To Sooti- Me neither. I love watching my fics unfold. It's so much fun!
To Blah- I'm not really sure. The only set pairing involves Catherine and- oops, almost gave it away there! Wouldn't want to do that.
To ZmajGoddess- I was planning on having them slowly grow up, like Quatre turned seven in the first chapter, and Catherine is almost six now. They won't be adults by the end of the fic, but they'll probably be in their middle teens.
To Patricia16- Thank you.
Now, on with the fic!
"Quatre…" Sister Helen sighed, shaking her head sadly. "I realize that you care deeply for your sister, and that's very admirable, but you can't beat people up for making fun of her."
"I only hit him twice," Quatre muttered defensively, staring at his feet. "And it wasn't even real hard,"
"How hard or how many times you hit him isn't important, Quatre," Sister Helen told him. "It's the fact that you hit him at all that upsets me."
"Well… I'm sorry I made you upset, Sister Helen." He said, looking up at her, his expressive eyes shining with sincere apology. "I'll try not to ever do it again, okay?"
Sister Helen stared at the blond for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing. "Oh, Quatre, what are we going to do with you?"
"Hi,"
The bench shifted slightly under Cathy, signaling that someone had claimed the spot to her right.
"Hello," She responded quietly, smiling in the general direction of the speaker. "My name's Cathy. What's yours?"
"I'm Dorothy." Cathy's new seatmate said, taking Cathy's hand in her own and shaking it. "Are you blind?"
"Don't say that around Big Brother, or he'll beat you up!" Cathy warned.
"Why would he do that?" Dorothy asked, letting go of Cathy's hand. "Is your big brother a bully?"
"No, he just doesn't like people to talk about me being blind. It makes him sad."
"Well, I won't talk about you being blind, then." Dorothy decided cheerfully. "I'll talk about other things instead, like music."
"Okay."
Quatre sat anxiously through his first day of first grade. Cathy was right down the hall in the kindergarten class, but he still didn't like her being so far away. The only thing that kept him from bolting out of the classroom and finding her was the fact that Duo wouldn't let him.
"Don't worry so much, Q." Duo had told him at the beginning of school. "I know someone in Cathy's class, and she'll take real good care of your baby sister, don't you worry."
So of course, Quatre just worried all the more. What few of Duo's 'friends' he'd met did nothing to ease his mind. Like James, a hulking second grader who acted as a protector to younger children – for a small price, of course. Or Sally, a mature and very pretty fourth grader who ran a homework business: a dollar got you a page of math, science, or English, 50 cents for worksheets, $2 for anything else, and an extra 25 cents if you wanted the handwriting to match yours.
No, having a friend of Duo's watching Cathy was not a reason to relax.
Cathy's teacher, Miss Corbet, had a soft, friendly voice. Cathy liked her. She made sure Cathy could participate in all the games the class played without making an issue of Cathy's blindness, and even showed her a way to read with her hands.
"This is called Braille," Miss Corbet explained during snacktime, guiding Cathy's hand over a line of tiny bumps. "It's a type of writing that lets your fingers read instead of your eyes."
Cathy nodded, fascinated by the idea of telling a story with bumps on paper.
Dorothy was too, and she begged to be taught Braille as well.
"Please? I promise I'll work real hard, as hard as Cathy! Please? Pleasepleaseplease?"
School finally let out, much to Quatre's relief. In next to no time, the children of the Maxwell Orphanage were gathered in a knot on the playground, waiting for Sister Helen to come pick them up in the church's private bus.
Cathy was last to arrive, being towed by a blond girl with tweezer-shaped eyebrows, a wide smile, and a very loud voice.
"Duo, you were right!" The blond yelled as soon as they were within hearing distance. "Cathy kicks butt! She's my new best friend!"
"I thought I was your best friend!" Duo yelled back, grinning as the two girls skidded to a stop next to the group.
"You were." The blond said, still smiling. "But Cathy's cooler than you. So there."
"Dorothy's really, really nice." Cathy said, smiling as she ran her fingers over the bumps that represented the first five letters of the alphabet. "She likes to listen to music."
"What kind of music?" Quatre asked, and Cathy's bed shifted, signaling that he'd sat down next to her. "What are all those bumps?"
"They're letters." She stated proudly. "Miss Corbet is teaching me and Dorothy how to read with our hands."
"Really?" Judging by the amazement in his voice, he older brother had never heard of Braille before.
"Really!"
Time passed, as time has a habit of doing. Summer vacation came and went, and everyone in the Maxwell Orphanage grew a year old. Autumn covered the colony in a false chill, prompting the hardy trees bred for colony life to turn and drop their leaves.
October came when the colony weather reached its lowest temperature and leaves were piled knee-high to an adult around the church, and with it came Trowa.
Trowa was a tall boy a year older than Quatre and Duo, with a strange hairstyle that hid half of his face and expressive green eyes. He'd grown up with his mother in a traveling circus that had recently broken up. Without the support base the circus had provided, Trowa's mother hadn't been able to cope with him and his younger brother, and the two had been signed over to the orphanage.
It was a week before Halloween, when the decorations were going up and costumes were almost done, that Trowa appeared on the porch, a backpack over his shoulder and his little brother's hand in his. Catherine, humming softly to herself, was carrying a small basket of toys up the steps and bumped right into him, almost falling over at the sudden obstacle.
She dropped the basket in an attempt to regain her balance, flailing wildly until an unfamiliar hand closed around her wrist and pulled her to safety.
"Is this the Maxwell Orphanage?" A strange voice asked her quietly.
"Yes, it is." She answered, her face turned to the ground. She'd lost the sunglasses she customarily wore to cover the scar over her eyes, and she didn't want this stranger to see it.
A small hand – smaller than the one that had saved her – touched her face, and she almost flinched. The hand patted her cheek gently, then went on to trace the scar she hid from the world.
"You were hurt." A matter-of-fact voice below her head stated, and the hand fell away. "Who hurt you?"
"Heero, leave her alone." The first voice ordered softly. "You can't ask people you don't know questions like that."
"It's all right." Cathy said, straightening her back. "Are you looking for Father Maxwell? He's in his study right now. Do you want me to take you there?"
"If you would."
"Follow me, then." She said with a smile, turning and walking the carefully memorized route to Father Maxwell's study.
Trowa watched the strange little girl skip down the hall and out of sight, frowning slightly. Something about that scar nagged at his memory… something he'd seen on the news or something.
"So, you would be Trowa?" The aged priest behind the large desk taking up most of the floor space asked, smiling warmly.
Trowa simply nodded; he wasn't one to say any more than was absolutely necessary.
"And this is your little brother?"
Again, Trowa nodded, watching the priest carefully without appearing to. The man seemed nice enough, and his smile was certainly genuine, but Trowa never trusted anyone based on that alone.
"I hope you don't mind, but the two of you will have to share a room with someone else until we can get our spare room set up for you." Father Maxwell said, writing something down on his notepad. "We like to keep siblings together here, so it looks like we'll be putting you with… Quatre and Catherine should have room."
"Catherine?" Trowa repeated, a few pieces of the puzzle falling into place. "Catherine Bloom?"
"I see you know her." Father Maxwell said, his smile fading a little. "The poor girl. Come; I'll take you to your room."
That's all for this chapter, folks. Just about the whole cast of Gundam Wing is going to wind up in this fic, so be on the lookout for your favorite! Unless of course your favorite is Zechs, Trieze, Noin, or Lady Une, 'cause they all died back in chapter one.