Standard disclaimers applied.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!
It was a day before New Year's Eve for year AC 199. Everyone seemed to be busy shopping, at homes, families come from different parts of the world and colonies to gather for a family reunion. Now, we concentrate on the busy household of the Peacecrafts'.
"Sally!! Your cakes gonna' be toast!!!" Hilde Schbeiker yelled from the kitchen and after a few minutes, Sally Po rushed in, reflexively fanning the oven with her hand. Quickly, she took out a mitten and took out a semi- burnt looking cake. Hilde glanced over Sally's shoulder and whistled. "Congratulations."
"Thanks a lot." Sally replied bitterly. She shook her head and sighed. "What am I gonna' do with this?"
"Give it to Duo?" she suggested, wiping some plates.
Sally raised an eyebrow. "Fought again?"
Her companion shook her head. "Nu-uh. Just a little disagreement." She smiled. "Hey, how are you and Wufei doing? Are you 2 engaged already?"
"Are you kidding? That man has an ego as big as the universe!" she said, exasperated. "But, he's okay. I won't put up with him for 4 years if I don't like him, you know."
Hilde just nodded. "So, did you guys do 'it' already?" Sally looked at Hilde who gave her a 'well?' smile. She was about to answer when the kitchen door burst open.
"Mmm... sweet." Quatre Raberba Winner cooed, holding Dorothy Catalona, who, in turn, was holding a chocolate bar. She bit another bite of the chocolate and went into a lip-lock with her Arabian prince. Sally and Hilde looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
They cleared their throats together. "Ehem." The 2 lovers snapped their heads to them. Obviously, they were too deeply concentrating in each other that they didn't realise the 2 women inside. Quatre turned a bit red.
"Uh, I'll go out and see what the guys are doing. See you later, sweetheart." He gave her a quick kiss followed by a playful lick on her lips which made her smile and redden. He winked before disappearing through the door. Dorothy turned and was met by Hilde and Sally's sly smiles.
She ran her hand through her double eyebrows, "Jealous?" she said, before they all burst into laughter. As they laughed/giggled, Catherine Bloom entered the noisy kitchen, hands on her hips.
"What? Am I missing something here?" the 3 laughed still but settled down.
"Nothing big, Cathie, just Dorothy and Quatre." Sally filled her in.
She raised her eyebrows, "Oh, that. I saw it as I was laying the table." She motioned outside. "You two seem to be doing well."
"What can I say? We are helplessly in love with each other." She said, smiling and fantasizing. The 3 other women just looked away, hiding their smile for they were happy for their friend. Suddenly, Catherine's face turned grim.
"Have any of you seen Heero?" she asked. The room fell silent and each shook their heads slowly. Suddenly, the door flung open and in came Relena, all smiles.
"Good morning, girls. Lovely morning, don't you think?" they all turned to her. "I got a lot of things to do. Hey, did you burn that cake, Sally?" the former queen turned to Sally who had her hands on her hip, giving the cake a disgusted look.
"Gee, Lena, thanks for noticing." She said. "Oh, by the way, have you invited Heero over?"
"Heero?" Relena turned. "I think... yeah. I asked Duo to call him a few days ago." She replied. Then, she continued to ramble on and on about decorations, menu, presents, etc.
Meanwhile, outside, the men were pretty busy. Duo was given the task to wash every window in the Peacecraft's mansion, Quatre was assigned to check around for any damages in and outside the house, helped by the Maguanacs, Trowa volunteered on preparing the electrical supply so that no black out will happen in the middle of the celebration while Wufei mowed the huge lawn.
Quatre wiped a bead of sweat that fell on his eyebrows. "Phew... I wonder why did Ms. Relena ask us to do all the repairing? Where did her servants go?" he thought out loud to himself and it so happen that Duo Maxwell was playing monkey right above him.
"Well, I heard she insisted that all her servants take a break and have a happy New Year's Day with their family and friends. Since we're her friends as well as family, she asked US to do all the work for her. Something about close-knitting our relationships." Duo replied.
"I don't see Heero around. Did you guys manage to find him?" Trowa suddenly appeared, bringing a mechanic's toolbox.
"Well, Relena asked me to send him an invitation, and I sure did. Now, it's up to him whether he wants to come or not." Suddenly, they heard a machine 'coughing' followed by a grunt coming from a Chinese man a few yards away from them. It was silent again.
"Come on, work! This is injustice!" The Chinese ex-gundam pilot continued to grunt and grumble and curse trying to bring the wretched machine to work.
"Check the oil tank, Wufei." Trowa called from the house. Wufei 'hmphed and continued his complaining, how he hates onnas who give him pathetic assignments, etc, etc. and walked towards the house.
"Where did they put that stupid oil can?" he grumbled, walking past the trios and across the pool. As he bent down to find the can, the trios suddenly smiled mischievously at each other.
"It's kind of a hot day, isn't it?" Trowa asked, pulling his collar with his index finger.
"You bet." Replied his Arabian companion, who took off his hat.
"What do you say if we go plunge in the pool or something?" Duo asked, taking off the coverall he was wearing.
"Good idea." Quatre and Trowa said in unison. They walked to the pool QUIETLY. Wufei was grumbling and grunting away, giving his back to them. Finally, he saw what he was looking for.
"Aha." He said triumphantly. Suddenly, he felt both his hands and legs grabbed from behind. "What the...?!!!" he was shocked and was soon angry when he heard the laughter of the 3 ex-Gundam pilots. "UNHAND ME AT ONCE!!!! THIS IS INJUSSSTIIIICCCEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and before he could utter a single word, he was thrown head-first into the pool. Trowa, Quatre and Duo laughed their heads off and rolled on the floor. "YOU ARE SOOO DEAD!!!!" Wufei jumped from the pool and attempted on pushing them into the pool but, he ended up chasing them around the house, across the lawn and through all the rooms in the mansion.
The women in the kitchen heard yellings, laughter and crashings everywhere around the house. They looked out and saw Wufei running out the door at full speed. The women then ran to the kitchen window and saw Quatre, Duo and Trowa laughing as they ran. Wufei suddenly chased them with his katana and sliced anything and everything in his way. Including...
"MY ROSE BUSH!!!!!!!!" Relena shrieked. Everyone froze as they heard the shrill scream and within a nanosecond, saw Relena kneeling in front of a barely recognizable rose bush. She turned her head. "Wu... Fei..." she said in a ghastly voice.
Inside, Sally saw Relena's blood veins popped out on her temples. "I'll go get the Tranquilizer gun." She said as she turned to the kitchen's door. From the kitchen, the 3 women looked at the sight before them. Trowa, Duo and Quatre were chased by Wufei with a katana who was chased by Relena with a pair of huge hedge clippers. They sweatdropped heavily. Noin came in.
"What is going on here?" she asked, looking around the messy household.
Dorothy pointed outside the kitchen. "See for yourself." Noin ended up rolling her eyes.
"Somebody get the tranquilizer gun."
"Don't worry, Sally's at it." Catherine told her and went back to cooking, in fact, everyone did.
"Where's His Highness Milliardo?" Hilde asked the soon-to-be Mrs. Peacecraft.
"He still has some work to do and Une wanted him for something."
"Ooh, better keep a close eye on him." Dorothy said, winking. Noin just 'hmph'ed and started to help cooking.
**********************************************
Meanwhile, as they were merrily enjoying themselves, another situation was getting more than just 'merry' in another part of the world.
"The system has been malfunctioned. We can escape through the route here. It will take precisely 2 minutes to run down there given addition and subtractions of errors." Hera looked up at Heero from the palm-top she was holding. "That gives us exactly 20 minutes to go in and out of this place." Heero was surveying their surrounding and then bent down.
"Mission Accepted." He replied. He reloaded his gun and passed/threw Hera some ammo. "Remember, no casualties." She nodded. They ran in separate ways and were met by all sorts of possible security guards, laser beams and traps.
All the while, Hera managed to pass the securities without killing anyone by shooting their legs. Heero was greeted by open fire everywhere he runs to and a bullet caught him in the arm. He didn't even flinch but shot at whoever there was to shoot at. Then, he reached his destination. "Hera, do you read?"
Suddenly, the monitor displayed his foster-daughter's face. "I didn't kill anyone, Current Location: North wing"
"Good girl. My CL is West wing. Now, download all files available and delete their copy, while I set bombs." He can see her typing furiously even before he finished his sentence. She nodded and the screen turned black. Heero went to some rooms and set the time to 5 minutes. Then, he reloaded his guns, returned fire once the security guys open fire.
Hera was intently doing her part of the job and within 5 minutes, all datas has been copied. "Virus sending. Sending procedure complete." She said as she stopped typing, took the CD rom used to copy the data and dashed to the exit route. Lucky for her, all attention was concentrated on Heero so, her side was nothing but clean.
She reached outside and ran to find a shelter. As she found one, she saw her father running, shooting, hiding, zigzagging, throwing bombs, etc to the guards. She looked at her watch. "10 seconds to explosion. 10... 9... 8... 7... 6..." she count downed.
"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." Heero continued from his hiding place which was a few yards from Hera.
"Zero." Both said. The building exploded but not massively that it destroys the whole building. The bomb only caused some rooms in the building to be on fire. As the guards and other officials in and outside of the building hustled and bustled, Heero walked with Hera away from the scene coolly.
"Mission Accomplished." They both said in unison.
**********************************
"I understand, but the explosion must have been done by some rebels, sir." Lady Une said, talking/arguing on the phone as Milliardo Peacecraft watched the news of the bombing of the New Colony's ambassador. "Yes, we will look into this matter, good day." Une put down the phone and sighed.
"Giving you a hard time again?" Milliardo asked.
She sighed again. "We have to send someone to go investigate this. What's worse, it's occurring a day before New Year's Eve! And I promised Mariemaia to bring her to that party..."
Milliardo looked at the woman sympathetically. "Lady Une, if you'd allow me, I'll take on the job."
"No. You are the most important person to be in the party. Noin and Relena'll kill me if I let you investigate. I will not have it, understood, preventor wind?" Une asked sternly. Her companion just smiled at her. A knock came from Une's office and it was one of the crew workers.
"Lady Une, we have received the security tape faxed by the L3 colony. (that's where the explosion occurred)" he saluted and handed the tape to Milliardo. With another salute, he left.
"Well, let's see what we can find." Une sighed tiredly. "Can't these people just live in peace rather than dissatisfaction of everything?"
"Unfortunately, Lady Une, not everybody thinks like you."
********************************************
Hera sat in the co-pilot seat, typing away as Heero tend to his wound. Their shuttle was heading to earth and they were on their way to the New Year's Day Party in an auto-pilot mode. "As expected, L3 has something to do with that project." Heero looked at her palm top's screen.
"Put it on the main monitor." He ordered. She did so and a bulletin copy was displayed.
"Unfortunately, L3 is only their financial centre. The factories, in which they use to develop whatever they were developing, mostly feared by us, mobile suits, were done somewhere else."
"The galaxy-satellite." Heero guessed and she nodded. Heero rubbed his chin.
Hera gazed on the monitor and pointed to a man who was smiling and shaking hands with the leader of the Unified Nations. "Who's he?" she asked. Heero looked at who she was pointing and saw a man whom he saw a few times on TV and has grown to be more popular these days.
"Zeimer Wargon. Recently won the voting as the Peace ambassador for L3, that's where Quatre's from." Heero inquired.
"Quatre Raberba Winner, Pilot of Sandrock?" she asked. Heero looked at her from bandaging his arm and just nodded. "I'll go change." She said and floated to the back of the shuttle and closed the door behind her, "It's been rumored that Zeimer has been seeing Ms. Peacecraft."
Heero turned to the man known as Zeimer and narrowed his eyes as a tinge of jealousy suddenly surfaced in him.
As she said that, she came out, wearing a skirt and a blouse with a scarf tied around her neck. She looked like an ordinary school girl if not for her expressionless face which occasionally smiles at him. "Don't let your emotions get the better of you."
"Hmph. Who are you to tell me that?" Heero said and finished bandaging his arm.
"Just telling." She said and sat in the co-pilot seat again. "I'll investigate about this man." She informed him. Heero said nothing but just stared at outer space. A lot of things have changed about him.
**************************************************
At the Peacecraft's mansion, everyone was busy cleaning the house. The men were all calm now; each assigned to be with their partners. (e.g., Duo/Hilde, Dorothy/Quatre, Trowa/Catherine, Wufei/Sally). Noin was tuning the piano in the living room when the doorbell rang. "Coming!" she said and opened the door.
"Heero!" Duo exclaimed happily from behind Noin before she could say anything. He was holding a huge vase and Hilde was holding it from the other side. "Hey everyone!! Look who's here!" he called out to everyone upstairs.
"Come on in, Heero, glad you can make it." Noin chirped happily. He nodded to Noin in acknowledgement and turned to his car, calling someone.
"Thank you, Noin." He said, turning to her. Noin had a look of surprise when she saw Hera walk to them. "This is Ms. Noin." He told the girl who curtsied at her but didn't say anything. The others came down and each had surprised looks.
Duo whistled. "Hey Heero, I didn't know you like kids." He said who got nudged by Hilde. "Ow. Hilde..."
Heero took off his shades. "Sorry I'm late, I had work to do."
All of them 'duh'ed and Quatre was the first to talk, "We thought as much. Don't worry about it." Heero looked around but didn't see Relena or Milliardo.
"I brought some stuffs, mind to help?" he said.
Trowa smirked. "You bringing stuffs? This I got to see." He went to the door, followed by Wufei, Quatre and Duo. They chat for a bit as they walked and Duo gave Heero a playful 'slap' on the back which caused him to 'accidentally' kick Duo's foot, causing him to sprawl on the floor.
"So, what did you bring? Handguns? Grenades? Canons?" Wufei asked sarcastically.
"Wufei, Wufei, Wufei, since when do you joke?" Heero returned the sarcasm. All of the guys (except Wufei laughed). Wufei turned red and started saying injustice you, injustice peace, injustice sarcasm, etc, etc.
"That's a good one, Heero. This peaceful world taught you a thing or two, huh?" Quatre asked, placing his hand on Heero's shoulder.
"I'm still learning." He replied.
"At a boy, Heero," Duo slinged his arm on Heero's shoulder and walked to his car. Hera was alone in the house, watching as they went to the car.
"So, do you have a name?" Sally asked Hera.
"Hera, Hera Yuy." She said, barely in a whisper. Sally's eyes grew big and so did the other women.
"Yuy? What are you, his sister?" Catherine asked the little girl.
"Daughter." She replied plainly. The women looked at each other. "I officially become his daughter only a few days ago." She told them. If Heero put his guard down around these people that just means how much he trusts them. So, why won't she?
"Oh, I get it." Dorothy suddenly said. "Foster daughter." She said to all of them. Noin nodded.
"Well, Hera, allow me to introduce all of us, this is Dorothy, Hilde and Catherine" she pointed to each of them as she said their name. Before she can say another word, yellings can be heard from outside and followed by a huge splash. All the women sighed.
"There they go again..." Dorothy said, running her fingers across her eyebrow as she walked into the kitchen.
"Well, don't worry; the guys are ALWAYS like that, trust me. So, you wanna' help bake some cookies?" Hilde asked her with a wink. She nodded and followed them to the kitchen.
Outside, Wufei and Quatre were already in the pool, looking at Duo, Trowa and Heero. It started when Duo suggested a little wrestling competition to see who is the fittest ex-pilot around. They all shook on 500 bucks. Wufei and Quatre were now out. Duo attempted to push Heero into the pool since they cornered him but Heero sidestepped and tripped Duo into the pool.
"SHIT!!" Duo cursed. Quatre and Wufei laughed at the braided guy.
Trowa was the last and was now circling with Heero. They looked like 2 lions fighting. Suddenly, Trowa back flipped, surprising Heero and rammed himself to Heero using an extra boost from the pillar behind him. Heero intercepted him and suddenly rolled on his back, using the force Trowa used and pushed Trowa with his legs. Trowa fell into the pool. He resurfaced, his unibang covered his face, and he pushed it aside.
Heero threw his head back and laughed. The others were dumbfounded. "Looks like I win." He exclaimed.
"Heero, did you just... laugh?" Duo asked. Heero shrugged.
"Learning to be human." He said in a matter-of-factly. "That's 500 bucks." He snickered as Duo gets laughed at by the other guys.
"Okay, okay!! Fine! Later, okay?"
"Well, Maxwell, you've gone rusty."
"Look who's talking." Duo pouted. "Hey, Heero, you're gonna give us a hand or not?" Duo asked, putting his hands on his hip. Heero shrugged and stretched out his hand towards the guys when he noticed one of them missing.
"Where's Trowa?" he asked. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed his legs and Duo pulled Heero's hand, causing him to plunge into the pool. They laughed at the perfect soldier who was now soaked and glared daggers at every one of them.
Inside, Hera was having trouble reading the cook book. "1 tsp? Is that a code?" she asked, turning to Sally.
Sally giggled at the small girl. "It's teaspoon dear." Hera looked up at Sally and nodded slowly. 'Why are these people being so nice? Don't they realize that peace can never last forever?' she thought. As she continued to follow the cook book, (and progressing well at that) the door opened and giggles can be heard.
"Ah, that's Relena." Noin said. "Hera, could you follow me please?" she asked, gesturing the girl to follow her. She obeyed. Noin opened the door and saw Relena walking in with someone or rather, being intimate with someone. Noin couldn't believe what she was seeing! "Relena?" she asked, quite surprised.
"Oh, Lucy. You know, Zeimer." Relena introduced, smiling to the charming looking man. "Zeimer, my sister-in-law-to-be, Lucrezia Noin." The man nodded and smiled at Noin. Hera looked up at the man but didn't say anything. "Noin, who's this? Mariemaia's friend?"
Noin was about to answer when Hera stepped forward and curtsied to the 2. "My name is Hera Yuy, it's a pleasure." She said in her whispy soft voice. Relena's eyes went wide.
"Hera... Yuy?" she asked. Suddenly, the door behind her opened and in came 5 men, carrying a lot of things and soaking wet. As they entered, they noticed the man and Relena. The 4 gundam pilots looked at each other and then at Heero who was looking at Relena. Relena did not do anything except looked back at him.
"Well, hello. You must be Heero Yuy." The man earlier introduced as Zeimer greeted, smiling at Heero. He didn't say anything but nodded. Then, he decided that the reunion party shouldn't be spoiled because of him. He turned to Hera, "Hera, help me carry these inside." He said quietly, not showing any emotions.
"Yes, father." She said and went to get some of the stuffs from Heero and carried them into the store room. Heero walked past Relena and Zeimer. The other ex-gundam pilots followed suit. Hera put down everything and turned to her father. She can tell what he was feeling and pulled his hand so that he'll bend down. 'Don't let your emotions get the better of you.' she whispered into his ear.
Heero smiled a little and ruffled her hair. "Go and help in the kitchen or something." She nodded and went. The ex-gundam pilots stood in the store room, looking at the girl walk off.
"Say, uh, it's getting, cold. We ought to change." Duo suddenly said. The others agreed and went to the changing room where they kept their bags to stay overnight in Relena's mansion. None of them said anything. As they were changing, Quatre was the first to speak up.
"Heero, I..." he started. "I don't know what to say to you now but..." Heero held up his hand and turned to his fellow pilot.
"She's just moving on. And, she's right. I've never been true to her. I've been a coward, running from the feeling alien to me, hoping that I will be able to return the feeling she have for me someday. But, when I realized it, it's too late." He said bitterly though he didn't show it. He took out a stack of beer from his bag, pulled one for himself and tossed the others the rest. They each took a can and gulped it. "I envied you guys." He said.
"Hmph. You sure have changed, Heero." Wufei suddenly smirked. "It's like talking to a different man all together." The other 3 glared at Wufei. "What?" he asked earnestly.
"Zip it, Wufei." Duo warned him, "Consider yourself lucky Sally still stays with you despite that attitude of yours."
"Does that make YOU any better, Maxwell?"
"You mocking me, Chinese man?" Duo stood up, ready to fight.
"I thought you'll never ask." Wufei replied, clicking his knuckles. Trowa and Quatre stood up quickly to quell the fight. Heero continued to sit against the wall, drinking away. He suddenly remembered what Hera said to him earlier. 'Don't let your emotions get the better of you.' his lips curved into a ghostly smile. He finished the beer, crushed it in his hand and threw it to Wufei which landed squarely on his head. The noise died down.
"Don't worry Wufei, I'm still the man you guys know 4 years ago. Only difference is I'm better and improved." Heero sat up. Quatre smiled.
"That's the spirit, Heero. I'm so... proud of you." suddenly, he took out a handkerchief and blew his nose. Trowa patted him on the back. Heero smirked and walked out.
To Be Continued...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!
It was a day before New Year's Eve for year AC 199. Everyone seemed to be busy shopping, at homes, families come from different parts of the world and colonies to gather for a family reunion. Now, we concentrate on the busy household of the Peacecrafts'.
"Sally!! Your cakes gonna' be toast!!!" Hilde Schbeiker yelled from the kitchen and after a few minutes, Sally Po rushed in, reflexively fanning the oven with her hand. Quickly, she took out a mitten and took out a semi- burnt looking cake. Hilde glanced over Sally's shoulder and whistled. "Congratulations."
"Thanks a lot." Sally replied bitterly. She shook her head and sighed. "What am I gonna' do with this?"
"Give it to Duo?" she suggested, wiping some plates.
Sally raised an eyebrow. "Fought again?"
Her companion shook her head. "Nu-uh. Just a little disagreement." She smiled. "Hey, how are you and Wufei doing? Are you 2 engaged already?"
"Are you kidding? That man has an ego as big as the universe!" she said, exasperated. "But, he's okay. I won't put up with him for 4 years if I don't like him, you know."
Hilde just nodded. "So, did you guys do 'it' already?" Sally looked at Hilde who gave her a 'well?' smile. She was about to answer when the kitchen door burst open.
"Mmm... sweet." Quatre Raberba Winner cooed, holding Dorothy Catalona, who, in turn, was holding a chocolate bar. She bit another bite of the chocolate and went into a lip-lock with her Arabian prince. Sally and Hilde looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
They cleared their throats together. "Ehem." The 2 lovers snapped their heads to them. Obviously, they were too deeply concentrating in each other that they didn't realise the 2 women inside. Quatre turned a bit red.
"Uh, I'll go out and see what the guys are doing. See you later, sweetheart." He gave her a quick kiss followed by a playful lick on her lips which made her smile and redden. He winked before disappearing through the door. Dorothy turned and was met by Hilde and Sally's sly smiles.
She ran her hand through her double eyebrows, "Jealous?" she said, before they all burst into laughter. As they laughed/giggled, Catherine Bloom entered the noisy kitchen, hands on her hips.
"What? Am I missing something here?" the 3 laughed still but settled down.
"Nothing big, Cathie, just Dorothy and Quatre." Sally filled her in.
She raised her eyebrows, "Oh, that. I saw it as I was laying the table." She motioned outside. "You two seem to be doing well."
"What can I say? We are helplessly in love with each other." She said, smiling and fantasizing. The 3 other women just looked away, hiding their smile for they were happy for their friend. Suddenly, Catherine's face turned grim.
"Have any of you seen Heero?" she asked. The room fell silent and each shook their heads slowly. Suddenly, the door flung open and in came Relena, all smiles.
"Good morning, girls. Lovely morning, don't you think?" they all turned to her. "I got a lot of things to do. Hey, did you burn that cake, Sally?" the former queen turned to Sally who had her hands on her hip, giving the cake a disgusted look.
"Gee, Lena, thanks for noticing." She said. "Oh, by the way, have you invited Heero over?"
"Heero?" Relena turned. "I think... yeah. I asked Duo to call him a few days ago." She replied. Then, she continued to ramble on and on about decorations, menu, presents, etc.
Meanwhile, outside, the men were pretty busy. Duo was given the task to wash every window in the Peacecraft's mansion, Quatre was assigned to check around for any damages in and outside the house, helped by the Maguanacs, Trowa volunteered on preparing the electrical supply so that no black out will happen in the middle of the celebration while Wufei mowed the huge lawn.
Quatre wiped a bead of sweat that fell on his eyebrows. "Phew... I wonder why did Ms. Relena ask us to do all the repairing? Where did her servants go?" he thought out loud to himself and it so happen that Duo Maxwell was playing monkey right above him.
"Well, I heard she insisted that all her servants take a break and have a happy New Year's Day with their family and friends. Since we're her friends as well as family, she asked US to do all the work for her. Something about close-knitting our relationships." Duo replied.
"I don't see Heero around. Did you guys manage to find him?" Trowa suddenly appeared, bringing a mechanic's toolbox.
"Well, Relena asked me to send him an invitation, and I sure did. Now, it's up to him whether he wants to come or not." Suddenly, they heard a machine 'coughing' followed by a grunt coming from a Chinese man a few yards away from them. It was silent again.
"Come on, work! This is injustice!" The Chinese ex-gundam pilot continued to grunt and grumble and curse trying to bring the wretched machine to work.
"Check the oil tank, Wufei." Trowa called from the house. Wufei 'hmphed and continued his complaining, how he hates onnas who give him pathetic assignments, etc, etc. and walked towards the house.
"Where did they put that stupid oil can?" he grumbled, walking past the trios and across the pool. As he bent down to find the can, the trios suddenly smiled mischievously at each other.
"It's kind of a hot day, isn't it?" Trowa asked, pulling his collar with his index finger.
"You bet." Replied his Arabian companion, who took off his hat.
"What do you say if we go plunge in the pool or something?" Duo asked, taking off the coverall he was wearing.
"Good idea." Quatre and Trowa said in unison. They walked to the pool QUIETLY. Wufei was grumbling and grunting away, giving his back to them. Finally, he saw what he was looking for.
"Aha." He said triumphantly. Suddenly, he felt both his hands and legs grabbed from behind. "What the...?!!!" he was shocked and was soon angry when he heard the laughter of the 3 ex-Gundam pilots. "UNHAND ME AT ONCE!!!! THIS IS INJUSSSTIIIICCCEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and before he could utter a single word, he was thrown head-first into the pool. Trowa, Quatre and Duo laughed their heads off and rolled on the floor. "YOU ARE SOOO DEAD!!!!" Wufei jumped from the pool and attempted on pushing them into the pool but, he ended up chasing them around the house, across the lawn and through all the rooms in the mansion.
The women in the kitchen heard yellings, laughter and crashings everywhere around the house. They looked out and saw Wufei running out the door at full speed. The women then ran to the kitchen window and saw Quatre, Duo and Trowa laughing as they ran. Wufei suddenly chased them with his katana and sliced anything and everything in his way. Including...
"MY ROSE BUSH!!!!!!!!" Relena shrieked. Everyone froze as they heard the shrill scream and within a nanosecond, saw Relena kneeling in front of a barely recognizable rose bush. She turned her head. "Wu... Fei..." she said in a ghastly voice.
Inside, Sally saw Relena's blood veins popped out on her temples. "I'll go get the Tranquilizer gun." She said as she turned to the kitchen's door. From the kitchen, the 3 women looked at the sight before them. Trowa, Duo and Quatre were chased by Wufei with a katana who was chased by Relena with a pair of huge hedge clippers. They sweatdropped heavily. Noin came in.
"What is going on here?" she asked, looking around the messy household.
Dorothy pointed outside the kitchen. "See for yourself." Noin ended up rolling her eyes.
"Somebody get the tranquilizer gun."
"Don't worry, Sally's at it." Catherine told her and went back to cooking, in fact, everyone did.
"Where's His Highness Milliardo?" Hilde asked the soon-to-be Mrs. Peacecraft.
"He still has some work to do and Une wanted him for something."
"Ooh, better keep a close eye on him." Dorothy said, winking. Noin just 'hmph'ed and started to help cooking.
**********************************************
Meanwhile, as they were merrily enjoying themselves, another situation was getting more than just 'merry' in another part of the world.
"The system has been malfunctioned. We can escape through the route here. It will take precisely 2 minutes to run down there given addition and subtractions of errors." Hera looked up at Heero from the palm-top she was holding. "That gives us exactly 20 minutes to go in and out of this place." Heero was surveying their surrounding and then bent down.
"Mission Accepted." He replied. He reloaded his gun and passed/threw Hera some ammo. "Remember, no casualties." She nodded. They ran in separate ways and were met by all sorts of possible security guards, laser beams and traps.
All the while, Hera managed to pass the securities without killing anyone by shooting their legs. Heero was greeted by open fire everywhere he runs to and a bullet caught him in the arm. He didn't even flinch but shot at whoever there was to shoot at. Then, he reached his destination. "Hera, do you read?"
Suddenly, the monitor displayed his foster-daughter's face. "I didn't kill anyone, Current Location: North wing"
"Good girl. My CL is West wing. Now, download all files available and delete their copy, while I set bombs." He can see her typing furiously even before he finished his sentence. She nodded and the screen turned black. Heero went to some rooms and set the time to 5 minutes. Then, he reloaded his guns, returned fire once the security guys open fire.
Hera was intently doing her part of the job and within 5 minutes, all datas has been copied. "Virus sending. Sending procedure complete." She said as she stopped typing, took the CD rom used to copy the data and dashed to the exit route. Lucky for her, all attention was concentrated on Heero so, her side was nothing but clean.
She reached outside and ran to find a shelter. As she found one, she saw her father running, shooting, hiding, zigzagging, throwing bombs, etc to the guards. She looked at her watch. "10 seconds to explosion. 10... 9... 8... 7... 6..." she count downed.
"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." Heero continued from his hiding place which was a few yards from Hera.
"Zero." Both said. The building exploded but not massively that it destroys the whole building. The bomb only caused some rooms in the building to be on fire. As the guards and other officials in and outside of the building hustled and bustled, Heero walked with Hera away from the scene coolly.
"Mission Accomplished." They both said in unison.
**********************************
"I understand, but the explosion must have been done by some rebels, sir." Lady Une said, talking/arguing on the phone as Milliardo Peacecraft watched the news of the bombing of the New Colony's ambassador. "Yes, we will look into this matter, good day." Une put down the phone and sighed.
"Giving you a hard time again?" Milliardo asked.
She sighed again. "We have to send someone to go investigate this. What's worse, it's occurring a day before New Year's Eve! And I promised Mariemaia to bring her to that party..."
Milliardo looked at the woman sympathetically. "Lady Une, if you'd allow me, I'll take on the job."
"No. You are the most important person to be in the party. Noin and Relena'll kill me if I let you investigate. I will not have it, understood, preventor wind?" Une asked sternly. Her companion just smiled at her. A knock came from Une's office and it was one of the crew workers.
"Lady Une, we have received the security tape faxed by the L3 colony. (that's where the explosion occurred)" he saluted and handed the tape to Milliardo. With another salute, he left.
"Well, let's see what we can find." Une sighed tiredly. "Can't these people just live in peace rather than dissatisfaction of everything?"
"Unfortunately, Lady Une, not everybody thinks like you."
********************************************
Hera sat in the co-pilot seat, typing away as Heero tend to his wound. Their shuttle was heading to earth and they were on their way to the New Year's Day Party in an auto-pilot mode. "As expected, L3 has something to do with that project." Heero looked at her palm top's screen.
"Put it on the main monitor." He ordered. She did so and a bulletin copy was displayed.
"Unfortunately, L3 is only their financial centre. The factories, in which they use to develop whatever they were developing, mostly feared by us, mobile suits, were done somewhere else."
"The galaxy-satellite." Heero guessed and she nodded. Heero rubbed his chin.
Hera gazed on the monitor and pointed to a man who was smiling and shaking hands with the leader of the Unified Nations. "Who's he?" she asked. Heero looked at who she was pointing and saw a man whom he saw a few times on TV and has grown to be more popular these days.
"Zeimer Wargon. Recently won the voting as the Peace ambassador for L3, that's where Quatre's from." Heero inquired.
"Quatre Raberba Winner, Pilot of Sandrock?" she asked. Heero looked at her from bandaging his arm and just nodded. "I'll go change." She said and floated to the back of the shuttle and closed the door behind her, "It's been rumored that Zeimer has been seeing Ms. Peacecraft."
Heero turned to the man known as Zeimer and narrowed his eyes as a tinge of jealousy suddenly surfaced in him.
As she said that, she came out, wearing a skirt and a blouse with a scarf tied around her neck. She looked like an ordinary school girl if not for her expressionless face which occasionally smiles at him. "Don't let your emotions get the better of you."
"Hmph. Who are you to tell me that?" Heero said and finished bandaging his arm.
"Just telling." She said and sat in the co-pilot seat again. "I'll investigate about this man." She informed him. Heero said nothing but just stared at outer space. A lot of things have changed about him.
**************************************************
At the Peacecraft's mansion, everyone was busy cleaning the house. The men were all calm now; each assigned to be with their partners. (e.g., Duo/Hilde, Dorothy/Quatre, Trowa/Catherine, Wufei/Sally). Noin was tuning the piano in the living room when the doorbell rang. "Coming!" she said and opened the door.
"Heero!" Duo exclaimed happily from behind Noin before she could say anything. He was holding a huge vase and Hilde was holding it from the other side. "Hey everyone!! Look who's here!" he called out to everyone upstairs.
"Come on in, Heero, glad you can make it." Noin chirped happily. He nodded to Noin in acknowledgement and turned to his car, calling someone.
"Thank you, Noin." He said, turning to her. Noin had a look of surprise when she saw Hera walk to them. "This is Ms. Noin." He told the girl who curtsied at her but didn't say anything. The others came down and each had surprised looks.
Duo whistled. "Hey Heero, I didn't know you like kids." He said who got nudged by Hilde. "Ow. Hilde..."
Heero took off his shades. "Sorry I'm late, I had work to do."
All of them 'duh'ed and Quatre was the first to talk, "We thought as much. Don't worry about it." Heero looked around but didn't see Relena or Milliardo.
"I brought some stuffs, mind to help?" he said.
Trowa smirked. "You bringing stuffs? This I got to see." He went to the door, followed by Wufei, Quatre and Duo. They chat for a bit as they walked and Duo gave Heero a playful 'slap' on the back which caused him to 'accidentally' kick Duo's foot, causing him to sprawl on the floor.
"So, what did you bring? Handguns? Grenades? Canons?" Wufei asked sarcastically.
"Wufei, Wufei, Wufei, since when do you joke?" Heero returned the sarcasm. All of the guys (except Wufei laughed). Wufei turned red and started saying injustice you, injustice peace, injustice sarcasm, etc, etc.
"That's a good one, Heero. This peaceful world taught you a thing or two, huh?" Quatre asked, placing his hand on Heero's shoulder.
"I'm still learning." He replied.
"At a boy, Heero," Duo slinged his arm on Heero's shoulder and walked to his car. Hera was alone in the house, watching as they went to the car.
"So, do you have a name?" Sally asked Hera.
"Hera, Hera Yuy." She said, barely in a whisper. Sally's eyes grew big and so did the other women.
"Yuy? What are you, his sister?" Catherine asked the little girl.
"Daughter." She replied plainly. The women looked at each other. "I officially become his daughter only a few days ago." She told them. If Heero put his guard down around these people that just means how much he trusts them. So, why won't she?
"Oh, I get it." Dorothy suddenly said. "Foster daughter." She said to all of them. Noin nodded.
"Well, Hera, allow me to introduce all of us, this is Dorothy, Hilde and Catherine" she pointed to each of them as she said their name. Before she can say another word, yellings can be heard from outside and followed by a huge splash. All the women sighed.
"There they go again..." Dorothy said, running her fingers across her eyebrow as she walked into the kitchen.
"Well, don't worry; the guys are ALWAYS like that, trust me. So, you wanna' help bake some cookies?" Hilde asked her with a wink. She nodded and followed them to the kitchen.
Outside, Wufei and Quatre were already in the pool, looking at Duo, Trowa and Heero. It started when Duo suggested a little wrestling competition to see who is the fittest ex-pilot around. They all shook on 500 bucks. Wufei and Quatre were now out. Duo attempted to push Heero into the pool since they cornered him but Heero sidestepped and tripped Duo into the pool.
"SHIT!!" Duo cursed. Quatre and Wufei laughed at the braided guy.
Trowa was the last and was now circling with Heero. They looked like 2 lions fighting. Suddenly, Trowa back flipped, surprising Heero and rammed himself to Heero using an extra boost from the pillar behind him. Heero intercepted him and suddenly rolled on his back, using the force Trowa used and pushed Trowa with his legs. Trowa fell into the pool. He resurfaced, his unibang covered his face, and he pushed it aside.
Heero threw his head back and laughed. The others were dumbfounded. "Looks like I win." He exclaimed.
"Heero, did you just... laugh?" Duo asked. Heero shrugged.
"Learning to be human." He said in a matter-of-factly. "That's 500 bucks." He snickered as Duo gets laughed at by the other guys.
"Okay, okay!! Fine! Later, okay?"
"Well, Maxwell, you've gone rusty."
"Look who's talking." Duo pouted. "Hey, Heero, you're gonna give us a hand or not?" Duo asked, putting his hands on his hip. Heero shrugged and stretched out his hand towards the guys when he noticed one of them missing.
"Where's Trowa?" he asked. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed his legs and Duo pulled Heero's hand, causing him to plunge into the pool. They laughed at the perfect soldier who was now soaked and glared daggers at every one of them.
Inside, Hera was having trouble reading the cook book. "1 tsp? Is that a code?" she asked, turning to Sally.
Sally giggled at the small girl. "It's teaspoon dear." Hera looked up at Sally and nodded slowly. 'Why are these people being so nice? Don't they realize that peace can never last forever?' she thought. As she continued to follow the cook book, (and progressing well at that) the door opened and giggles can be heard.
"Ah, that's Relena." Noin said. "Hera, could you follow me please?" she asked, gesturing the girl to follow her. She obeyed. Noin opened the door and saw Relena walking in with someone or rather, being intimate with someone. Noin couldn't believe what she was seeing! "Relena?" she asked, quite surprised.
"Oh, Lucy. You know, Zeimer." Relena introduced, smiling to the charming looking man. "Zeimer, my sister-in-law-to-be, Lucrezia Noin." The man nodded and smiled at Noin. Hera looked up at the man but didn't say anything. "Noin, who's this? Mariemaia's friend?"
Noin was about to answer when Hera stepped forward and curtsied to the 2. "My name is Hera Yuy, it's a pleasure." She said in her whispy soft voice. Relena's eyes went wide.
"Hera... Yuy?" she asked. Suddenly, the door behind her opened and in came 5 men, carrying a lot of things and soaking wet. As they entered, they noticed the man and Relena. The 4 gundam pilots looked at each other and then at Heero who was looking at Relena. Relena did not do anything except looked back at him.
"Well, hello. You must be Heero Yuy." The man earlier introduced as Zeimer greeted, smiling at Heero. He didn't say anything but nodded. Then, he decided that the reunion party shouldn't be spoiled because of him. He turned to Hera, "Hera, help me carry these inside." He said quietly, not showing any emotions.
"Yes, father." She said and went to get some of the stuffs from Heero and carried them into the store room. Heero walked past Relena and Zeimer. The other ex-gundam pilots followed suit. Hera put down everything and turned to her father. She can tell what he was feeling and pulled his hand so that he'll bend down. 'Don't let your emotions get the better of you.' she whispered into his ear.
Heero smiled a little and ruffled her hair. "Go and help in the kitchen or something." She nodded and went. The ex-gundam pilots stood in the store room, looking at the girl walk off.
"Say, uh, it's getting, cold. We ought to change." Duo suddenly said. The others agreed and went to the changing room where they kept their bags to stay overnight in Relena's mansion. None of them said anything. As they were changing, Quatre was the first to speak up.
"Heero, I..." he started. "I don't know what to say to you now but..." Heero held up his hand and turned to his fellow pilot.
"She's just moving on. And, she's right. I've never been true to her. I've been a coward, running from the feeling alien to me, hoping that I will be able to return the feeling she have for me someday. But, when I realized it, it's too late." He said bitterly though he didn't show it. He took out a stack of beer from his bag, pulled one for himself and tossed the others the rest. They each took a can and gulped it. "I envied you guys." He said.
"Hmph. You sure have changed, Heero." Wufei suddenly smirked. "It's like talking to a different man all together." The other 3 glared at Wufei. "What?" he asked earnestly.
"Zip it, Wufei." Duo warned him, "Consider yourself lucky Sally still stays with you despite that attitude of yours."
"Does that make YOU any better, Maxwell?"
"You mocking me, Chinese man?" Duo stood up, ready to fight.
"I thought you'll never ask." Wufei replied, clicking his knuckles. Trowa and Quatre stood up quickly to quell the fight. Heero continued to sit against the wall, drinking away. He suddenly remembered what Hera said to him earlier. 'Don't let your emotions get the better of you.' his lips curved into a ghostly smile. He finished the beer, crushed it in his hand and threw it to Wufei which landed squarely on his head. The noise died down.
"Don't worry Wufei, I'm still the man you guys know 4 years ago. Only difference is I'm better and improved." Heero sat up. Quatre smiled.
"That's the spirit, Heero. I'm so... proud of you." suddenly, he took out a handkerchief and blew his nose. Trowa patted him on the back. Heero smirked and walked out.
To Be Continued...