Author: Sparkle Itamashii

Title: Inheritance

Warnings: Respect the "R" rating (the fucking new rating system is a fantastic display of stupidity and I will stick with the old one thankyouverymuch.). Please see my profile for details.

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing AC is NOT MINE.


Chapter Sixteen

I woke the next morning to an empty bed and a ringing phone. When I shouted for Heero to get it, as he was obviously already up, I received no response. Grumbling sleepily to myself, I rolled out of bed and grabbed something at least semi decent to wear as I headed for the front room. Unfortunately the phone stopped ringing just before I reached it and the answering machine whirred to life.

"Heero, this is Wu Fei. I got the information you wanted, give me a call when you get this."

Raising an eyebrow at the message, I grabbed the cordless phone off the cradle and pressed delete. I made my way back to the bedroom, scrubbing at one eye with my palm. Wu Fei almost never called and Heero asked people to call even less often. I would have thought that if he was expecting someone to call he would have been inside waiting. I changed into better clothes and checked Mara's room on the way to find myself a pair of shoes. It looked like they had gone somewhere.

The remains of breakfast were on the table when I glanced into the kitchen for them; and I don't mean they were on plates or bowls on the table. No, there was cereal and milk all over the table, dripping down the legs and onto the floor. Groaning, I grabbed the dishes that were left on the table and set them in the sink. I rinsed a sponge and wiped up the milk and crushed cereal all over the place. Heero was definitely going to get an earful when he returned.

I was just about to head to the front of the house to check for a car when I heard Artemis barking in the back yard. There was no way Heero would have just left her out there if he'd gone somewhere with Mara. Rolling my eyes, I moved to the back of the house and glanced out as I quietly opened the door.

Sure enough, there they were in the backyard by the small swing-set fort the Maguanacs had delivered for her. Heero was standing at the base of the little four foot slide, looking a little confused. Standing at the top, Mara was talking about a mile a minute at him as he stared at her. Small bits of words were all I could hear but none of it sounded wholly coherent. I curbed my first instinct to call out to them and settled in the arch of the back door, leaning against the frame to watch. Not even Artemis noticed me as she paced around them happily, great fluffy tail wagging as fast as I'd ever seen it go.

Without warning she darted forward and practically threw herself down onto the slide. My heart leapt along with her and I saw the panic that flashed across Heero's face. He wasn't totally unprepared, however, and managed to get his hands on her just before she hit the ground. With the enthusiasm that only a small child can muster, she wriggled out of his grasp and dashed back to the ladder to have another go. Artemis did her very best to interfere, licking and nudging at her every step of the way.

It was quite a relief to know that not only was everyone getting along but they were enjoying themselves. I hadn't wanted to admit it but Heero wasn't the only one I'd worried about. I mean, yes, our life was now changing in a fairly drastic manner but Mara's whole world had been taken away from her. She didn't have the same family or the same home, the same caretakers or the same anything. Everything was unfamiliar.

But maybe it didn't seem so awful to her. After all, she was very young and at the moment, maybe it all seemed like a game. Somehow I didn't think that she understood that she would never see her mother again. I don't think she understood what had happened or how the changes were going to affect her life. I think that the only thing she really understood was the present. She understood Heero's smiling face and Artemis' elated barking and it didn't matter what else was wrong at the time as long as something was right.

I smiled, watching her try to make it up the ladder on her own. She was definitely Relena's child with the stubborn way she looked at Heero and the determined "I'm going to do this for myself" posture. There was no way she had the motor skills to make it all the way to the platform but she sure as hell was going to give it her best. Artemis wasn't helping her difficult journey, trying to lick her face and preventing her from even getting past the first step. Crazy dog.

She did eventually make it past that first step, but it was not without hazard. Artemis, in her enthusiasm, accidentally knocked Mara's foot off the rung. Footing lost, Mara made a flailing attempt to keep her hold and stay on the ladder but lost it only a second later. I felt a noise of worry scratch at the back of my throat but Heero was already on the move. Normally I might have moved to help but I wanted to see what he thought he was going to do.

For a moment it looked as if he wasn't going to do anything at all. She stared up and him and he stared down at her and both of them seemed to be deciding whether or not she was hurt. He looked a little bewildered; I'd guess that no one had ever looked to him to make sure that they were all right. When he made no attempt to reassure her, though, all hell broke loose. Her face screwed up like she'd tasted something particularly sour and that little bitty mouth opened and let out the loudest sound known to mankind- that ear-piercing, panic-inducing wail that only small children can produce.

To make the situation just a little bit worse (mind you by "a little worse" I mean "as bad as it could possibly be"), Artemis began barking at her. Of course Heero has the common sense god gave a gnat and he just stood there, staring at her as if she were going to burst into flame if he tried to touch her. It was just as I started to move forward to remedy the situation that he did the unexpected.

He bent his knees and stooped down beside her, catching her attention with a wave of his hand.

She looked up at him when he spoke then, tears uncertainly halted momentarily. Whatever he was so quietly telling her, it worked. She hesitantly held up her arms and he reached over to lift her onto his lap as he sat. Still speaking very gently he held out both his hands, palm up, and she laid hers on top of his. It was amazing to see the way she watched him with wide eyes, more curious about what he was doing than she was interested in crying. Even more amazing was the soft smile gracing Heero's lips. He almost never smiled like that.

I couldn't help but smile too when he raised both their hands to his lips and kissed the tops of hers. From where I stood I could hear her laughing and see her squirm out of his grasp and head for the ladder again, ready to pick up right where she'd left off. Leaning back on his hands, he allowed himself a smile of smug satisfaction when he looked over to me.

The look he sent me was one that very plainly said "I knew you were there, now what do you plan to do about it?"

Of course I couldn't let him off easy.

"So the tough guy does have a soft spot," I teased, loud enough that Mara looked over to me as well. Though Heero just returned an unimpressed look, Mara brightened.

"Watch this!" she trilled, turning and making her way up the ladder very purposefully. When she reached the top she turned to make sure that I was watching and then moved for the slide. "Watch me!"

Heero rolled to the side and got to his feet in time to make sure she didn't hurt herself getting to the bottom. He picked her up and despite her protests, carried her over to the deck. As soon as he set her down I tossed the phone his way and he raised an eyebrow in question.

"Wu Fei called, wants you to call him back," I said simply before turning my attention to the child. "Are you having fun, Mara?"

"We made brekkast and walked wif Armis and-" I really only caught about half her words as she kept going, broadening her tale to include gestures just in case I didn't understand fully. I glanced to Heero, wondering how he'd managed to do all of what she was enthusiastically explaining to me.

"I'm not completely incompetent," he remarked, moving past me into the house. I could hear the phone being dialed as he turned the corner.

When I looked back to Mara, she was staring silently at me with wide eyes. I tried to keep the reluctance off my face as I smiled and tried to remember how Father Maxwell and Sister Helen had taken care of me and the other orphans. Of course we'd been older than Mara so it was different but there had to be some sort of basic principle to it. Smile a lot, I know- they'd always been smiling. I guess they'd always asked me questions and more importantly they'd listened to the answers.

"Would you like to play inside for a bit?" If I had to hazard a guess, I would say they'd all been outside since early this morning. I vaguely remembered something about an afternoon nap, but it was just barely late enough to eat lunch. Even so, it would probably be a good idea to start winding down early.

Now, I know she asked me a question. I could even tell that she was asking to watch something. What did she want to watch? If my life depended upon it I could not tell you. Her words came out in a fast, almost gibberish blur and she expected me to understand. She expected that I would know what she was talking about when she said "Cannee watch mistamidgey?"

"Sure!" I agreed, smiling and nodding like I knew what a mistamidgey was. I suspected it was a video or some sort of show that she was accustomed to watching. All I could really do was hope that she would be able to pick it out of the tapes that had been left with us.

She sat and haphazardly pulled her shoes off as soon as she was through the back door and made a bee-line right out of my sight. I followed her and caught a strange look from Heero as I passed the hallway toward the front room. With a quick goodbye, he hung up on Wu Fei. I assumed it was Wu Fei, even though I didn't ask.

"What are we doing now?" He asked drolly, following me.

"Watching mistamidgey apparently," I answered, giving him an "I have no idea" shrug when he looked at me like I was crazy.

After much shifting and dumping of tapes and disks, Mara presented us with a violently bright colored case that read "The Adventures of Master Midge." The character on the front was dressed in foppish court robes and sat atop a strangely disproportionate horse. I can't say as I've ever seen a horse with eyebrows, either, but Mara seemed very pleased to have found it.

Heero and I exchanged dubious looks. "It's up to you, Papa," I said, smirking just a tiny bit around my mask of innocence. "I have to run into work for a bit to let them know what's happening and figure out what I'm going to do."

"You can't call?" Heero asked skeptically.

"They'll want me there in person. I'm either going to have to change my hours completely or get someone to watch her during the day. We can't just leave her here alone all day."

"If we lock it in its room we can." He said it with a very serious face but I could hear the undisguised smile in his voice.

"We are not locking her in her room, Heero."

He signed resignedly as he grabbed the video out of my hands. "You realize if you switch to nights I'll never see you again."

"Ah, I could only be so lucky!" I teased, letting a grin spread across my lips as he shot me a glare. "Yes, I know. We'd still have weekends and I can take a day off during the week. So can you if you want to get right down to it. It's not like we exactly need the money."

Which was true, for the most part. The only reason Heero and I had picked up jobs at all was to blend in with the rest of the general population. If we just went wandering around and never left the house, I'm sure the neighbors would have begun to suspect something. A job did a lot more than just help us blend in, though. It gave Heero a chance to socialize (I can dream, can't I?) and it gave both of us something to do. If we didn't have somewhere to expend energy we'd have both gone stir crazy in a matter of weeks. Picking up a decent job had been my idea originally but Heero took it very seriously now. It was almost like he needed it.

I sometimes thought he did.

He popped the disk into the player and our TV fritzed for a second before displaying the same myriad of color as the disk's case. "I suppose that could work…" he grudgingly admitted. The show began to play as soon as he pressed start.

Mara clambered onto the couch after a brief struggle. It was more of a heft and roll than actual climbing; the couch was rather tall. As soon as she was settled she gave us both a very serious look and put a finger to her lips to tell us to be quiet. I contained a laugh and backed into the hallway, motioning for Heero to follow me to the kitchen so we could finish our conversation.

"Are you going to be all right here with her while I go?"

"I managed the whole morning, didn't I?"

"Mm, good point. I probably won't be gone long anyhow."

He gave me a searching look for a second and I waited patiently for him to tell me what was on his mind. Finally his expression went a little blank and he started to move past me. "Don't do anything long term yet, okay? Let's just… we'll work out something so it's the best situation."

That was at least a reasonable request so I simply nodded, giving him a bright smile. It was good to see him adapting so quickly- I'd expected a lot more resistance. "I can do that. Do you want me to pick up dinner?"

"No," he said, disappearing into the front room. "Isn't Quatre coming over tonight? Why don't we order something?"

"Mara's not going to want anything we order," I pointed out, following him. "We were told to feed her bland foods, right?"

"Well Mara won't be staying up past nine, if even that late." He flopped down onto the couch beside her, spreading his arms along the back of it. "We can eat then. I'm not going to be eating kid food; I was done with that phase a long time ago."

"All right, all right," I said, holding my hands up a bit in surrender. I should have known better than to start an argument about food with Heero. "I'll see you in a few hours."

Even though I took my phone with me, I'm glad I didn't need to use it. Heero hadn't lied when he said he could handle the situation. I admit I'd been afraid to leave him alone with the kid for any length of time but after seeing him that morning I'd begun to think that maybe he wouldn't make such a bad father. Mara had certainly taken to him as if she'd been around him all her life. I wasn't sure how long that would last before she wanted to know where her mother was, though. I tried not to think about it while I drove.

The people at work were understanding and those that weren't became understanding after Hilde laid into them. I'd forgotten that she was already there and that she would probably have told everyone what was happening in my life. She and I practically ran the place, despite that we'd elected a few people to actually head the scrap yard. As far as I knew our facility was the only one where mobile suits were allowed to be scrapped into parts any longer. When the war had ended there were several places open to the idea but after Mariemaia's stunt we had decided that allowing mobile suits to exist at all was just too dangerous. The Preventers had set up a couple of places and a few years later we were the only one still in operation. I know that Hilde at least enjoyed the work.

"How's it going at home?" she asked, as soon as I was in the front door.

Grinning, I moved farther into the entrance building. "Heero's actually taking it quite well and Mara seems to be settling in all right. She hasn't thrown a tantrum or asked where her mother is or anything too out of order."

"Don't jinx it," she warned, following me through the hallways. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well," she shifted the clipboard she was holding nervously in her hands, "it's just that taking a kid into your home is probably really hard. Adopting a kid neither of you had connections to is one thing but she's actually Heero's daughter. Is that really okay with you?"

Most people, were they to ask a question like that, might have seemed as though they were prying too far or for the wrong reasons, but I knew Hilde better than that. She wasn't trying to insinuate that I shouldn't be all right with it or that she thought I was having problems or that she thought I should stop. She was honestly worried about my welfare and whether or not I was doing as well as I looked like I was doing.

As much as I wanted to brush off the question, playing it down as something unimportant, I still didn't like to lie. Hilde deserved an honest answer.

"I don't know. I mean, yes it is okay right now. I did think about that but I don't… It would be senseless worrying. If something was going to happen, then it would happen whether or not I spent time fussing over the possibility."

"Yeah…" Her face brightened as she smiled. "I'm glad you think so positively! I think you and Heero are the best two people for that girl. Can I come see her sometime?"

That was one of the reasons I loved Hilde; she was so adaptable and cheerful. She'd been great to work with during the war, despite the fact that she often tried so hard she got herself into trouble. A friendly, happy face was always nice to see, especially in dark times. I agreed that she should come see all of us this weekend, once things had really settled.

After that I had spent a while talking to a couple of people to arrange for a week or two of absence, making sure that everything could be run without me. The men and women we'd put in charge practically fell over themselves to give me the time. I tried to keep from smiling the entire time; I was barely twenty years old and people treated me with more respect than people twice my age would have received. No matter how many times I told them to treat me like a normal person, I suppose none of them could forget who I'd been. Maybe it wasn't the best thing in the world (for them or for me) but it was amusing.

I left them with my cell phone number and a promise to show up if they really needed my help. By the time I was halfway home I realized that it was nearly two and I hadn't gotten a call from Heero. That gave me a small amount of comfort- I was probably worrying too much. We'd been through a war. It's not like Heero couldn't take care of himself and anyone else he needed to keep alive and well.

Then again, three year olds were really outside of his usual range of companions.

When I arrived home and the car was missing from the driveway. Artemis was barking herself silly inside and for a moment I thought about turning right around and checking the park for Heero and Mara but I figured that if I hadn't received a phone call then he obviously hadn't run into anything he couldn't handle on his own. Locking the car, I headed inside to see if he'd left a note.

But he hadn't.

I glanced around the kitchen and checked both room, even going so far as so poke my head out into the backyard. Artemis followed at my heel, tail wagging in slow, curious strokes at my strange behavior. I was a little irritated that they'd left no indication as to where they'd gone and hadn't called me before hand. I tried to tell myself that I should get used to it now; I've been told before that kids take off all the time without notification. Pulling my cell phone out of my pocket, I decided to give calling him a try. Maybe he's just stepped out for a bit for food or something.

There were a few seconds of delay and then, "You've reached the cell phone of Heero Yuy. If you would like to leave a call back number, please press one now. If you would like to leave a-"

I clicked the phone off, brow creasing. It hadn't even rung once. Was that Heero's voice mail? I'd only heard it a couple of times since he set it because… he was just like Trowa.

Heero never turned off his phone. Ever.

First it was Trowa disappearing and now Heero? What the hell was going on?


/End Chapter Sixteen, Inheritance/