The Education of Hotaru

With the realization that Hotaru's mental knowledge had all ready out striped what they were expecting the pilots and Relena weren't going to waste any time in teaching her. Each of them would have her to themselves to teach for a few hours on their given day. Speaking of mental ability Hotaru had changed a bit since the puppy incident. She was still the sweet and adorable Hotaru, while there were times she sounded older. In between her 'lessons' so to speak Hotaru would be free to practice and do whatever she wished. This was spent playing with her 'parents', uncles or puppies, training Shadow and Neo and reading.

As for what she would be taught it was divided between them depending on how much time they had. Though with Hotaru reading anything under the sun it seemed that herself would do most of the learning. With the fact she would literary read anything Quatre and Heero spent some time going through the library taking out anything they didn't want Hotaru to read. Mainly the romantic novels that were favorites of Quatre's sisters were the first ones to go. With that Quatre also spent time to update the library with books ranging from ten years of age (since anything below that would be an insult to Hotaru's intelligence) to young adults. Hopefully it would keep her busy for a while.

Now that the library was set, it was time to introduce Hotaru to learning. Heero found Hotaru in the library, which seemed to be one of her regular haunts. As Duo would so often put it, as regular as it could be for a person who was going to spend to rest of her life at home. It was probably one of the few things that did get to the pilots. The rest of her life, so far it seemed that she was growing a year a week. How long was the rest of her life? He found her sitting in a lavender beanbag chair, kindly provided by Sally. When Sally found out about Hotaru through Wufei, she immediately offered to give Hotaru her check ups.

As far as lessons would go, Heero would teach her languages. She was all ready slightly familiar with Japanese so some of the work was done for him. On top of that he would be teaching her his specialty, guns. At first everyone thought it would take some convincing to get Relena to let the pilots to train Hotaru, but it didn't. Relena was no fool when it came to realities of Hotaru's life. The only way to protect her was by teaching her the skills to defend herself from danger or at least until help came. In return though Relena when she had time would teach Hotaru manners, diplomat skills and politics. Duo would teach geography and teach her about stealth. The Deathscythe pilot bragged that by the time he was finished Hotaru would be able to sneak up on her old man and he wouldn't know it. The stealth part was fine, but Heero didn't appreciate being called an old man. Trowa would be working on some acrobatics skills that would hopefully get her out of tight spots and he would be taking care of her science education. Quatre would teach her strategic skills, mostly to be done through games and puzzles and help her with the writing part of her English. It was clear that she had the reading down pact. Finally there was Wufei; he would look after teaching her hand-to-hand combat and math.

There were other odds and ends to take care of, but they figured they would deal with it when they came to it. With all of them working together Hotaru could be better than all of them, while still keeping her childhood and life. What she could be when she grew up would be completely up to her. Though the guys wouldn't have mind if she decided on being a Preventer.

Currently Hotaru was completely into the book she was read. Slowly turning the pages, not paying any attention to the world around her. Heero glanced at the title, Alice Through the Looking Glass. He remembered now, she read Alice in Wonderland yesterday.

"Hotaru," he said softly.

Hotaru looked up from her book, "Yes Daddy?"

He squatted to meet her at eye level, "Hotaru, remember when I told you, you were going to be home schooled?"

"Yes," Hotaru nodded, "I get to learn everything at home."

"That's right, but it's also training of sorts," Heero told her, "Tomorrow you're going to start your training. I want you to listen very carefully."

Hotaru blinked, "I always listen Daddy. Why do I have to listen more?"

How was Heero going to explain this? He had promised himself when he accepted Hotaru that he wouldn't dress this up in any sugar stories. Heero was going to tell the truth, even if it killed him. Heero took Hotaru and pulled her into a hug.

Heero took in a deep breath, "Hotaru, I got you from a man some time ago. You were… created I guess to be a Perfect Soldier."

"What's a Perfect Soldier?" Hotaru asked.

"A Perfect Soldier is someone trained from a very young age to follow orders and kill whoever they are ordered to kill," Heero explained.

"That's bad… I don't want to do that," Hotaru stuck out her tongue.

"No, I don't want that neither," Heero pulled her closer, "That's why we're training you. Our way Hotaru, so that this man and his colleague won't take you away."

"Won't take me away," Hotaru repeated, "I don't want to be taken away. So I be a good girl and train."

"That's right," Heero nodded, "Be a good girl."

It was so strange in the beginning he would have never hugged her like this. Now he was hugging her as if at any moment Hotaru was going to disappear. It was like Hotaru was his lifeline to humanity; then again she helped him discover his humanity. If she was taken away what would happen to him? Hotaru curled up on his chest; she didn't want to lose her daddy. Yet, she couldn't shake this feeling that if she didn't leave she would lose him. Being as young as she was though, she didn't fully understand the meaning of it all. Not yet anyways.

From the Gates of Time Pluto watched worried. Father and daughter were growing closer, closer than she ever expected. The Princess would never want these two to be teared apart, but Crystal Tokyo would never come to pass without all of the scouts. Strange, Pluto thought as she watched the two. Both Heero and Hotaru had not had a normal childhood. Their childhoods had been sad, full of duty and death. She remembered how she came to choose Heero. Pluto had been looking into the Gates, she asked for help, for someone to protect Hotaru and to raise her. Yet they still had to be allowed to take Hotaru back in order for Crystal Tokyo to exist. That's when Heero's image came into her view. She did some research and found that Heero was single minded when it came to missions, she figured that was why the Gates showed him to her. Now she was rethinking that, what if she was wrong? What if there was another reason for the Gates showing Heero to her?

She looked at the Gates again. Now the serious talk about training was done and Hotaru was happy again. Now Heero was sitting down in a large chair with Hotaru on his lap. Instead of Hotaru finishing the book, Heero was reading to her aloud. Whatever would come to pass would come to pass; only time would tell. Not even the Guardian of Time herself knew everything.

That evening in the Living Room Hotaru was standing in front of her two puppies. She held a treat up high where both puppies could see it. She was practicing some things that Trowa had taught her.

"Shadow. Neo. Sit!" she commanded.

As one both of them sat on their haunches. Though it may sound odd to say this about two dogs. Both Labs adored their young mistress and would do anything for her. In return Hotaru would shower them with hugs, kisses and treats.

Hotaru patted them both, "Good puppies! You're really smart."

She turned to Trowa who was sitting there reading a newspaper. It was his turn to watch Hotaru for the evening.

"Uncle Trowa," Hotaru called out.

Trowa lowered the newspaper, "Yes?"

"Can I take Shadow and Neo with me to home school?" Hotaru asked.

"As long as they're not in the way. You'll have to ask your other uncles and your father and Relena," Trowa answered.

Hotaru looked innocently at him, "Uncle Trowa, why do you call daddy, daddy, but mommy Relena?"

Trowa answered, "Because that's her name."

"But you never call her mommy," Hotaru pointed out.

"Because she isn't your mommy," Trowa explained.

"Why not?"

"Because it's just your daddy that adopted you," Trowa didn't even want to try to hide the fact she was adopted. Besides the idea of being adopted didn't bother Hotaru at all.

"But she looks after me right? She also adopted me so she's my mommy," Hotaru pointed out.

Trowa tried to come up with an argument for that, but found that he couldn't. After all, Relena did have joint custody of Hotaru. How was he going to explain to her the only reason why everyone avoided calling Relena mother was because her brother would have a fit. The same brother that was suppose to be Hotaru's sixth uncle. Of course, no one had bother to tell her about Milliardo except the few mentions when she was a baby, which they doubted she remembered. After all why encourage her to look for trouble?

"Okay," Trowa admitted, "I'm stuck at that one. It's just that we're not use to thinking of Relena as a mother."

"Oh………" Hotaru drawn out, "Okay."

Trowa shook his head as he went back to his newspaper. He was sure they were making mountain of a molehill. Then again, never before had Heero given Milliardo a reason to assume the worse.

Author's Note: Geez that was short. It was more of sweet than funny and I'm starting to get the feeling that it's somewhat pointless filler. I could of continued with this but I didn't. Maybe in some other chapter I'll let you see what her lessons are like. As for the forever mentioning of Milliardo, guess what? Hotaru is finally going to meet her uncle in the next chapter!