Shadow and Neo; Light and Dark

It was another day, another morning at the home of the famous (infamous) Gundam pilots. At least it was just another day with a few changes that revolved around one Hotaru Yuy. At the physical age of five years Hotaru changed in small and big ways. There was still the little girl they all knew and cared for. (Asking everyone but Heero to say love was asking a bit much.) Hotaru could now speak in full sentences, which was better than most five-year olds. Of course the guys wouldn't know since Hotaru was the only five-year old they ever needed to take care of. She could now walk and go up and down the stairs by herself. This was a relief to the few that had to endure her climbing up the stairs and yelling for someone to help her down.

Trowa was putting on the coffee pot that morning. Normally it was something Heero would do, but Heero would now be spending his mornings helping Hotaru get ready for the day. He shook his head at the thought of it all. Heero was taking is new role of fatherhood seriously. Then again, the rest of the pilots including Duo were taking the role of being her Uncles seriously. Even Relena had gotten into the stream of things. The next set of people to come down was Wufei, and Heero followed by Hotaru. She merrily skipped along a head of her father. Yes, father, it took some time on their part, but now Heero was officially the father. Her daddy.

Hotaru smiled up at Trowa, "Morning Uncle Trowa!"

"Good morning Hotaru," Trowa smiled down at her, "What would you like today?"

"Anything that's not made by Uncle Duo," she answered solemnly.

Wufei choked back at laugh as he reached for his tealeaves on the top shelf. Heero smirked at her answer, while Trowa just shook his head and smiled a bit more. Ah… the innocence of childhood. The ability to be blunt about something and get away with it. It made all of them wonder if they were ever that ah… tack.

Heero lifted her up onto her booster seat, "When Duo, Quatre and Relena come down we'll have pancakes."

"Yay! Pancakes!" Hotaru squealed with delight, "I hope Mommy, Uncle Duo and Uncle Quatre hurry."

Trowa and Wufei saw Heero winced when Hotaru said 'mommy'. It was the little problem they had. No matter how much they tried to explain this to Hotaru, Relena was mommy. No one, not even Heero would call her mommy, not when there was Milliardo to deal with. Even then there was… Goddamn to hell… The media, the tabloids and reporters. They would have to field day with this. Also it wasn't like Relena couldn't look after Hotaru, in fact in some ways Relena had to be there. Heero could not keep Hotaru unless there were two people looking after her. He put Relena had joint custody, so she stays. Besides, Hotaru was a girl and girls needed a female role model.

A few minutes later Quatre, Duo and Relena entered the kitchen. Duo started getting up earlier as he found Hotaru's antics every morning amusing at best. Though one would doubt her comment about his cooking would amuse him.

"Morning Uncle Quatre. Uncle Duo. Mommy," Hotaru waved from her seat.

"Morning Squirt," Duo grinned.

"Don't like Squirt, like Hotaru better," Hotaru pouted.

Relena smiled, "Good morning Hotaru. You've gotten bigger today."

"Uh huh… I don't fit into that green overalls anymore," Hotaru nodded.

Heero sighed, "We're going to need to go shopping again won't we?"

"Probably," Relena answered, "How about I take her in the evening?"

"Another meeting? If that's the case I could take her in the afternoon," Heero answered.

"And I'll go with Heero," Duo grinned.

Wufei raised a brow, "Then I'm coming too, knowing you Maxwell you'll do something we'll regret later."

Duo looked at the Chinese pilot with mock innocence, "Me? Now what possible trouble could I get myself into?"

Everyone including Hotaru just stared at him as if to say, 'you're joking right?'. There was something seriously wrong when even a five-year old looked at Duo like that.

At Preventers HQ Noin was reporting back to Lady Une after her and Milliardo's last mission was over. Lady Une smiled as she motioned for Luceriza Noin Peacecraft into her office. The two had been married for two years, and were perfect for each other. Noin nodded at her before going into a brief overall of how the mission went. When she was done Lady Une leaned back into her chair with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Good job Preventer Fire," Lady Une answered back.

Noin nodded back, "You'll get a full report on your desk tomorrow morning," she then smiled, "Right now, Milliardo wants to head back home and see how his sister is doing."

Lady Une kept as straight face as Noin said this. Her face looking more thoughtful than before. How was she going to tell Noin that Relena wasn't at home without having the problem was explaining Hotaru?

"I heard Relena decided to live somewhere else for awhile," Lady Une said carefully, "To get away from the media."

"Oh? That makes sense," Noin said, "Then she'll be able to have some peace and quiet."

Lady Une nodded, "Right. Is there anything else?"

Noin paused for a moment, "Well, I was wondering. Milliardo has been working a bit too hard lately. I was hoping maybe we could go on a week shore leave."

A week of delay, enough to just get prepare for the fireworks that will fly.

"Why not?" Lady Une mused, "You two need more time to yourselves after all. After a good rest both you and Milliardo will be ready to handle anything."

As afternoon came, the talks going on within the house shifted from everyday work to the one thing no one had given any thought until now; Hotaru's education. After all, up until little over a month ago Hotaru was no more than a baby. Now she was a five year old and most five year olds went to kindergarten.

"She'll need to be home schooled," Heero mused.

Quatre looked at him, "And have the six of us teach her? Besides the usual things what on Earth would we teach her?"

The five pilots looked at each other. It was a bit after lunch and Hotaru was having her afternoon nap, leaving them time to talk. Heero wanted the best for his little girl, but the question was how would they go about doing this?

Duo piped up, "I think the question is do we teach her or do we train her?"

"This time does not need soldiers," Trowa said slowly.

Heero nodded, "Yes, but…" he stopped, "In order to keep her, she'll need to learn how to defend herself. We can't always be there to keep her safe, it's just not possible."

Quatre sighed, "I hate to admit it, but Heero's right. In order to keep Hotaru, she'll have to learn how to fight."

Wufei shrugged, "Will do, it's not like we can't do both. Strengthen her mind and body."

"Speaking of body…" Quatre mused, "Don't you think sooner or later she'll need to see a doctor? After all we don't know what effect the experiments will do to her."

With that they started on a whole new topic of conversation. Who'd knew there would be so much to talk about when it came to Hotaru? To five guys who never looked after a goldfish much less a child, a lot.

While they were talking about her future, Hotaru was wandering the halls of the house. Before she was never allowed out of their sight and couldn't get far. Now there was a whole new world of possibilities. Of course, they thought she was asleep, then again what kid went to sleep when the adult turned his back? Not many.

At the end of one certain hallway there were large double doors. One of the doors was opened a crack. Curious, she toddled over and pulled the door. When she looked inside; what she saw amazed her. There, inside the huge room were rows and rows, shelves upon shelves of books. Hotaru had found the library. With one finger on her lips she looked up at the bookshelves as she walked backwards to take everything in. There were even small bookshelves with dusty books. She looked at one of them carefully before pulling a book out. Hotaru blew the dust off. The dust filled the air causing her to cough. The cover said Children's Poetry. Still staring at the cover Hotaru sat down on a small chair that looked like it hadn't been used for a long time. She opened the book and peered at the words written within.

Duo was searching with high and low with the other pilots looking for Hotaru. When Heero went upstairs to get Hotaru for their shopping trip he discovered she wasn't there at all. The idea that she was wandering around the house worried all of them. Not all of the rooms were holding safe things. As he was checking all of the rooms calling out her name Duo heard a small voice. It was a childish voice, rhyming and slow. It was coming from the library. He poked his head in and looked around. The voice was Hotaru's all right, but where was she? He stepped it, following the sound. When he found her, she was sitting in a small chair. Probably from Quatre's childhood days. She looked down at a book, turning the pages slowly. She said aloud:

Hope is a thing with feathers,

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tunes without the words,

And never stops at all.

And in the sweetest gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm.

That could abash this little bird,

That kept so many warm.

I've heard in the strangest lands;

And on the chilliest seas.

Yet never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

If Duo thought his jaw had dropped at the idea of Heero being a daddy and it was certainly all the way in China by now! Hotaru was reading, and not just reading. She was reading poetry. Most kids hated to read poetry, but she was reading it. He felt a tap on his shoulder; he turned to see Heero there.

"She's all right?" Heero looked at her.

Duo nodded, "Remember how we're talking about her education?"

"Yea?"

"Well… I don't think we'll have to worry about it too much," Duo pointed to Hotaru, "She just read a whole poem by herself. No joke!"

Heero looked at Duo and then at Hotaru.

Hotaru soon realized that she wasn't alone at all. She looked up from her book and smiled. Running up to Heero she showed him the book.

"That's nice Hotaru," Heero bended down, "Do you know what it says?"

"Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson."

Heero looked at the page she turned to. Sure enough it was the poem Hope is the Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson. He stared at her in shock, there was no way she could have done that. Despite that fact that Heero didn't know much about children he did know that five year olds could not read that well. Yet, here Hotaru was, reading by herself.

Duo leaned over Heero's shoulder, "Now I really want to know what they did to her!"

"Hn," Heero picked her up.

Hotaru had discovered a new thing, the joy of reading for the first time. How she knew how to read was unknown the fact was she could read and read she did. While Wufei, Duo, Hotaru and Heero were driving to the mall. Hotaru was sitting in the backseat reading poems aloud.

An hour, thirty minutes and two poems later Hotaru was rocking on her heels. Her daddy was looking through a stack of clothing looking for something that would not only fit but would also look good on her. The hardest thing about shopping for Hotaru was looking for clothes that would look nice but weren't dark. Hotaru, as Heero first thought before was made for dark colours. Hotaru had by then read the book ten times back and front. She wasn't the only one bored, by the time ten minutes had passed Duo was also bored out of his mind.

Heero looked over his shoulder, "Duo, I'm going off to pay for this stuff. Look after Hotaru, Wufei is at the bookstore looking for some books for her."

"Gotcha Heero," Duo saluted him.

"Don't lose her."

Duo gave Heero a grin, "I won't…"

When Heero was out of sight Duo's grin became wider. He had a couple of thoughts going through his head. After all, he was Hotaru's Uncle and as her Uncle he should make sure that she has everything a kid should have.

Duo tugged at her arm, "Come on Hotaru, let's go."

"But I thought we have to stay here," Hotaru looked confused.

"Don't worry, as long as you're with me we're golden," Duo grinned as he picked her up and walked off.

"Where we're going?"

"You'll see…"

A few minutes later Wufei and Heero met back at where Duo and Hotaru were suppose to be. They stared at each other, one with clothes and another with books. There was no Duo and no Hotaru. There wasn't a hair or hide of either of them.

Outside the mall everyone's head turned a two loud voices yelled, "MAXWELL!" rang throughout the parking lot.

Hotaru put her small hand onto the window panel as she peered inside the room. Six Labrador puppies were tumbling all over each other like large pillows of yellow and black fur. She giggled at their antics as they whined and whimpered and barked.

"Can I have two?" Hotaru asked as she bends backward to look at Duo.

Duo shrugged, "Why not? Which ones?"

Hotaru stood up on her tiptoes, "Uh… That one and that one!"

Duo nodded, "A black one and yellow one? Okay. Hey Max! Two pups, those ones!"

A teenage boy walked up to them and peered in.

"The two girls huh? Sure it's okay?" Max knew Duo, and Duo always was in trouble.

Duo grinned, "They're for my niece, Hotaru."

"Either the father is gonna like you or hate your guts," Max sighed as he wadded through the puppies to pick up the two that Hotaru wanted.

Max handed the two the Hotaru. She laughed as the two licked her face enthusiastically. The pet handler then took a couple of forms and filled them out. Duo looked around the store to pick out two leashes, dog toys, poop and scoop, brushes, etc…

Max absently asked, "What's their names kid?"

"Uh…" Hotaru put a finger to her lips, "Uh… Shadow and Neo!"

"Right, black is Shadow and the yellow is Neo," Max looked up, "Unless you have a weird sense of humor like your Uncle Duo and it's the other way around."

"Hey!" Duo exclaimed.

Duo put collars on both of the dogs and hooked on the leashes. The puppies were running around, happy to be free of their cage. Trying to reach his wallet, Duo handed the leashes to Hotaru.

Max looked at him, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Sure," Duo thumbed through his wallet, "Why not?"

Hotaru giggled at the puppies as they ran circles around each other. Suddenly they saw something. Without warning both dogs shot off like a rocket out of the shop. Dragging poor Hotaru along for the ride.

"Ahhhh!" Hotaru screamed.

Duo turned, "Hotaru!"

"That's why not," Max, stated as he watch her run off. He looked at Duo, "You know, you lose the kid, the mother is gonna kill you."

"The mother?" Duo panicked, "Heero is gonna shoot me!"

"So what would you like on your tombstone?"

Wufei growled, he was going to kill Maxwell. That is if Heero didn't get to him first. They've been searching for a good twenty minutes and no sign of them. If Duo lost Hotaru heads were going to roll.

"UNNNNCCCCLLLLEEEE WUUUFFFFEEEEIIII!" a young voice screamed out.

Wufei looked in the direction of the scream to see Hotaru being pulled around by two puppies of Lab breeding. As the two pups rushed past him Wufei reached out and tightly grabbed the leashes. The pups fell back and Hotaru fell forward just in time to be caught by the arms of her father. Hotaru smiled happily as she climbed up into Heero's arms.

"Look! Look! Daddy! Uncle Duo got me puppies. The black one's name is Shadow and the yellow one is Neo," Hotaru smiled, "Aren't they cute?"

At that moment Duo chose to show up, running up to them and out of breath. Duo took in deep breaths.

"Look, Heero, I can explain," Duo panted.

Heero glared at him, "You got her puppies?"

Duo gave him an innocent grin; "It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, what kid doesn't have a dog?"

"You got her two Maxwell," Wufei growled, "And if I remember correctly these dogs grow up to be very big."

"It's not that bad."

"This is the last time we're leaving you alone with Hotaru," Wufei glared at the braided pilot.

Heero nodded, "And while we're on the subject. Since you got her the dogs, you're helping her take care of them, which means…"

"You're the one picking up their litter," Wufei finished.

Duo's face dropped, "Aw man!"

Hotaru, who was obvious to all of this crawled down from Heero's arms. She grinned as she hugged her two new pets.

Author's Notes: I couldn't help myself! Giving Hotaru those dogs was the most enjoyable thing I've written so far. It's priceless really. By the way you're lucking I wrote this on my vacation on my dad's laptop. So there, and I have bit and pieces of other chapters as well. I just couldn't help it. I was sitting outside a restaurant that day and saw two big labs one black and one yellow. The thought of Hotaru owning such big dogs just tickled me. So it won't be the last you'll hear of them.