she'd had with Pargan two days before her mother died. Her third birthday party. The giant pink birthday cake she'd had. All of her presents.

She sifted through the pictures and smiled more at each one.

"I didn't realize she had taken so many of us," she said.

Theo shrugged a little. "Most parents take as many pictures as they can of their first children." He shuddered, remembering how his parents did it to him.

Bathtub pictures, "first" anything pictures, sleeping pictures, the horrid and all too common naked baby who refuses to put at least a diaper on pictures…

How he loathed those things. If his mother were still alive, he would have burned every single one of them.

He looked at Elysia as she put all the pictures she had in her hands back in the box, and then pulled out another one slowly.

She was staring at it silently, an unreadable expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She looked up at Theo and held it out to him. "This was the day I was born."

Theo went to get a closer look, but accidentally knocked the picture out of her hand when a tape fell off the stack in his hands.

Elysia kneeled down to pick it up, when she in turn dropped the box of pictures. "Shit!" She kneeled down to pick everything up.

"Here let me help you. It's my fault." Theo put down the box and tapes and knelt down to help Elysia pick up the pictures that had fallen out.

They had put everything away fairly quick. There was only one left on the floor, the one that Elysia had wanted to show Theo.

They both reached out to grab it and paused, when their hands hit each other. They looked at each other slowly and silently willed the other one to pick the picture up.

Elysia pulled her hand back slightly and cleared her throat. "You can get it, if you want."

"Um... okay." Theo moved closer to get a better grip on the picture. He picked it up and held it out to Elysia, who was just inches away from him. "Uh… here."

Elysia gingerly took the picture from him, fully aware that their lips were just mere centimeters away from each other.

That were getting shorter and shorter.

The elevator stopped, the doors opening.

Elysia and Theo jumped apart quickly as the others turned to see them.

"Finally!" Caterina walked over to them, hands on her hips. "What took you so long?"

Elysia picked up the videotapes she had dropped and slowly stood up, trying to get over what had almost happened.

She looked down and rearranged what she was holding in her hands, hoping that nobody noticed her expression. "We, um… We had trouble finding where the locker was." She stepped out of the elevator, brushing her hair away from her face, and began to head down the hallway. "It's really late. We should get going."

Caterina frowned at Elysia's quick exit and looked to Theo, who was still on the floor of the elevator. "Why are you just sitting there? Get up, before that thing closes and we have to wait even longer for it to come back."

Theo blinked a couple times, and then looked to Caterina. "Huh?"

Caterina stared at him, unsure if she should yell at him, or ask him what was wrong. Something had just happened, but what?

She looked at Jacob, when she felt him tug at her arm.

"Don't just stand there. Let's go."

Caterina looked back at Theo, who was getting help from Jennifer to pick up the box and tapes that were still on the floor of the elevator.

She frowned slightly and turned away. "Um… Okay."

Jennifer pulled Theo to his feet and handed him the box, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He had a weird look on his face, something she hadn't seen before. She patted him on the back and whispered in his ear," Hey, are you all right?"

Theo stared at her blankly for a few seconds, before the question registered in his mind. He closed his eyes, then reopened them, trying to focus. "Uh, yeah… I just… " He trailed off and began walking down the hallway after the others.

Jennifer watched him silently, then followed, wondering what the heck had happened down on the lower floor.

~ ~ ~

A/N: Finally! This one took me a long time to figure out how to write. Hope it was worth the trouble. Well, it has come to my attention that a few of you have gone and actually read my other fic. I don't understand why, since that one's almost two years old and I sort of lost faith in it. I had intended to remove it, but being the lazy bum I am, I never got to doing it. However, it makes me feel good to know that there are some people out there who want more. Unfortunately, I won't be able to update that one for a while, because the notebook I wrote it in is currently lost somewhere in storage. But I promise to get to updating that one ASAP. Any who, R&R as usual, and I'll see you next chapter. ~_^