This was a challenge that was never fulfilled, is being reworked, and that I intend to finish. All I wish for is luck and some motivation.

Title: Domestic
Author: Ileana A. (babygray)
Main Pairing: Duo/Heero
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine. This is pure jest.
Notes: This is a 26-part story, made up of noisefics/drabbles/whatever. It's not chronological, but don't worry too much about that. Reworked, but rough and un-beta'ed. Also, if it's messier than usual, I apologize, but, please enjoy!

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--Rumors--

Her smile faltered for a moment when she saw her father alone, waiting for her, but she quickly pushed her good cheer back to the fore. It wouldn't do to start her winter vacation on a bad foot.

"Hi, Daddy," she cried as she practically leaped into her tall father's arms, despite being 17 years old and already a young woman. She couldn't help herself, however. Despite the years, the man holding her, dressed in a sharp-looking polo shirt and khakis, seemed to have aged so little, making her feel so young in return.

"Hello, sweetie, how was your flight?" her tall, lanky father asked, smoothing her dark blonde hair down. She still only barely reached his shoulder, but something told her that height would just be another thing she wouldn't share with her father or her brother.

"Long," she said with a grin as she gave her father one more squeeze before pulling away. She glanced about, that trepidation she felt when she saw her father alone returning. "Where's Milli and Heero?"

"Milliardo was still at work when I had to drive out here," her daddy said as he took her bag, leading the way to the east parking lot.

She took a deep breath of the musty air of home with a smile as she followed. "And Heero?"

Her father shook his head, his long, white-blonde hair in a practical ponytail. "He couldn't make it either."

"Why?" It wasn't like Heero to not greet her at the airport. Since leaving the colony with her mother years ago, Heero was always available to greet her when she returned to see her father and Milli, and to see her off again when she had to go back home to her mom. Seeing her best childhood friend the first moment she stepped out of the airport arrival terminal was just as important to her as greeting her tall, long-haired father and brother with a running leap of a hug. He certainly had never let her down before.

"I'll tell you on the way home, sweetie," her father said with a reassuring smile that didn't ease her anxiety.

-----

Her father lived in the southern former capital, a 45 minute drive down a highway through the mountains from the current northern capital and the main airport. After years of driving up and down that highway, she was certain that she knew each turn of the road and each carved mountainside that lined the way. The radio was tuned to a classical music station.

"Why didn't Heero come, Daddy? He usually does."

"Something happened a couple weeks back, sweetie," her father answered. "Someone... close to him was killed."

"Oh, my god, who?"

"Do you remember Triton, Catherine's brother?" At her puzzled expression, he continued, "Tall kid, hardly talked to anyone? HHJHis hair was always over his eyes?"

She knew him, but she always heard him called by a different name. "Do you mean Trowa? He's dead?" Her heart twisted with pain at the thought. She first met him a few winters back; Heero had introduced him as a good friend. He was almost enough like Heero that she liked him right away: quiet, shy, but with a serious look in his eyes that made her feel safe.

Her father's eyes were on the road, and his lips were thin. "That boy... was Heero's boyfriend," he said in a voice no higher than a whisper, and as humorless as grim death.

"His... what?"

-----

"His boyfriend? Is that was Father told you?"

She rubbed at her cheeks and nodded, hoping that she wouldn't start crying in front of her brother. Never in all her years of knowing Heero did she think he would be interested in men. A naive part of her still believed that she would one day marry Heero, maybe even have a lovely house along the southwestern coast of the colony, overlooking the ocean and overflowing with children. To know that he loved someone else was a blow she hadn't expected.

Her brother, Milliardo, was nearly a mirror-image of their father. He too was a tall, lanky man, with long white-blond hair that gave him a cool aloofness that she couldn't imitate. Sometimes, she wondered if all she got from her father was his wide shoulders. "He said that they were together, yeah," she replied as she sat on her brother's bed, tugging at her hair.

"Well, considering the rumors, I wonder if that's even true." Milli sat on the bed beside her, his legs crossed at the knees. He was still half in his suit, his dark, conservative tie and jacket long tucked away for another day, the top two buttons of his white shirt undone.

Her head lifted slightly at the words. Was that hope that naive part of her was feeling? "What sort of rumors?"

"Just the usual ones when things like that happen." Her brother rubbed away at the pale stubble on his chin. "Something about Heero being involved with the leader of the local roughnecks, and that he was playing with both of their hearts."

"Is it true?"

"Haven't gotten around to asking him yet, actually." He rubbed a comforting circle on her shoulder. "He's been hiding in his house since then. The only time he came out was for the funeral, I think. But, considering how Catherine chewed him out, I don't blame him. I'd be hiding too."

"I want to go see him," she said, not for the first time that evening. She said it when her father parked the car in front of the house, and again when they took her luggage to what has been her room for so many years.

"It's late," Milliardo said, repeating the words her father said the last time she had asked him. "You'll just have to wait till morning, yeah?" He nudged her shoulder affectionately.

-----

Milliardo escorted her to Heero's home the next morning, his presence allowing her to stay calm as they walked. She wasn't certain what she would expect when she got there, but having her older brother with her could certainly ease any tension she felt.

When Mr. Lowe opened the door, however, she wasn't certain if all that calm she had gained by being with her brother would be enough. Heero's father, who always seemed to her so awe-inspiring, with his darkly tanned skin and his smiling blue eyes, seemed defeated and ghostly pale underneath his overgrown fringe of blond hair. If that was how the easy-going Mr. Lowe looked, she didn't think she wanted to see how Heero fared.

"Ah, did you come yesterday?" Mr. Lowe said as he served them iced water. They sat together around the table in the kitchen. Milliardo thanked Mr. Lowe as he drank from his glass.

"I wanted to come sooner, but Daddy said it's best to wait till morning," she said, wringing her hands out of nervousness.

"It's alright. Your father just didn't want you to impose, and besides, I'm sure you had a long flight and needed the rest," Mr. Lowe said with a half-flirtatious grin, causing her to blush at the sight.

"Daddy told me that something happened, but..."

Mr. Lowe's smile turned down a bit at a corner. "Yes, the last couple of weeks have been... difficult for Heero."

"Daddy said Trowa died, but... he didn't get into details." Her father severely disapproved of gossip, and would have frowned at the idea of his daughter asking for all the gruesome details. Her brother, too, though not as disapproving, was never one to pay any real attention to other people's talk. Neither man would be able to tell her what happened; and yet, she needed to know. Partly to satisfy her curiosity, and partly to truly understand what Heero was going through.

"I'm not sure if I'm the one that should be telling you what happened," Mr. Lowe said, scratching at the stubble on his chin. "It's Heero's business and he may get mad at me for telling you with out his permission."

"It's alright, Father," Heero said, suddenly appearing by the doorway that lead to the living room and the rest of the one-floor house. He didn't look as bad as she had first imagined, but he did look a lot worse than she had ever seen him. He was much skinner than she remembered, with dark circles under his eyes and his hair even messier than usual. In the extra-large jersey he had slept in, he looked exhausted and completely rundown. She immediately got to her feet and rushed to his side.

She touched his arm, her eyes searching his. "Better to hear it now than to guess from all the rumors," Heero said, his lips trying out a brave smile for her and failing.