Part 19

"I suppose I owe you some sort of explanation." Minako said, kneeling before the small table. Sometime in their absence the table had been laid with many flavoured foods and sweet wines. "I asked her serene highness to submit Heero to the testing."

Duo slammed the sake cup he had lifted against the table where the contents spilled out. "What?" He asked.

"I asked her to submit Heero to the testing." Minako replied calmly. "I wanted him to be sure before we went to Meirin, before he was presented to the Aegis." She did not sound in any way sorry for what she had done. "The test will make sure of that. He has gone with Fiore, Josian and Tobin to the chapel of many colours where he will stand vigil."

"You've just given him a death sentence." Duo protested.

"The test," Minako explained with a smile, "is to appear for a brief wrestling match that the senshi will let him win. It's not the combat that's important, Duo, it's turning up to compete. All tonight the three of them will do their best to talk him out of it, they'll fill his head with all manner of tales about how terrible the combat is, how he's likely to die and he'll only succeed if he is the true Senshisha and if he's not how slow and painful his death will be. The point is if he truly wants to be your Senshisha they will not be able to put him off, and he will come back tomorrow morning and declare his intention to fight for you."

"And those huge Senshi outside will just let him win?" Duo asked, shocked.

She nodded with a smile. "Dramathen is a court of tradition and pomp, everything is highly steeped in ceremony, even what the empress said to you in there was all carefully prearranged. Heero will be fine, besides, Mamoru's trained him, he would succeed anyway."

"If a single hair on his head is harmed." Duo warned.

"Do you think we would do that to you?" Minako asked. "He is your Senshisha and it can be so difficult to break a new one in." She sounded flippant. "I just wanted you to know that he'll be fine so you don't spend the whole night fretting the way he will."

"You don't know Heero," Duo replied. "He will accept the challenge with good grace, admit that yes he is most likely to die but that he will take as many of them out as he can. He is a soldier, Minako, he doesn't play politics. He'll probably sleep better tonight than you will."

"That's not hard, Duo," she answered sadly, "I don't sleep very well anymore." She lifted a sake bowl and drained it in a single gulp. "He will be fine, there is nothing to worry about, the empress was taken with you." She said neatly changing the subject. "I was half expecting her to ask Fiore to have you changed into something more revealing."

"She's a little creepy." Duo admitted.

"Teishi?" Minako asked with a laugh. "She wouldn't hurt a fly, she learnt everything she knows from the Okiya mothers and Alister D'Cevni and most of that is bluster and bluff." She filled the bowl again, "she has played a bad hand very well, half of Dathyl believes she nearly started a war when all she did was survive a political turmoil."

"What happened?" Duo asked, lifting a slice of delicately cut peach with his chopsticks.

"Ah, that is for Tobin to tell you, but there was nearly war over it and Teishi ended up as absolute empress only weeks before her husband committed suicide to cleanse his dishonour." Minako's tone had lowered as she imparted that bit of news as if it was gossip.

"But she has babies." Duo protested. "and if she's an empress then surely she can't…" He left it open.

"Why ever not?" Minako asked, "she's an empress, no one will question her. Her right to the throne was as strong as her husband's, and she very nearly married Nathan D'Cevni."

"He's the big one isn't he?" Duo asked.

Minako nodded. "Yes, she nearly married him to consolidate her position. But decided against it, there was talk of her marrying Genji's father but then he died, rather suspiciously." She leant forward to say that bit and Duo was starting to suspect she was a little drunk. "Teishi can do anything she wants to, but marry for love. Everything she's done she's done for Darie." She sighed. "We are all women who have given our lives to duty, Teishi, Aeka and I, each of us has married where we were told for the good of our kingdoms." Duo was now sure she was drunk. "Teishi married a gross incompetent whose favouritism nearly shattered her empire, Aeka was married to a madman to save J'dan from the Garvem and I married a man with a heart of stone. Duo," she rocked back to look at him with eyes the colour of granite, "Heero will be a great Senshisha. His mother tells me that."

"Tell me about his mother, Mina." Duo said. "That I can tell him."

"She worked with machines," Minako answered dreamily, "they called her Spanners but her name was Mihana1, she loved him so much. She'd lie in her bunk with her hands on her belly and sing to him. She would have given him the world," her eyes were distant and fond, "she wanted to be a house mother, you know, baking pies and with a dog, but there was a war and she was needed. She always had grease on her face and the other machine men were kind of scared of her. She got sick and left the baby, he was about two then, with Odin because he loved her and she knew that he would take care of her baby. It was the hardest thing she ever did. But she knew if she didn't then no one would care and the Alliance would either put him in an orphanage or kill him. She wanted him to be safe and to know who she was. I wonder why Odin never told him."

She lay back on the mat, obviously very drunk. "Your mother was called Dixie," she said, "and she was devastated when you were stolen, she spent so long searching for you but she couldn't find you. They told her to give up searching, that you were dead and you weren't. she stopped eating." She added that matter of factly.

"What do you mean stolen?" Duo asked. "I was a street kid."

"You were a ransom," Minako said, "they were going to ransom you, but there was an accident, you were only three. The ship crashed and if they hadn't put you in a box then you would have died with them, you escaped to run the streets, with Solo. He loved you too, but it was years later that your mother gave up. They kept telling her, Dixie, give up, he's dead, but she didn't. She searched and searched and she loves you so much, she thinks you're beautiful." Minako took a deep sigh. "You are, Duo, you're beautiful. Even Heero's mother thinks so. You're a good match for him, because you're so pretty."

Author's Note

Mihana literally means third flower, I wanted a number name and it kinda is.

Dixie, I wanted another number name and well dix is french for 10.