The Arrival of Hotaru Yuy

In the home of the famous Gundam pilots everyone was busy. The war had ended a long time ago, and there had been no need for Gundams. The five ex-pilots still lived together. They were all either full or part-time Preventers. Currently Quatre was out attending a meeting that day and said he wouldn't be back until around noon. Duo was out on a date with Hilde no less. The circus was in town and Trowa had decided to visit his sister Catherine. Wufei was out on a mission with Sally. This left Heero alone in the house typing away on his laptop. Heero hadn't changed much since the war. He still didn't talk much and was protecting Relena without her knowing it. Suddenly there was a beep on his laptop saying there was a message for him. It read:

Heero, I am giving you a mission of great importance and as a favor to a colleague of mine. I cannot give you the full details of the mission at this time. Your mission will come to you, along with a note explaining what is to be done. You must carry out the mission at all costs.

Heero read the note several times before deleting it, uttering his famous line, "Mission Accepted."

Just as he closed his laptop the doorbell rang. He got up from his seat and opened the door. No one was there. Then, out of sheer whim he looked down. There before him was a basket covered with a lavender blanket. There was a note sticking out. It read:

Dear Heero Yuy,

I am the colleague that Dr. J spoke of. My name is of no importance. Your mission is to raise this child and pretend that she is your daughter. Whatever background information you want to give her is up to you. You are to raise her until she reaches the age of twelve at that time I will come to take her back. Her name will be Hotaru Yuy.

Heero was dumbstruck at what he was reading. Without even thinking about it he just sat down beside the basket. How was he going to look after a baby? A child for twelve years? He didn't know the first thing about looking after a baby. He pulled back the blanket to reveal a dark, purple-haired child. She smiled as she looked up at Heero. The winding was blowing hard that day. The baby slivered as the wind passed. There was no point for both of them to freeze out there. Without a word Heero picked up the basket and took it inside. Once inside he set the basket on the kitchen table. Suddenly she started to cry and fuss. Heero blinked and tried to ignore her, but the longer he ignored her the louder she cried. Finally he couldn't take it anymore. Peering over into the basket he wondered what he was going to do with her. She wasn't like Duo, whom all you had to do was point a gun at him and he'll shut up. Besides babies didn't know about guns. Gingerly and unsure of himself, Heero picked her up. As suddenly as she started crying she stopped. Looking up at Heero she giggled. Now that he had a good look at her, he could see that Hotaru had large, dark purple eyes and equally dark purple hair that it would have been mistaken for black. Her skin was in contrast with her hair was pale. As much as Heero hated to admit it, he needed help raising Hotaru. The question was whom would he go to? Who ever it would have to be, it would have to be female. He couldn't go to Hilde because she was out with Duo. Sally was on a mission with Wufei. Noin was away on a mission with Milliardo. Catherine would only be staying a few weeks at the most, and he be damned if he asked the help of that psychotic lady Dorothy. He could ask the help of Lady Une since she was looking after a child herself, but she was probably busy with Preventer's work. This left one other person, Relena. Sighing to himself, carefully balancing the baby in one arm he reached for the phone.

"Hello, this is the Peacecraft residence."

"May I speak to Relena please," Heero cupped the phone between his ear and shoulder.

"One moment."

"Hello? Relena speaking."

"Relena this is Heero," Heero tried to shifted the baby into a different position.

"Heero! What a surprise, is something wrong? You don't normally call."

"I need you over here," Heero told her.

"Why?"

"Now," Heero was in no mood to explain himself.

"Okay, I'll be there in twenty minutes."

After Heero hung up the phone he looked down at Hotaru. Hotaru was busy occupying her time blowing bubbles with her saliva. Eventually some of the saliva would drip down her lips and on to her blanket. Heero sighed again, grabbing a towel to clean it up. She giggled.

"You do find everything funny don't you?" he asked.

She didn't answer him; instead she reached up with her cubby fists as if to grab something unknown. At that moment the doorbell rang, Heero went to get it.

Relena smiled, "Hi Heero! I'm here, what did you-"

She was looking at Heero and then at the baby in his arms.

Relena stared at Heero and the baby and then to the note he gave her in amazement. It wasn't just a baby had arrived at Heero's doorstep or that he was being asked to take care of the child. It was that he asked her for help. That wasn't the only thing that was posing a problem. In the last four hours or so the small babe no longer fit her basket. In fact now that she thought of it, the baby no longer fit her clothes. Heero was staring at the baby in shock, so was Relena.

"She's growing fast. What did those scientists do to her?" Relena thought.

"I wonder what the scientists did to her," Heero asked Relena's silent question.

Relena sighed, "Whatever they did, it we might have to get her a lot of things."

Heero nods, though he didn't like the idea of going shopping, even if it was for a good cause. Before he knew it he was being dragged, baby and all towards the nearest shopping mall. So there he was, the Perfect Soldier, riding in a car with Relena driving and telling him the basics of childcare. When they arrived at the mall, Relena insisted the first thing they do was find new clothes for her. The first place they looked was a shop called Little Tots, which sold clothes. Relena picked out white, yellow and pink dresses, jumpers with stars, and bunnies on them and of course little booties. All of which were just a bit bigger than Hotaru just in case. This left Heero holding baby Hotaru, while every lady there came up and asked about his daughter. Of course Heero got some say in the kind of clothes Hotaru wore. Relena refused to get anything dark for Hotaru, though Heero would say it. In his opinion, Hotaru seemed to be made for dark clothes. When they paid for the clothes the saleslady smiled at Heero, "It's so nice to see the father taking interest like that," she then whispered to Relena, "You are one lucky wife to find a husband like this young man."

Relena blushed and stammered, "Uh… thank you, but she-"

"Is the pretties baby I've ever seen," the saleslady buts in.

Heero tried not to roll his eyes; it was no doubt that Duo would have found this funny to the boot. Next stop was the toy store where Relena had told Heero earlier that Hotaru needed toys. Besides where else would you get a baby carriage, car seat and diapers?

While Relena went off to get the necessities for the baby Heero went to check out the toy section with Hotaru. They passed a long line of stuff toys. Hotaru was just sucking her thumb while Heero checked it out. The little baby woke to see Heero looking at a row of stuff cats. She feebly reached out towards to small gray cat.

"Uh… uh…" she reached towards it.

Heero looked at her, "So you want that one huh?"

He took the cat off the shelf and gave it to her. Heero didn't see anything wrong with that Relena did say that kids needed toys. He only hoped that she didn't grow out of her toys as fast as she will grows out of her clothes. He looked around the store, wondering silently to himself. What kind of toys do you get a baby? Well, Hotaru was a girl, so girls should have more than one stuff animal. Maybe a teddy bear? Or maybe a doll. He looked at Hotaru; she was too young for dolls.

"Then again, she might not stay little for long," Heero thought to himself.

He strolled over to the doll section. It surprised him how many dolls there were. There was a really nice doll with black hair and dark skin. It seemed though that Hotaru had other ideas. She reached over to where one lady doll stood. She had very long blond hair and blue eyes and was dressed in a white gown.

"That doll? Okay…" he picked that one out.

Baby Hotaru smiled out up at him.

After picking out some more toys Heero went to look for Relena. He could have sworn though that Hotaru made most of the choices when it came to the toys. Relena was over by the checking counter. She waved at him to come over.

She smiled, "Heero, I had no idea you knew what kind of toys she could like. This stuff is perfect."

Heero shrugged, "Whatever Hotaru reached for, I took."

By the time they left the mall, they had clothes that would fit a baby to a 12-month-old child. They also left with three different stuff cats, three dolls, one teddy bear, one nightlight, diapers, bottles, baby wipes, teething ring, baby power, baby formula, baby food and a stroller. Heero opened the door, expecting Duo to come running at him. To his surprise there was no one home. There was a note from Quatre on the counter.

Hi Heero,

It seems that I have a business meeting in the Colonies so I won't be back for a couple of weeks. Duo said that he and Hilde are going to take off for a while. It's just going to be the two of them. Trowa came in earlier to get some of his stuff. It seems that the clown for Catherine's act just walked out. So he's going to stay and help till they find a replacement, or until the circus leaves. Wufei called and said he has to go on another mission with Sally, and even then he's going to stay at the Preventer's HQ because there's a lot of paperwork. I guess that means you have the house to yourself. See you later.

Quatre

Heero couldn't believe his luck. He was going to be stuck with the baby for a couple of weeks. Relena sighed, "That's really bad timing."

"Hn, I'll just take care of her by myself, besides it's my mission."

"Oh no you aren't!" Relena turned to Heero, "I'm staying here with you!"

"You can't," Heero stated.

"I'm not leaving that girl with you. Heero have you ever taken care of a child before?"

"Have you?" Heero asked.

Relena shook her head, "No, but-"

"I'll be perfectly fine," Heero answered back.

Relena said dryly, "I fear what she'll be like under your care. For all I know, she'll be a trigger happy manic like you!"

"We will be fine," Heero stated.

Hotaru picked that moment to spit up all over Heero whom was holding her. Both of them looked at Heero's shirt, covered with white spit. The baby giggled, clapping her hands joyfully together.

Relena raised a brow, "I rest my case."

And so Relena packed up and stayed with Heero. Meanwhile for the next few days, Hotaru gave the term growing like a weed a whole new meaning. In three days she had already grown out of a large portion of her clothes. She also was already able to crawl. Hotaru got into everything. That was soon discovered when Heero went into the hanger that use to hold the Gundams. The hanger now held cars, jeeps and motorcycles. He was fixing one particular car that Duo had banged up. As he finished up, he heard this strange cooing sound.

"That's strange," he thought to himself, "There's no one here."

Giggle.

Heero blinked and craned his neck to look up at the catwalks. His eyes widen as he saw Hotaru waving at him up from the catwalks. She was dangerously near the edge as she sat waving happyily at him.

"Hotaru!" he ran towards the nearest stair.

She giggled and clapped, bouncing up and down.

"Stay there!" he dashed up the stairs.

Hotaru got off her butt and started crawling away in the other direction.

Had Relena been there she would have scold Heero for swearing as he did, not that she would have known. The good majority of the swearing was not in English. Hotaru was at the other end of the catwalk. One arm stuck up as she was about the go down the stairs. In good time Heero was at her side and scooped her up. He gave her his famous I-Will-Kill-You glare. She just giggled and snuggled into his chest. After that incident Heero had to go back to the mall to get fences for the stairs, hanger and weapons room. There was a time Heero had actually chained Hotaru to his working desk, but when Relena found out she threw a fit. It was also clear that Relena had a lot of motherly instincts for she took the role of mother very quickly. By day Relena would be working on keeping the peace while still worry about the baby. By night Relena would be singing the baby to sleep. Heero was different, but his lifestyle had to change to suit the baby's needs. If he didn't the little 'hell spawn' as he put it one night would wreck everything. He could be found typing on his laptop with one hand, and bouncing a baby who was playing with his other hand on his lap. It was the only way to keep Hotaru from playing with the keyboard.

As usual Heero was typing on the laptop with Hotaru on his lap. She looked up at him with wide dark eyes. Heero and the other pilots were keeping in touch. Though Heero had never told the others about Hotaru. They were having their daily chat in the chatroom.

Desert Noble: How has everyone been doing?

God of Death: Fine over here! Hilde says hi.

Lone Dragon: Mission is going well.

Silencer: Catherine is having trouble looking for a new clown.

Perfect Soldier: Fjine.

God of Death: Hey Heero! The Perfect Soldier is losing his touch.

Perfect Soldier: It's jbust fine.

God of Death: Right… You've gone soft.

Perfect Soldier: I wiyll kdill you!

Lone Dragon: What's going on over there Yuy?

Perfect Soldier: Notkhing

Heero grabbed Hotaru's hands, "Stop that!"

Hotaru looked up at him, "Da da?"

"What…"

"Da da!" she giggled.

He shook his head and gave her, her doll, "Right."

Heero went back to assuring his friends that everything was all right. Still he couldn't shake this feeling of pride in his chest, which was blooming for no reason.