Chapter 37

Time slowly passed. As the weeks crawled back, no progress was made in the war
against the Neo-Rommefeller. Occasionally, a few of the Gundam pilots would attack a
base or attempt to liberate a colony or two; occasionally, the Neo-Rommefeller would try
to infiltrate the underground Preventer Headquarters or attempt to take back whatever
colony the Gundam pilots were fighting to free. There was no loss of life on either side;
the only thing people seemed to be losing was their own patience.

"Oh please...dishwashing duty for three MONTHS? MONTHS?! My hands are getting
coarse!" Giselle griped as she attempted to rinse off a dirty plate, then abruptly swore
as the plate slipped and shattered into a dozen pieces. "What the hell?! That's the
third one!"

"Don't you mean THIRTEENTH?" Will snapped as he glared at Giselle. "Thanks to you
and your clumsiness, we're stuck here for three months when we should have been out in
three days!"

"If you hadn't kept on picking fights with me, we never would have made that mess
on the roof a month ago and gotten grounded!"

"A month ago eh? Someone's obviously been losing track of time! It's been
exactly two months, four days, and five hours that we've been stuck on dish duty! And it
wasn't my fault!" Will snarled as he venomously attacked his mountain of dishes. "Mess on
the roof all MY fault my ass!" he grumbled as he thought back of what had happened...

*flashback*

"What is going on here?!"

"Nothing..." Will and Giselle continued glaring at each other as Lady Une surveyed
the damage in front of her. The dining area on the roof had been completely torn apart:
Tables were knocked over; chairs were all over the place, and there were at least ten
dishes, plates, and cups all lying in pieces on the floor. Lady Une winced as her foot
crunched another fragment into oblivion as she attempted to pick her way across the roof.
Reaching the two young people, she took a breath to calm herself and then asked, "Fine.
Giselle, please explain what is going on."


"Well, I was just eating here, minding my own business, when SOMEBODY here decides
to pick a fight with me-"

"Excuse me?! If YOU hadn't made that jab at my piloting skills-"

"If YOU hadn't tried to DITCH me with all this crap-"

"If YOU hadn't-"

"ENOUGH!"

Both stopped sheepishly as Lady Une angrily cut off the argument. Glaring at the two
in front of her, she said icily, "Ten pieces of chinaware: $20. Six broken umbrellas: $80.
Three damaged tables: $120. One bent chair: $15. $235 divided by $5 an hour equals forty-
seven hours of dish duty for you two!"

*end flashback*

"Damn it! Since when did forty-seven hours become forty-seven days?! Oh wait,
since a certain SOMEBODY proved that she can't even do something as simple as dishwashing!"

"Well excuse ME if I've lived in a circus all my life and never had to wash more
than five plates a day! And besides, Mr. Clean, since when were YOU so good at washing
dishes anyway?!"

"Since he began insulting his superiors and they ran out of punishments for him,"
Yuri said drily as he overheard the two having yet another argument as he walked by the
kitchen on his way down the hall. Smirking as Will shot him a nasty look and Giselle began
laughing hysterically, he continued, "Will's always been the delinquent of the soldiers.
The only reason why he was even given the privilege of being trained as a mobile suit pilot
was because he PAID me to sneak him into the program!"

"Yeah yeah, you know you needed the money anyway," Will growled, turning red and
going back to him dishes. "Just because they all had some grudge against me-"

"-only because you put tacks on their chairs; frogs in their drinks, and shaving
cream in their shoes a few times doesn't give them a reason to hate you, right?" Yuri
finished, rolling his eyes in exasperation. Laughing once again, he cheerfully pat Will
on the shoulder and said, "Have fun washing dishes with that banshee over there," he
crowed, winking at Giselle.

Giselle was less than pleased. "Banshee?!" she howled angrily. "Why you-!" and she flung
a plate at him...and missed. The plate shattered into pieces on the floor.

"Miss Barton! Add five more hours to your dishwashing duty!"

Giselle groaned as Lady Une stormed into the kitchen, eyes flashing as she took in all the
shattered remains of plates and dishes on the floor. Glaring at Giselle, she said
angrily, "Am I to assume that all you've been doing is flinging dishes all over the place
like a child throwing a temper tantrum?"

"No Lady! I'm serious, I haven't-"

"Ha! Have you already conveniently forgotten about that one time when you-"

"You stay out of this Will!"

"Ooh...Touchy touchy-Hey!" he yelped as a cup went flying at his head. Reaching
out to catch it, he crashed into the dishes he was working on. Twenty more pieces of
chinaware landed on the floor in pieces. "Uh-oh..."

"That does it! TEN more hours for BOTH of you!"

"Ten?!?! Aw come on Lady Une! Can't you at LEAST-"

"Did I say ten? Oh I'm sorry, I meant TWENTY, and one more word out of either of
you, and I make it thirty!"

"Yes Lady..."

a few hours later...

"Whew! I'm exhausted! Geez...at this rate, I'll be HAPPY when Neo-Rommefeller
chooses to launch an attack: At least, it'll get me away from those stupid dishes!"
Giselle groaned as she collapsed on bed. Lifting her hands to the light, she winced.
"My fingers are all pruney!" she complained.

"Oh just shut up already! I can't believe how immature you are," Will growled
from his position in the doorway. Running a hand through his hair, he sighed, "At least
you get to DO something. Yuri and I are still prisoners here..."

"Yeah well, it wasn't as if you didn't KNOW that that was what was going to happen,"
Giselle retorted, rolling herself over and propping herself up on her elbows. Studying
her half-brother quizzically, she said, "Say...Will...Just what did my dad tell you that
made you actually start speaking to him?"

Will smiled. "You've got to thank your mom for even having me LET him get within fifty
feet of me. But anyway, he basically told me the ugly truth: He had a one-night stand with
my mother at her request, forgot about her, then turned around and boom, here I was. But
he said it in a nicer way than that, and he said that if I was willing, he wanted to make
it up to me. Anyway...I guess my mom wouldn't have been exactly proud of me for holding a
grudge against my own father..."

"What was your mother like?"

"She was the most important person to me," Will said fiercely, hugging himself.
"I'll never forget how hard she worked to keep me alive. I would watch her drag herself
out of bed every morning, thinner and more wasted than the night before, put on her rags
and go do her three or so jobs. She put all of her money in me: I got warm clothes while
she shivered in her bed at night; I had a full stomach everyday while she would go hungry;
even when, towards the end, when we both knew she was going to die, she continued to work
so she could send me off to the military with a decent amount of money. I miss her..."
he finished in a whisper, blinking furiously in an attempt not to cry. Composing
himself, he said, "She never stopped loving me. It didn't matter if I got into a fist fight
at school, or if I brought home some F on a test. She'd just smile sadly at me and tell me
to try harder next time. And then, whenever I was sick or hurt, she'd stay up with me all
night, holding me and rocking me to sleep. Of course, she'd just get sick herself; she
was that weak, but she wouldn't stop. Despite our hard times, she was the one who taught
me how to laugh; how to smile and be happy, even in the worst of times. Whenever I asked
her, 'Why can you be so cheerful?', she'd say, 'I once knew a boy who never laughed, never
smiled, who was never happy his entire life...but he was one of the most noble people I
have ever known. You're just like him Will...but I'd like you to be able to find
happiness in your life.'"

"Oh...I'm sorry..." Giselle whispered, uncomfortable. Sitting up and drawing her
knees to her chest, she said softly, "You know, I really wanted to hate her. You know,
your mother. I mean, for awhile, even after both Mom and Dad accepted you, I still felt
betrayed. I couldn't be angry at my father; I couldn't even be angry at you, but I had
to take it out on somebody, so I decided to hate your mother instead. I wanted to think
that she had seduced my father or something. But then...when I'd hear my father talk
about her, and when I would see the respect my mother had for her in her eyes, I couldn't
do it. I just couldn't hate her, but I wanted to so desperately, that I became angrier
and angrier...I've just gotten over it recently, but...I just wanted to tell you...that
I'm sorry."

"It's okay..." Will said, going over to Giselle. Pulling her close for a hug, he
said, "Don't worry about it, Little Sister. Just get plenty of rest; we've got plenty
more dish duty tomorrow...and don't give me that look! You KNOW that it's mainly your
fault!" he grinned and then danced nimbly out of the way as Giselle took a swing at him.
"Sweet dreams!" he hooted as he pranced out of her room, with Giselle screaming insults at
him.