Author: Sparkle Itamashii
Title: Inheritance
Warnings: Respect the rating. Please see my profile for details.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing AC is NOT MINE.
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning I found myself sitting grumpily in the passenger side of our little car as we made the drive to the Peacecraft manor. Heero had hauled my ass out of bed at seven o'clock so that we could be out of the house by nine. While he had let me shower he had refused to let me dry my hair, instead insisting on braiding it wet. I'd attempted to eat a bowl of cereal while he did that but found that it was quite impossible.
If I didn't think I knew better, I'd have thought Heero was actually excited.
Of course, he was playing it off wonderfully as anxiety.
"We're going to be late," he said for the zillionth time.
I groaned, sinking lower into the seat and wishing I could take a nap. "We can't be late because we didn't give them a time," I said patiently.
"I thought you said we should be there by ten." He glanced over, tone skeptical.
"I did." I felt like I was becoming a broken record. "But like I told you the 82 other times you've asked, that's only because it seems like a good time to show up, not because that is what I told them."
"You really should have gotten a time."
Rolling my eyes, I sighed. "Why, so we could be late?"
Thankfully he didn't answer. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the soft radio and the gentle rocking motion of the car, knowing that we still had a little over half an hour before we would actually reach the manor. Though I wanted to go back to sleep, I forced myself to stay awake and listen in case Heero had any further concerns. Or (god forbid) the same concern. Again.
We reached the manor without mishap, though. It was strange; whenever I'd come to Relena's place I'd always expected there to be a parking lot or something. Buildings as large as the manor just seemed like they should have one. Or two, possibly. But there never was. We pulled up in the front circle drive and Heero handed the keys over to a young boy who disappeared with our car. Where he took the car, I'm afraid I'll never know- nor would I know how they always predicted exactly when to bring it back. A part of me wanted to think that they just drove the car out of sight long enough for us to go inside and then they brought it right back and it never actually went anywhere.
Hauling my thoughts away from the car and the manors mysterious storage areas, I jogged to catch up with Heero and fell into pace beside him. "It seems weird without her, doesn't it…?" I asked quietly, looking around. By this time, Relena had usually accosted us and insisted we stay for dinner but this time…
"It's empty." Heero agreed, eyes and voice dull.
"Yeah." He'd hit the nail on the head. The place was empty. It was hollow, devoid of everything Relena had worked to make it. Obviously people had left now that Relena was gone and we hardly even saw any of the staff.
"Masters Heero, Duo?" came a small voice from our right as we passed a corridor. I turned to see who had spoken and found a familiar face at last. "I wasn't expecting you so soon."
I elbowed Heero, hoping he would remember how 'late' he'd thought we'd been. "We wanted to get here early, Miss Sasya."
Sasya was one of the live-in maids that had joined the staff after the world realized the Peacecraft's line had not died. There were only a few people on the staff that would normally greet us and I think she made an effort to be one of them as often as possible. I think she probably admired what we had done in the war like a lot of people did. Somehow I don't think I'll ever get used to the way people would drop their gaze while we were talking, or smile in that embarrassed but pleased way when addressed by name.
"I assume you're here for Mara, correct?" She asked, smiling politely between Heero and me.
"It's okay, right?" I returned her smile and shot Heero a teasing look. "We're not too late to get here, are we?"
"Not at all." She waved off the suggestion and beckoned us down the hall. "Do you have a child-seat in your car?"
"They don't use normal seats?" Heero asked from beside me. His question was rewarded with an incredulous look from Sasya before she turned a disapproving glare to me, as though she expected me to have taught him better. Yeah right.
"No, they don't." She stopped walking and turned to face us, crossing her arms over her chest. "How much were you taught about childcare, sirs?"
"Frighteningly little," I replied before Heero could say anything to further incriminate us. "A bunch of people helped us childproof the house but I didn't learn a whole lot except that anything can and will be gotten into no matter what you do to it."
She raised an eyebrow and nodded. "True." Finally she sighed and seemed to resign herself to something. "Would you like some pointers, then?"
"Yes please," I said as Heero reluctantly nodded. I feared the return, slightly sadistic smile she gave the both of us; and with good reason.
Talking to Sasya was like living in fast forward. I watched her talk and I heard what she was saying but I didn't really hear her. I felt as though I'd been put back in time and was going through a sketchy, live mission briefing. I was receiving a wash of information I wouldn't remember until I had to use it.
Feed her bland foods. Make sure she uses the bathroom. Let her take a nap. Don't pay attention to temper tantrums (whatever those were). Be nearby when she bathes but not in the bath. If she gets hurt she'll look to whomever is watching her and if they play it off as no big deal, so will she. Don't let her into the cupboards (thank you Trowa). Close all doors behind ourselves. The list went on and on until my head was spinning and even I began to think that handling a child was out of the realm of possibility. Piloting the most advanced technology in the known universe hadn't even been this difficult.
Finally a blissful, if expectant, silence fell. I blinked, trying to clear my glazed eyes, and gave Sasya a curious look. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked timidly, afraid she would reprimand me for not listening.
"I said, do you have any questions?" she repeated, giving me a 'you'd better not' look.
Hoping that she wouldn't repeat everything we'd just heard, I shook my head. "Only one." I smiled. "Will all of that be on the test?"
"All that and a whole lot more, Mr. Maxwell." She gave us both a scrutinizing once over before turning around again and beginning to walk. "If you have any problems, please don't hesitate to call. Taking care of a child, especially this child, is difficult at best."
"Why is it 'especially'?" I asked curiously, hoping there wasn't something they'd neglected to tell us.
"She'll be taking over the Peacecraft name, you know? Responsibility like that doesn't come lightly, sir. You can't raise her like a normal child because she can't be a normal person."
I could feel my throat restricting at her words. How could she say things like that so easily? Didn't she know what it was like, being raised for a specific purpose, being told that this was your lot in life and you had to follow it whether you liked it or not? No one wanted to live that way but she clearly expected us to force that upon Mara. Despite my disagreement with her, however, I kept my mouth shut. I wasn't going to say anything about how I wouldn't put another human being through our past. From the look on Heero's face, he was thinking the same thing.
We walked in silence after that, our footsteps echoing hollowly in the hallway around us. The entire manor felt dead. Normally the manor wasn't all that active; it was mostly empty and quiet, unless you were on the first floor toward the entrance. But I think maybe it wasn't so much the lack of people that changed as the fact that I knew why we were there. We were taking the last person that made the building familiar. We'd come to take the last piece of the puzzle, the last bit that made the manor 'live'.
Finally we stopped at a door in the middle of nowhere (or at least it felt that way) and Sasya turned to face us. "Ready?"
"No, but we might never be so let's go for it," I said quietly.
Sasya nodded and opened the door a little bit. I craned my neck to get a view inside as she glanced to me. There was someone, a nursemaid perhaps, sitting in a chair against the far wall and the little girl from the funeral parlor was sitting at an incredibly tiny table with some sort of book open in front of her. She turned and looked when she heard the door opening, dark blue eyes scanning all three of us.
God, my breath caught in my throat at the way she remind me of her mother. Everything about her screamed "Relena" from her dusty blonde hair to her little pink shoes. Even the way she held herself spoke of the same caution and intelligence her mother had bourn. The only things that marked her as Heero's kin were the slight slant to her deeply blue eyes and the brush of tan on her skin.
After a few seconds hesitation, her eyes narrowed slightly in confusion and she slipped out of the little blue chair. When she faced us her gaze settled steadily on Heero of all people.
"Papa?"
/End Chapter Thirteen, Inheritance/
