A.N. Yay! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Lol… damnit thanks to 's damn script stripping I can't use the equals sign (or 'double line thing' as Hann says it –rolls eyes- lol) anymore for my smilie faces –angry face- Actually there probably is but I don't know it yet lol…

Anyway, on with it! By the way '-'and '-' now represent me butting in lol

WARNING: this chapter could be kinda disturbing

Chapter 18- Here and There and Places in Between

"So, Yuy," Milliardo growled. "How do I look?" he asked tentatively as he emerged from the barber shop after giving the hairdresser the improbable task of salvaging what they could of his burnt out hair. Heero got his ridiculing laugh ready and turned around to face him. His eyes widened in surprise.

"It's actually not all that bad," Heero told him truthfully.

"Really?" Milliardo asked eagerly, turning around to stare at his reflection in the glass. He now sported a shorter, neater haircut and didn't so much look like such a girl or a stoner or, Heero snorted at the thought, if you stretched the imagination a bit, a hippie.

"Cool!" he beamed. He whipped out his wallet and searched through all the photos that he kept in there, taking the one of Vash the Stampede out, holding it up next to his face, studying the reflection closely. "I look like Vash the Stampede with shorter hair!" he exclaimed, stars lighting up his eyes, at the prospect of resembling his anime hero – did I mention these characters go VERY OOC lol-

"Yeah," Heero grunted, punching Milliardo to the head to jerk him out of dreamland, "you wish!" He rolled his eyes.

"I do though!" Milliardo protested, getting up with a huge lump on his head. Heero started walking and Milliardo chased after him, still trying to point out the 'similarities' between him and Vash. "See!" he pointed to the photo. "Vash has a bit of fringe hanging down and so do I! Vash's hair is spiked up and so is mine…well only my hair is shorter! Vash's hair is blonde and so is mine!"

"Yeah?" Heero snapped back as he walked faster in an effort to lose Milliardo. "Well Vash is cool and you're not!"

"Hey!" Milliardo yelled out resentfully. "Oh look!" he got excited as he spotted someone coming down the street. "Look who it is!"

"Who is it?" Heero called out over his shoulder. "Vash?" he asked sarcastically. As he wasn't looking where he was going, he accidentally bumped into someone. He turned around and started to apologise. "Oh I'm so- aaaaaaaaaaiy!" he screamed as he saw who it was he had bumped into. "It's Noin!" he pointed at her in fright. "Demon lady! Mercy help us, the end is here! Run for your lives!" he ran away with his arms flapping and ducked into a side alley behind a garbage bin.

Milliardo chuckled to think that his fiancé could now scare the crap out of his mortal nemesis.

"How's my little sweetie doing today?" he asked suavely, placing his arm neatly around Noin's waist.

"Why you perverted…!" she breathed fire and with some quick, efficient judo technique, threw him into the garbage can that Heero was hiding behind.

"But Noin!" Milliardo stuck his head out of the garbage can, after she had cooled down a little, a week-old banana skin taking happy residence on top of his head. "Noin, honey, it's me!"

"Huh?" she squinted as she strained to see better. "Milliardo?" she exclaimed. "You got a haircut?!"

"Er…yeah…" he climbed out of the garbage can, flushing red at getting strange stares from members of the public.

"What happened?" she breathed.

Milliardo and Heero glanced at each other. "Long story," they said simultaneously.

--

"Mariemaia! What are you doing here?" Treize demanded. "As your father, I feel the responsibility to put an immediate end to this violence!"

"Dad," Mariemaia sighed, "shut up and do the push ups okay?"

Grumbling under his breath, Treize got into push-up position.

"Not sissy push-ups!" Mariemaia yelled, as Treize bent his knees. "Straight as a board, cadet!"

"But honey…" Treize pleaded.

"Commander," she corrected him. "Don't you 'honey' me! You have 10 years of abandonment and neglect to make up to me!"

"But darling, I was out conquering the world! I had a career you know! In these modern times, dads aren't as common or successful!"

"That's no excuse, dad! I was out conquering the world too and I made time for family! Now 10 push-ups for every year of neglect!" she sniggered. This was kinda fun…"One!" she started counting as Treize attempted at a push-up. "One!" she started again as he buckled. "One!"

"Can't I do something else instead?" he pleaded one more time, as he desperately tried to do one push up.

"Hmm…" Mariemaia smiled, as she considered all the endless opportunities.

"Mariemaia! This is just evil!" Treize howled ten minutes later, as he was scrubbing the bathroom floor with a toothbrush, wearing an ecchi maid's costume. "And where did you get this outfit from anyway?!" he demanded.

"Mum's closet!" she gloated. Treize's face froze, and a giant sweatdrop ran down his forehead.

"Treize? Treize?" A familiar voice echoed down the hallway. "Yo Treize, don't be ashamed! Come on, we came all this way to visit you!"

"Yeah!" a female voice chimed in. "Come on!"

"Ack!" Treize screamed. "It's Milliardo and Noin!"

"I don't see why we bother," a monotonous, baritone voice joined in the conversation. "He's obviously having soooo much fun here," his voice took on a sarcastic tone.

"And Heero!" Treize hid behind Mariemaia, quivering in his dainty black lace maid slippers.

"Uncle Treize! Uncle Treize!" a small high-pitched voice called his name again and again.

"They brought the kids?!?!" he gasped. "Oh no!" he cried. "They can't see me in this!"

An evil glint appeared in Mariemaia's eye, and she opened her mouth to call out to them.

"Oh no!" Treize exclaimed. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Noin! Milliardo! Heero! We're in here!" she hollered. "Leave the kids outside!" she winked at her father. She decided she'd cut him some slack after all.

"Oh, okay then!" Noin responded. A minute later, they burst through the door to find Treize, still in the maid's outfit, cowering behind Noin.

"What the hell?" Milliardo growled.

"Well you see…" Mariemaia started to explain but was cut off by Noin's loud laughs.

"Oh Mariemaia!" she giggled. "You are so damn evil!"

"Huh?" Mariemaia really thought that Noin was going to blast her that time.

"High five!" Noin yelled, putting up her right hand. Mariemaia high-fived and they both started laughing. When they finally got over it, Mariemaia looked up at Milliardo and started rolling on the floor in laughter again.

"Milliardo!" she giggled. "What did you do to your hair?"

"Shut up," he growled, eyebrow twitching furiously. Heero shook his head and, deciding he'd seen enough disturbing sights for one day, turned around to check on the kids.

"Duo!" he yelled. Duo looked up for a minute from where he sat, next to the power plug, before jamming the paper clip in. Immediately many, many sparks started to fly out before they all heard a small explosion somewhere and all the lights suddenly blanked out.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" all the kids started screaming and running around (except Trowa) because they were scared of the dark. As Trowa was the only stationary one, they all ended up running into Trowa anyway and ended up in a big kiddie heap on the floor, Trowa at the bottom, looking kinda pissed off. Duo was still sitting by the power plug, the power plug was melted and Duo's face was black from all the spark residue.

"Ooh…" he tottered a bit, "pretty, pretty colours!"

"Duo!" Noin exclaimed, running over to steady the tot while Milliardo and Heero untangled the heap of toddlers on the floor.

"We have a code blue! Code blue!" Mariemaia repeated into her walkie talkie. "What is our status?"

A crackled voice on the other side of the line answered, "Half the base is blacked out ma'am! Whatever it was tripped out the circuit breaker!"

"Damn," she swore. "Duo, do you realize how long and costly is it going to be to replace half the lights in this base! Not to mention the immense and largely inconvenient interruption this will be to the schedule!"

"Pretty, pretty lights…" Duo muttered, still in a daze.

"Oh, just go…" Mariemaia snapped, as she went into damage control, getting call after call about their communications system being down etc.

"Are you sure Duo shouldn't stay here?" Noin offered. "Help out around here to make up for the trouble he's caused you?"

Mariemaia's face blanched for a moment. "NO!" she yelled. "Just GO!" she pleaded them, pushing them out the door.

"Uh… bye Treize… nice catching up…" Milliardo called over his shoulder as Mariemaia practically pushed them out the door.

"NOOOOOOO! Milliardo don't leave me here!" Treize howled, as he knelt on the floor of the bathroom, reaching out for Milliardo.

Milliardo shuddered. "It's like some kinky fantasy…would be cool if it wasn't Trei- OW!" he howled in pain as Noin stomped viciously on his foot.

Heero, who got stuck carrying the still bewildered Duo was having heaps of "fun" trying to convince Duo that no, the pretty pretty lights did not exist and were not there to be his fairy friends.

After they all loaded into Noin's 4WD, Milliardo ventured, "So, darling, where are we going now?"

"Dress shopping!" she replied sharply. Milliardo almost lost control of the wheel in surprise.

"Dress shopping?" he asked tentatively. If Noin didn't know any better, she thought she saw a glint of….hold that thought… fear in Milliardo's eyes.

"Yes honey," she continued. "If you haven't forgotten by now," she rolled her eyes, "we are engaged!" she told him, flashing her ring in front of Milliardo's stunned, bewildered face.

"Yes… yes… but," he spluttered. "…so soon?"

"Oh there's so much to organise!" Noin clasped her hands together and a look of starry-eyed dreaming and fascination overtook her facial features, as she dreamed no doubt of her fairy tale wedding. "Venue… date…time… dress…oh my goodness! Bridesmaids! Shoes!" she cried. Milliardo shuddered at the idea of shoe shopping. Somehow, he failed to see the point, and fun factor in going into a random shoe shop, chatting with a stranger for half an hour about how much you hate your feet before choosing a single pair of shoes after an hour of deliberation, then deliberating for another hour as to whether your feet "look fat in it" and FINALLY choosing to walk out of the store buying nada, nothing and hopping into the next store starting the whole process again.

"Milliardo?" Noin shook him. "The lights are green!"

"Oh!" he jolted out of his shoe-shopping-bashing thoughts and floored the accelerator.

"Well it's too bad anyway," Noin declared. "Even if you don't want to come shopping, you're going to have to. I've already made an appointment with the designer who's making my dress, and I've cleared your schedule for today and tomorrow and told the boys at work you're taking a few days off and to not bug you. And," she declared, "as a final precaution I have disabled your pager and your mobile phone," she smiled evilly, waving his mobile and his pager in his face.

"Are all women this pushy?!?!" Milliardo whispered fiercely to Heero.

"I heard that!" she said, giving Milliardo a good bonk on the head.

"No, I think it's just her," Heero whispered back.

"And that!"

Heero got a bonk on the head too. "Ow…" he rubbed his sore head. "way to pick a woman Zechs," he complained, earning himself another bonk on the head. "Do you HAVE to do that?" he asked her, his hands twitching dangerously near his gun.

Without looking back, Noin called out, "Don't even think it. I've already disabled the trigger while you weren't looking"

'Does that woman know everything?!?!' Heero thought, getting slightly creeped out by how much she could tell.

--

"Here we are," Milliardo grumbled, as he pulled up outside the designer's shop. "Let's just get the dress and go!"

"It's not that simple Milliardo!" she complained at his simplistic way of thinking, as she got out of the car. "They have take measurements! And cater to my design criteria! After all it's not every day I get married!" she laughed as she entered the store.

"Measurements?" Milliardo squeaked.

"Yes Milliardo… measurements," Noin stuck her head out to reply.

'Does she have supersonic hearing as well?!?!' Heero thought as he walked in after Zechs. Immediately, as he walked in, he was overcome by an overpowering stench. Retching away to try and get it out of his system, he wondered what kind of gas it could be. Was it a new type of nerve gas that a new evil agency had developed to overpower him in their efforts to take over the world? If it was, then they had picked the right time- when he was off-guard… very tactical.

"Oh guys stop it," Noin snapped. "It's Perfection by…" she went off to list some fancy perfume company, disappearing behind the velvet curtain to get her measurements done.

Five minutes later, her and a tall, thin blonde woman re-emerged from behind the curtain, discussing wedding dress options.

"Oh yes… of course I'll need that push up bra…!" Noin exclaimed, "and you know I want the dress made mostly from silk right?"

"Silk and chiffon?" the tall blonde one suggested.

"Yes! Yes!" Noin clapped her hands in delight. "Of course you'll be paid in advance for the materials, and labour costs and…"

"Noin? How much is this going to cost me? Noin?" Milliardo tried in vain to gain the attention of his fiancée, as she chatted on about the 'necessities' of life. He went crazy after he heard the words "Milliardo", "no credit limit" and "credit card".

"NOIN! TELLMEWHATTHEHELLISGOINGONRIGHTNOW!" he yelled, unable to stand it anymore.

"So…anyway…" Noin and the tall blonde lady made their way into the back room.

"Ohhh…" Milliardo sighed, sinking down into a chair nearby, tears streaming down his face, "This is so complex! What do I do? What do I do Heero?" he cried, grabbing onto Heero's shoulders and shaking them as if being able to shake an answer out of him.

"Uh…" Heero was definitely feeling very, very awkward by now. "There, there?" he slowly put his arm around Milliardo's shoulder and patted it slowly, uncomfortable because he had never had another guy (or girl for that matter) crying on his shoulder and had no frickin' clue what to do. "WHA…!" he snapped out of it suddenly, as he realized he was comforting his mortal nemesis, on his shoulder, and shoved Zechs off, dashing to the other side of the room. He sighed as he saw Milliardo's puppy dog eyes. Throughout the term of this ordeal… what had it been… a week? Three weeks…maybe? The trme 'mortal nemesis had worn thin and Heero found himself not caring anymore. Sitting down next to Milliardo, he quickly searched his military programmed brain for some words of comfort. "Uh…" he started to say something but was interrupted by the loud honking noise of a rather large car, by the sounds of it nad people all over the sidewalk shrieking bloody murder.

"What was that?!" they both jolted simultaneously and ran outside.

Milliardo fell into a dead faint as he saw his new 4WD (four wheel drive) careering down the road, going every which way. Leaving him by the side of the road, Heero ran after it- who was driving the damn thing?

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! HEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

'That baka left the kids in the car?! WITH THE IGNITION ON?!' Heero thought a she whipped out his Glock-17 to attempt to shoot the tyres

"NOO!" Milliardo (who had magically revived himself…or something) attacked Heero from behind and held him in a tight bear hug. "DON'T! DON'T SHOOT MY PRECIOUS CAR!"

"WHAT THE HELL ZECHS?! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Heero tried desperately to shake him off. "THOSE KIDS ARE GOING TO GET THEMSELVES KILLED! AND I THINK THAT'S WORTH A LITTLE MORE THAN YOUR TYRE!"

"Ooh… someone sounds like he cares…" Milliardo teased.

"Huh?" Heero stopped for a moment, blushing slightly. "What are you talking about you uber-moron?!?!"

"Oh you blushed! You actually do care!" Milliardo continued to tease him playfully. "You blushed, you blushed, you blushed!" he giggled, pointing at Heero. Heero sighed, and readied his gun at Milliardo's head.

"Say that again?" he growled.

"Fine…" Milliardo let go of Heero, and stood up properly, brushing himself off. "So what do we do now?" he asked, as he looked at his 4WD still causing more havoc down the road. Without saying another word, Heero took off down the road after the runaway car. Shaking his head, Milliardo followed suit soon after. Thanks to their superhuman speed (them being Gundam pilots and all) they managed to catch up to the car relatively easily. Somehow Duo had managed to keep the car (relatively) on the road. And how was he working the accelerator and brake? Heero had a good guess that it was probably a couple of the other chibis stuck down there operating it. Thinking quickly (and not very rashly) Heero lunged for the ski rack on the roof of the car, and (very barely) made it, hanging onto it with one hand for dear sweet life.

Milliardo suddenly decided he'd do the same, and also managed to get a hold of the ski rack, almost knocking Heero off.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" Heero yelled at him. "TRYING TO GET ME KILLED?!"

"OH SHUT UP AND SAVE THE CAR!" Milliardo retorted

"OH IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT THE CA…. AAAAAAAH!" Heero's return ended in a short scream as he realized what was ahead.

The ocean loomed before them.

A.N. Yes, lame ending I know…--" sorry about long wait…(once again)… had to sort out a lot of crap… to do with formal and stuff… -sighs- formal is so stupid… but I'm going with one of my favourite people in the whole world and my best friend (both guys) so life is all good…. Hehe…

Also got School Certificate coming up…. So annoying… not sure what you call it in wherever you're reading this, but its like the Year 10 leaving exam kinda thing…