Preventer Brats
How Preventer's HQ managed to get out of the crossfire between Milliardo Peacecraft and Heero Yuy would be one of those events that would still be debated for years to come. There was something however that everyone could agree on. Milliardo Peacecraft was smitten with his new niece Hotaru Yuy. Then again, to make a point clear in Preventers, the six most dangerous pilots in history were smitten with the girl. So it was only natural that one should pity the poor fool that would mess with Hotaru. Well, most people would anyways.
Hotaru herself had changed as well from what the Sailor Scouts were familiar with. She was still shy like she had been in her previous life, but her life was full of more joy. The little girl was never given a chance to mop or think deeply about where her life was going as a Scout. Not that she remembered at all that she was one, but it would be a safe assumption that if she were to ever fall into dark thoughts Duo would be there to snap her out of it. There were other differences as well, not only to Hotaru, but to the Gundam pilots as well. It was one thing to be needed during a war by thousands who were suppressed or dying, but it was another to be needed by a single girl who depended on them to teach her and raise her into adulthood. In fact it was Hotaru who made them seem more like family than ever, even if one had to contend with Milliardo.
Ding Dong!
"I'll get it!" Hotaru yelled as she skidded down the hallway to the front door before anyone else could stop her.
A week after the entire 'Heero Must Die' incident Hotaru had grown to love her Uncle Milliardo with a passion and as did he during his frequent visits with his wife Noin on their way to work. Hotaru took another turn at the corner nearly causing her to crash into the wall as she skidded to a stop. She stood on top of her toes to grab the doorknob successfully throwing the door open. There stood Milliardo and Noin Peacecraft as they both smiled at her antics. Both dogs Shadow and Neo followed their Mistress with just as much enthusiasm as her. Only they weren't as fortunate as her as they both crashed into the wall when they made their turn around the corner. Not only did they crash into the wall, but the table against it causing the vase full of flowers to tip over and land on top of Neo's head.
"Uncle Milliardo!" Hotaru squealed completely unaware of what her dogs have done.
Milliardo bent down to hug her, "Good morning Hotaru."
Quatre and the others also came out the moment they heard Hotaru squeal Milliardo's name. The blond pilot shook his head and tsked the two dogs who were now wet and whimpering for some pity. Heero walked up to the trio that was standing at the doorway. Noin nodded in Heero's direction and Heero nodded back. Relena whom was right behind Heero waved at Noin and sighed without a sound. Milliardo stood up only to have Hotaru hug his leg as she watched the two closest men in her life.
"Yuy."
"Zechs."
Hotaru watched with the curious eyes of a cat. She could never understand why her father continued to refer to her Uncle, as Zechs even though everyone said his name was Milliardo. This was their way of greeting each other ever since they both agreed not to fight for Hotaru's sake. So every time everyone including Hotaru when to Preventers the morning would be the same. Milliardo would ring the doorbell, Hotaru would answer and this would leave both Heero and Milliardo just staring each other down after the greeting of last or war names. Why both men insisted to do this every single day was beyond any of the witnesses.
Noin coughed, "We better get moving or else we'll be late."
The men blinked before taking a step back.
"Come on Hotaru," Heero picked her up.
Hotaru grinned happily as she wrapped her arms around Heero's neck. She loved days like these, when everyone had to go to Preventers HQ. The main reason was that she got the day off from lessons. Besides she was tired of doing fighting stances for her Uncle Wufei. Besides this entire going out was like a family trip… In a weird demented sort of sense.
"Daddy," Hotaru struggled to stay still as her daddy buckled her in.
"Yes?" Heero still needed time to get use to this, seven weeks from a baby to a six year old was mind boggling at best.
Hotaru smiled up at him, "Can we get ice cream after you're done working?"
Everyone looked at Heero; it was a well-known fact that before Hotaru Heero had a timetable to keep. Now the question was, was Heero going to break that timetable yet again for ice cream. Hotaru looked up at Heero with wide eyes, though in the truth of the matter Hotaru's eyes were naturally wide to begin with. Heero looked down at the child he now after much debate considered his.
"Okay."
So Heero learned to give in every once in a while since Hotaru came along. Duo looked away to make sure Heero didn't see him smirk. From the looks of it the Perfect Soldier's emotional walls were being taken down by a six year old. Not that Heero minded really, not if it was Hotaru. There were still a few things though that made him uncomfortable when it came to parenting. Hugging would be one of them.
"So, what is Hotaru going to be doing while the rest of you are working?" Noin asked her husband as they followed the other boys in their own car.
Milliardo shrugged, "Yuy feels he doesn't have a choice but to let her loose with the other children."
"That isn't a bad thing Milliardo, she could use a few friends that aren't her Uncles," Noin pointed out as she noticed the frown on Milliardo's face.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, every child needs at least one friend around their age."
"What age? Noin you heard Yuy, she grows up a year a week."
"Sally says Hotaru has been slowing down…"
"Or maybe she isn't meant to grow really tall."
Noin looked up to where her niece sat in the car ahead. She felt that Hotaru needed friends, but Milliardo was right. How would Hotaru feel when she started to grow older than her friends do? How would her friends feel? Yet there was hope.
Noin gripped her hands, "She will need friends when she stops growing."
Milliardo didn't miss the choice of words Noin used. She said 'when' not 'if' as if Hotaru would truly stop growing. Maybe he was being a pessimist, or maybe he was just jaded by all the awful things that happened during the war he couldn't keep his hopes up.
"Yes, she will when she stops," Milliardo repeated after his wife.
Up ahead the discussion was far more light hearted than what had been going on between the two married couple. Quatre was testing Hotaru on the things that he taught her yesterday. It still floored him at the amount of information that the little girl could remember.
"Uncle Quatre…" Hotaru whined, "I know it all."
"Sorry, but I had to make sure," Quatre beamed at her, "I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't at least make sure you knew."
"Couldn't I learn something else?" Hotaru asked.
Quatre had to admit it probably would be best if Hotaru learned something else. Unlike the other pilots Quatre's subject was something Hotaru could get easily from books, and one couldn't accuse the girl of not reading books. Heaven help them the little girl had nearly gone through their whole library.
"So, what would you like to learn then?" Quatre asked.
Hotaru looked up at the sky in deep thought, "Hmm… I would like to learn……… Music!"
"Music?"
"Yea! Everyone knows you know lots of music so I want to learn music too," Hotaru giggled, "That I can't learn from books!"
How true that was, music wasn't something one could learn from books. Oh, a person could try but the chances of that a person could learn music the right way was slim.
"What part of music?"
"What you play Uncle Quatre… Not where you're sitting… The one where you're standing."
"The violin?"
"Yea!"
"I'll talk about it with your father."
It wouldn't be a bad idea to teach her to play the violin Quatre had mused to himself. He would of course have to talk it over with Heero, but he was sure that Heero would agree to it. All of these thoughts of course were cut short since they had arrived at their destination. Preventers HQ, now the only question was how was Hotaru going to react around the other kids.
~ Five Hours Later~
Twelve-year-old Jace the Ace was lounging in room 333 of Preventer's HQ, which had been made into a hang out of the kid while the parents did what they did best. Normally he would be in school, but today was a P.A Day, in other words no school. This was the same for a good amount of the kids his age and so Jace was stuck in the little kids for the day. Not that he minded, he looked at himself as a big brother of sorts.
"I'm bored…" whined his black counter part Zack a.k.a. Chibi-Duo (because he would never shut-up).
Jace smirked, "You're always bored."
"But I am!"
"Honestly Zack don't you have anything better to do than to complain?" another voice asked in annoyance.
Both boys turned their heads to see a girl their age with boyish short hair and deep blue eyes. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt she tapped her foot looking at Zack like he was a complete moron.
Zack shrugged, "It's another day for us and there's nothing for us to do Dana…"
"I would like to beg to differ on that," a more musical voice chimed in.
As if by magic a second girl appeared looking just like the first only she had long flowing blue hair and she wore a dress. It looked odd with the leather jacket she wore over top.
"Hi Diana," Jace nodded.
The twins Dana and Diana were also nicknamed Ying and Yang because of their polar personality. Each child was different the only things they had in common were that they were all twelve and they all wore leather jackets.
"So what's new on the grapevine you two?" Jace asked.
Diana gave a sad smile, "I'm afraid we are missing one of the kids in here."
Jace quickly looked out, "Which one?"
He was sure all the little kids were in the room, after all the parents would kill him if he lost any of them. The four were entrusted when they weren't at school to make sure all the kids under the age of seven were happy and healthy.
"He's not one of the Littles," Diana hinted.
Zack wrinkled in nose, "You've been reading fantasy novels again haven't you?"
"Is there a problem with my sis reading fantasy novels?" Dana challenged.
"No… not at all…"
Jace sighed, "Alright already! Diana this wouldn't have to do with a certain Cecil I'm thinking about?"
Diana nodded, "Yes, the last time I saw him he was in the hallway…"
Dana, "Can I beat the tar out of him?"
There was silence between the older kids, Zack could have sworn there were crickets chirping in the background.
Zack blinked, "Diana, isn't there where you start yelling and saying how she shouldn't be wanting to beat Cecil up?"
"Cecil is showing a new kid the 'ropes'," Diana explained dryly.
"Ah…" Jace stood up straight, "I guess this means crying if I'm guessing the age huh?"
"Age 6 I would say," Diana had that same evil glint in her eye that is mostly seen in Dana, "And under our territory."
"Now can I beat the shit out of him?" Dana asked.
"Diana! Language," Diana frowned.
Jace nodded, "Okay, first like Mr. Yuy always says to the Ensigns let's 'asset' the situation first. Zack, go to Mr. Maxwell and see you if you con some more of those chocolate bars from him."
"Why?"
"Because it's the only way I know to make little kids stop crying… Oh and ask for pop too."
"Sure think!" Zack did a mock salute before running off.
Jace gave the girls an evil grin, "Let's pay a visit to Cecil."
Hotaru tried hard to fight back the tears, somehow this situation seemed so familiar though she couldn't put her finger on it just yet. She knew one thing for sure she hated this boy, but Mommy and Uncle Quatre said it wasn't all right to hate people, but she hated him any ways. Why this was happening Hotaru had no idea, just one minute she was reading to her dolly and the next minute she was being pushed down by an older boy.
"Come on brat!" the older boy sneered, "Or are you dumb and didn't get a word I just said? I'm the boss around here so you've got to show me some respect."
"My Uncle says that people like you don't deserve respect!" Hotaru shot back.
"Is that so?" he grabbed her by her front shirt, "Well guess what? Your Uncle or whoever you know can't do a thing."
Hotaru bit the boy on the hand causing him to drop her in pain. The little girl dropped to the floor without hurting herself just like Wufei had taught her so many times before. Generally speaking Mommy had always said it was a bad thing to fight, but Daddy said fighting was good to defend herself from attackers. This boy was certainly on the Attackers List. Still on the ground Hotaru shot out both her legs to catch to boy unbalanced. The older and heavier boy went down in surprise. Hotaru scrambled to her feet and ran.
"You're a dead brat!" he howled.
Hotaru kept on running only to look back to see the boy get to his feet. It looked like steam was reading to come out of his ears. She was in a lot of trouble; unfortunately she wasn't watching where she was going and rammed into someone else. Hotaru mentally groaned for she knew the people she rammed into were with the mean boy. She looked up to see a boy with short spiky black hair and two girls that looked almost alike. The girl with short hair looked at Hotaru was a strange look on her face before smiling like the devil himself. Hotaru shrunk back this was not a good sign. The smiling girl turned her head towards the boy, whom seemed to be the leader. The next words out of her mouth would surprise Hotaru.
The shorthaired girl piped up, "Can we keep her?"
Jace had expected the worse when they went to rescue the young girl from being humiliated, beaten and verbally abused only to find her sweeping Cecil off her feet literally. She was quick and it was clear she didn't mean to harm Cecil or otherwise and Jace was sure of this the girl would have done worse. Yet, there was something familiar about the girl, something his father had told them. He didn't have much time to ponder this as the girl ran and ran into them. Dana was shocked to see a little shrimp like Hotaru take down Cecil. Now that she thought about it Jace had promised them that they could have another member to the group and she was the coolest, cutest and not to mention in Dana's opinion the best ass-kicking little girl she's met.
Dana looked at Jace excitedly, "Can we keep her?"
"You make her sound like she's a dog," Jace stared at his friend.
"Please?"
"Let me think about it," Jace murmured as he kneeled at her level, "Hello, my name is Jace, what's yours?"
Hotaru forgetting that there was a boy charging at her whispered, "Hotaru."
The name was the key that turned on the lightbulb in Jace's head. Unless he was being brain dead there was no way he could miss the name. Jace's face broke out into a grin that seemed to spread from ear to ear. He quickly got to his feet giving a quick glance to a charging Cecil and a pat on the head to Hotaru.
He whispered to Diana over his shoulder, "Go get Mr. Yuy."
"Why? We can handle this," Dana growled.
"Trust me, just say Hotaru is in trouble," Jace turned back just in time to see a huffing Cecil at this face. Jace held Hotaru close to him.
Cecil, "Out of the way that brat is mine!"
Jace raised a brow, "You're certainly right… she is a brat."
Hotaru looked like she was ready to cry… Even this boy called her a brat. How could he?
Cecil looked warily at Jace, "You agree with me?"
"Of course," Jace smiled happily, "She's a brat just like the rest of us aren't you Hotaru," he looked down and winked.
Hotaru recognized that wink. It was the same kind of wink her Uncle Duo would give her whenever he was going to play a prank her in view. Unsure of herself, but sure that saying no would be a bad thing Hotaru played along.
"Yes," she said quietly.
Cecil snorted, "Do you expect me to believe that?"
Jace looked down, "What… Oh! I forgot!" Jace took of his jacket and placed it on Hotaru, "There you go."
Before Dana could react Cecil grabbed Jace by the front of his shirt. Lifting him up into the air wasn't hard since Cecil was clearly far taller than Jace and of a bigger built. Dana did the only thing she could do and that was to grab Hotaru out from between them. Jace didn't move all he did was look down at Cecil.
"That is bullshit, she's a little brat," Cecil slammed Jace into a wall.
Jace winced, "No swearing in front of the kiddies now," he kept an eye out for the end of the hallway. This was going to be the hard part.
Meanwhile in another part of Preventers Duo was finishing up some paperwork when Zack came knocking at his door. Duo looked up to see Zack there grinning at him.
Duo chuckled, "Well, if it isn't my favorite Pre-Brat."
"Hiya Mr. Maxwell," Zack took a seat in front of Duo, "I was wondering…"
"No, the last time you asked me for a favour your mother nearly had my head," Duo shook his head.
"Aww…. Come on it's an innocent request," Zack gave him an angelic smile, "I swear."
"What is it this time?" Duo asked with good humour."
"Maybe…. Chocolate bars and pop?" Zack gave Duo a hopeful smile.
"Again? Can't you buy your own?"
"I do, but this is for a good cause," Zack smiled, "You know… Pre-Brat stuff."
"I don't know…" Duo draggled out.
"Please? For the poor little girl?" Zack gave Duo pleading eyes.
"You know it's a girl this time?" Duo raised a brow.
"That's what Diana said, and you know she doesn't lie."
Duo sighed, "I'm a sucker for you," he rummaged around in his drawer until he pulled out three chocolate bars and here's some money to get some pop."
"Thank you Mr. Maxwell Sir!" Zack ran out of the door.
Duo shook his head, "Thank god there's only four of them."
Back at 'The Wall', as Jace would so kindly put it he was still being held in place. He swore that he was getting some major bruises. The only reason why Dana wasn't saving him was because she was busy keeping Hotaru from doing that herself.
"Stop that!" Hotaru cried out.
"Well Ace?" Cecil spat, "Did you finally learn your place?"
Jace pretend to muse as he saw two figures running down the hallway towards him, "Well… Truthfully speaking the reason why little Hotaru is one of us is one simple reason."
"CECIL!" Heero's voice boomed throughout the hallway.
Jace gave Cecil a shark-like grin, "She's Yuy's daughter."
Cecil paled by several shades and his grip on Jace's shirt loosens as the boy started to tremble.
Jace leaned over till it was nose to nose from Cecil, "One suggestion… Run."
Cecil took off like a rocket down the hallway and around the corner with Heero following at his heels. Dana whistled at Jace's ingenious way of dealing with Cecil. No doubt Cecil would be extra careful to whom he would pick on in the near future.
"Now I really want to keep her," Jace rolled his eyes.
Hotaru took off the jacket and gave it back to him, "Thank you for helping me. Here you can have your jacket back."
Diana murmured, "You know… It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep her on."
"Keep me on as what?" Hotaru asked.
"Keep who on?" another voice asked.
Everyone turned to see Zack standing there balancing three chocolate bars and three cans of Ginger Ale with five cups. He walked up to them and looked down at the little dark haired girl.
"Hey! I know you! You're Yuy's girl," Zack smirked, "Cecil is a dead man- err, boy I mean."
"Already is," Jace thumbed towards the hallway, "And this little squirt on a kick and bite in before hand."
"Cool," Zack nodded, "I like her, of course any girl that Mr. Maxwell likes I like."
"Good, because we're at a stand point," Jace answered back.
Hotaru pouted, "I don't get it."
Diana smiled down at her, "It's a Pre-Brat thing, it's our sudden meeting."
"Pre-Brat?"
Dana nodded, "Stands for Preventer Brat… You know… Kind of like those Military Brats."
Jace smiled, "Well Zack, Dana has nominated Hotaru here for the fifth Pre-Brat position. Diana backed her up, what's your say?"
"Cool! We get Yuy's kid?" Zack's eyes lit up.
"I guess that's answer my question," Jace handed Hotaru back his jacket, "It's yours Hotaru. Welcome to the Preventer Brats."
"OH Yea!" Zack broke out the chocolate bars and pop.
Before Hotaru knew it she had a piece of chocolate in one hand and a cup of Ginger Ale. She smiled at the four older kids before her. They were the best and Uncle Milliardo was worried she wouldn't make friends. Jace raised his cup as if to give a toast.
"To Hotaru Yuy a.k.a… What do we call her?" Jace turned to everyone.
"Childling."
"Nightshade."
"How about Firefly?" Zack piped up, "What? Her name does mean Firefly, at least that's what Mr. Maxwell says."
Jace smiled, "Okay then Hotaru Yuy a.k.a. Firefly! Our newest Pre-Brat!"
Everyone clinked cups together. Hotaru stood on a chair so she would be able to do so without anyone bending down. If anyone had been in the hallway they would have heard the infamous Pre-Brats yelling out.
"To Firefly!"
Author's Note: Sorry for the very, very, very… well you get the idea… the very long wait. I've had this idea floating about, but I'm nearly all wrote out since most of my writing time is spent doing essays. I don't mind essays, but currently I'm on my sixth or seventh essay of the year. Anyhow I hoped you like it. At first I tried to not use any original characters, but when the idea that Hotaru would have friends that weren't the Inners, Outers or Chibi-Usa well this came into mind.
Also * dances * I went to Anime North about two weeks ago. At a request of mine I had a picture of little Hotaru and the G-boys drawn. As soon as I get it on the scanner and onto a site I'll show it off. That picture also spawns some other ideas, but that'll have to wait for later.
Let's see to refresh yours and my memory this last chapter takes place in October… I remember this because the next chapter is supposed to be about Halloween. Also currently Hotaru is six years old, and next chapter she'll be seven. Just so that there's no confusion.