Duo's Child

Chapter 7

By the end of the week, Uno has been learning so much that she was literally rebelling against it. Heero already forced her in a chair and aimed his gun at her face; she glared at him with his own glare and walked away. Duo tried tying her to a chair; she got out of the rope somehow. Quatre lectured her constantly on learning so much to get ahead; Uno listened to him but replied with statements that shut him up speechless because he had nothing to reply to. Trowa told her she wouldn't be able to go back into the gym until she did what she was told; Uno just stared at him for long amounts of time until he actually felt nervous staying around her.

Uno smirked and cuddled up in the corner of a couch the following Sunday and closed the end of the book Trowa had her read for his training. She just finished the book and was proud on being able to read it. She smiled until she saw Duo standing in the doorway of the playroom; Quatre created a game room/playroom for Duo and Uno.

"Hi." Uno smiled.

"Hi." Duo grinned. Uno pressed her against the couch and felt in trouble.

"Duo?" She asked, innocently.

"You're going to school tomorrow. But right now, I need to enroll you and you need to take a test to see where you stand." Duo reached out for her head and took it.

"School?"

"Yes. No fighting, I'm forcing you to go," Duo pushed Uno into the hallway.

"You can't force me!" Uno snapped.

"Wanna's bet?!" Duo growled and by the time they reached the living room, the other four turned around to see them.

"Yeah!" And before Duo could note on what Uno was capable of, she struck her foot down onto the ground so forcefully; Duo nearly fell over her small figure. Uno dropped down onto her knee and spun around, tripping Duo and sweeping his legs out from under him. He fell and squinted his eyes.

"…Ouch." Duo lay there.

Uno giggled, "Told you!"

"Duo…hehe. You don't force Uno to do anything after she's been trained by us." Quatre smirked.

"I know…I forgot how tough she got just after Heero," Duo rubbed the back of his head. Wufei watched the entire thing and grinned.

Duo sat up. "Uno..okay..look—"

"I'm weady." Uno smiled nicely at him.

"…Good." Duo got up and took her hand in his; they began walking to the door. "We'll be back later, don't worry."

"We won't." Wufei answered and heard as they shut the door. "She'll fail if she's anything like that baka."

By the time Duo pulled up to the visitors' parking lot of the school, Uno was already looking at how big it was. Duo blinked when he read the names, displayed on each of the three parts of the school.

"Winner Elementary, Winner Middle School, Winner High School? All three built into one big campus?!" Duo shouted. He stepped out of the car as Uno did as well. Duo looked around him and found some high school students looking at him; several girls were checking him out and winking at him, some others were staring at his vet. Duo felt good again like he used to when he was younger. When Uno grasped his hand, some of the girls blinked and gawked that he had a kid and looked too young. Duo grinned and began the way inside the school.

When they both entered, Duo looked around at how big the school was. They entered in the center of the school, which branched off into three parts, elementary, middle, and high school. It looked like a spider web.

Duo stepped up to the front desk, "Hi, I'm here to enroll someone."

"Name." The lady at the counter asked.

"Uno Maxwell." Uno lifted her body up on her toes to rest her chin on the countertop.

The lady looked at her and smiled some, "Elementary."

"Yeah, does she have to take a test? She may be too smart for Kindergarten." Duo began filling out a file record on Uno.

"Yes, if you would like, she could take one now." The lady typed stuff in a computer.

Uno handed back the sheet he filled out, "Please."

"Alright, take a seat." The lady reviewed the paper as Duo sat down. Uno looked around at the place.

"Uno," Duo began; Uno faced him. "Do your best so you don't have to go be with all the stupid kids."

"Hehehe." Uno giggled.

"Mr. Maxwell, we're ready for her to take the test." Duo stood and pulled Uno along.

"Alright." As the lady shown Uno into a small room, Duo had the option to walk around. The test was one hundred questions and he felt bored. He decided to walk.

Duo turned down the hallway to bring the campus towards high school and looked around. Girls in knee high boots and very short skirts stood about at the lockers talking, some in the corners making out with their boyfriends, some chattering while walking in the halls. Duo continued to walk and found the main hallway ended in the cafeteria.

"So each side has its own café? Damn…Mr. Winner sure had money." Duo blinked and looked at a large pack of girls walk by him. Suddenly, his butt got pinched and Duo blinked at them; one girl blew him a kiss before stepping into class.

Someone else tapped Duo on the shoulder and he faced them; it was a bleach-blonde haired, green eyed, Asian girl. "Yes?"

"You got a girlfriend?" She purred and winked.

"Um…I have a kid," Duo spat out. Perfect, Duo. He thought.

"So…I'm good in bed. I have excellent usage of tongue." Duo sweat and gulped back his load.

"Is that so?" He stuttered.

"Yes. You want to skip school and go to my house? I live alone and I am very good." She stepped closer to him as he stepped back some. He felt the lockers behind him.

"…Guess what." Duo smirked.

"Hm?"

"I fought in the wars; I killed people; I skinned them alive; I slowly crushed them to death with my Gundam," Duo explained. Of course, he had to lie about a few, but he felt relieved when she began backing away from him.

"I still do that even now. The last person I had sex with, I skinned alive and sold the skin as dog food and mixed the meat in with the school meat. I'm only hear to make sure people are actually eating it," Duo grinned his Shinigami grin and stepped closer to the Asian.

"You're sick! Stay away from me!" She ran off. Duo walked away, chuckling.

"Man…am I good!" He grinned as he continued walking down a hallway of classrooms.

Duo looked around the halls at the rooms; he found most of them were science labs. "Hm…must be the science hall."

Duo followed the staircase at the end of the hall and froze when he heard noises come from behind the door. His eyes enlarged; he backed away and quickly turned around. Duo ran to the end of the hall to pretend he never heard what was behind the door and started his way back to the front of the school. He sat down and shut his eyes.

Half an hour later, something kicked at his shin and his eyes opened to see Uno smiling at him. "Hey Uno."

Duo stood and stepped up to the counter with the lady.

"We're scoring her right now. She already passed about fifty percent of the test and we're finding out whether or not she is able to skip grade one," Duo blinked largely at the lady.

"S-skip grade one!" Duo shouted and she nodded. He faced Uno who was looking at some past school class images.

"Hold on." She stated as the left from the counter. She later returned with a sheet of paper and marked something down on it.

"Duo," Uno tugged on his pant leg. "I'm hungry."

"We'll go back to the mansion in a moment, Uno." Duo faced her.

"You live in the Woodleys?" The lady asked, straight faced.

"Hm?" Duo blinked.

"The Woodleys are the richest suburban area around here. All the children come to this school."

"Um…no, I did not know that." Duo looked down thinking. Shit…she'll be labeled a rich snob if I don't do anything about it, he thought.

"No. We live with Quatre Winner." Duo corrected; the lady froze and stared up at Duo.

"Mr. Winner?" She stuttered.

"His son, Quatre Raberba Winner. Mr. Winner was killed in battle I heard. His son, Quatre, has taken over the business. He's doing great," Duo smiled. Great! This is so great!!!

"Oh! Well, um. Why don't you tell Mr. Winner to give us a call so we could discuss a few things his father objected to?" She asked, flirtively.

"Like what?"

"Well…parent's have been arguing that the children need school uniforms," She smiled.

"No. I refuse to allow Uno to go to a snobby school where they all look and act the same," Duo growled.

"Oh, well I—"

"Good day, ma'am." Duo snapped back and started towards the door. Uno followed behind him.

"Oh, well…we'll mail you her test scores!" The lady shouted out to him just as the door slammed shut.

Wufei was actually sitting on the couch when Duo slammed the door shut and stopped from his paperwork on the coffee table. Uno walked on and trailed past the living room to the gym; she was bored and wanted to play. Duo on the other hand, stormed into the living room and threw himself down on the couch. Wufei blinked astonished and scooted away a little.

"Bad day, Duo?" He asked nicely to ease his friend's stress.

"Yeah, the bitch at the office wants Quatre to force school uniforms and make everybody look and act the same. The schools got rich snobs already!" Duo shouted and threw his arms about.

"Calm your temper, Maxwell." Wufei smirked. "What's so wrong about uniforms? I went to school where you had to wear them."

"I don't want Uno going around with snobs; I'd disown her for that." Duo growled.

Wufei sat back, "You spend all that money—Hildie's I might add—and throw it away just like that, because Uno's going to be around posh kids?"

Duo sighed, "No. But I don't want her growing up like Relena!"

"I agree." Wufei smirked. "Just don't tell Quatre about it then."

Duo blinked, "Eh?"

"Did they tell you to get him to call the school?" Duo nodded. "Then don't tell him."

"That's not like you, Wufei. Did you hit your head roughly?" Duo scratched his head in wonder.

Wufei smirked, "No. I'm just calming you down."

"Oh…well then you wouldn't teaching Uno?" Duo tried to smuggle him.

"Yes, I would mind. I don't have time in my life to take out an extra week to teach her; besides, she's starting school soon."

"But Quatre-"

"Had wound up canceling half the week since his job was getting tougher. It wasn't just that he had little to teach; he had no time left. He leaves in a few days for a very important meeting in France and another again in Spain a few months from now." Wufei continued his work.

"…That's around Halloween." Duo thought out.

"So? Quatre disbelieves in Halloween, but he only hands out candy because he likes the children." Wufei scanned through a few pages of a book.

"But Uno's birthday is Halloween." Duo felt hurt.

"How do you know? And besides, you'll be with her."

"I know that, but I just figured Quatre would want to be with her too." Duo shrugged. "Okay then. Anyways, Uno said that when she once had cake—which had her name written on it—there were lots of scarey people coming to her house asking for candy."

Wufei smirked. "How old was she?"

Duo shrugged. "Take it that she saw her name on the cake meant her birthday and scarey people wanting candy said Halloween."

"What if it wasn't Halloween, but celebrated then? She could have had it during the week or some other time." Wufei scribbled down Chinese symbols as scratch work.

"Oh well; it's Halloween now."

The following day, Quatre received a phone call stating he had to cancel his France appointment. He felt relieved at first, and then weakened the next; he stressed himself over the meeting for nothing in the end. Quatre smirked and shook his head, taking out the thoughts that have stuck in his mind since breakfast. He shut down his computer and prepared to go eat lunch when the telephone rang again. Quatre picked it up.

"Winner Mansion, Quatre speaking."

"This is Sheryl Simpson from the front office of Winner Schooling district, I'm looking for a Mr. Maxwell; is he around at the moment?" The phone replied.

"Oh, is this about Uno's test scores?" Quatre smiled some.

"Yes."

"Alright, I'll go get him; hang on." Quatre put the lady on hold button one and stepped out of his office to find Duo.

Quatre stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked out the glass walls to see Duo and Uno playing in the backyard. He smiled and opened the French doors.

"Duo, telephone. It's the school about Uno's scores."

"I'm coming." Stated Duo, lugging a clone on his back.

Quatre giggled at the scene of Uno on Duo's back. "You can take it in my office; she's on line one."

"Gotcha'."

Duo entered the office and put Uno down. He went over to the desk and sat in the chair, then reached for the phone. He lifted the receiver and pressed one.

"Duo here."

"Mr. Maxwell?" The phone asked.

"Yes?"

"Hi, I'm Sheryl Simpson from the front office of Winner Schooling district; I'm calling about Uno's test scores."

"Okay." Duo leaned back and watched Uno look through one of Quatre's many bookcases.

"Uno received a very unusual test score and we're having trouble selecting a place to put her."

"What do you mean? Shouldn't she go in kindergarten?" Duo asked; Uno stood on her knees on a chair and read some book titles.

"Well you see, she scored higher than any kindergarten student could. She aced the first grade questions and varied around the second grade ones. If we put her in first grade, she would accomplish things at a much greater percentage than the other first graders would. But if we put her in second grade, she may struggle to keep up. It all depends on which you would like her to go in." Silence held a long moment after the speaker paused.

Duo blinked, "She's that good?"

"Yes Sir."

"First grade then. We could help her, but I want her to travel on as a acer and not a struggler in school."

"First grade, Sir?" Sheryl asked.

"Yes."

"Alright. It's best to get her ready for school on Monday. She'll need just the usual items, I'm sure you know them." Her attitude changed some; Duo blinked and found it sound snobby.

"Well I-"

"Can't wait to see Uno Monday morning. Bye bye, Mr. Maxwell." The phone clicked and Duo looked at the receiver.

"I don't know what usual items school kids have."

Duo was washing Uno's hair that night when a thought occurred to him. He spun Uno around and looked at her face. Uno blinked and he found her eyes were the same color as his.

"What?" Uno pondered.

"…Do you remember what your parents looked like?" Duo paused from washing her hair and rested his elbows on the side of the tub.

Uno shook her head.

Duo sighed, "Alright."

He continued washing her hair, knowing she looked so much like him. Impossible, Duo!!! You found her on the streets just like you grew up! But she did know how to survive at such a small age and on.

Duo shook his head and cleared those thoughts. There ain't no fucking way Uno can really be my kid!

Heero was watching an old movie when his arm was slapped with what felt like wet hair. He blinked and turned to see violet-blue eyes staring right at him with a wet-mop braid. He blinked and reached out for the tiny Maxwell to get on the couch besides him. Uno sat and leant back; Heero moved her hair out from behind her body so she wouldn't drench Quatre's couch.

Duo stepped into the room soon after and sat on the other side of Uno.

"What ya' watchin'?" Duo asked, settling back.

"Some old war movie from the nineteen-hundreds," Heero replied.

"That old?!" Duo's eyes enlarged; Uno pondered up at him.

"Pearl Habor is what it's called. I hate it because they tore up the ending." Heero replied.

"Tore it up?" Duo blinked; Uno pictured some film editors standing around and literally tearing up the film.

"The entire ending is wrong. They had to remake the movie to suit everyone's including the Japanese. Therefore, they turned it into a stupid love story. Just like The Titanic."

"Ooohhhh." Duo mouthed with a quiet aw.

"I just finished watching Brave Heart." Heero cleared his throat.

"I love that movie!" Duo shouted.

"I hate it, they screwed the entire story up; none of it ever happened in reality." Heero corrected.

"How would you know?! You weren't around at the time it takes place!" Defended Duo.

"Because he doesn't live on to do all the shit he does. He actually died in battle and his team continued on without him." Replied Heero; Heero turned to face Duo and smirked. "I did my homework, Duo. Time for you to do yours."

"Forget it…I still like the thing though!" Duo joked.

"Hn."

Time went by that the movie was practically over with. Duo was getting restless and Heero wanted to change the channel. Quatre had joined in with Trowa—he had to get away from the books for a change—and Wufei had just then arrived home from work.

Finally, the movie ended and Heero changed the channel to the satellite guide. Duo blinked in having a sudden thought occur to him just then. He faced the television still, but spoke to Uno's direction.

"Uno," Duo began, "Do you remember what your mother's name was?" He looked down at her with a pondering expression.

Uno took some time to think and blinked a few times. Quatre and everyone else were watching except for Wufei; he had to meditate to cool off his stress from work. Finally, Uno replied.

"Sawah."

"I mean her last name. Do you remember what your last name was? Uno what?" Duo wiggled away a little and looked down at her closer.

"Um," Uno began to think. "Cleever?" She blinked up at Duo.

Duo froze, "Sarah Cleaver?"

Duo's eyes slowly made their way to her face. Uno nodded and Duo automatically felt chills down his spine. His body froze with tension.

"Holy shit." Duo spoke as long as possible.

"Duo!" Quatre shouted; he was getting fed up with Duo's constant outbursts of language.

"I gotta' go!" Without a second to spare, Duo leaped from his seat and over everybody's legs and feet. He raced down the hallway and once he reached the door, slammed it shut. Heero could hear closely as tires—preferably Duo's 2002 Corvette—pealed away from the cement driveway. Even Wufei had looked up from this.

"Is Duo hiding something from us?" Quatre asked around.