ABOUT ONE MONTH LATER…

The little war orphan pickpocket was still living off the money that Duo had provided. Now dressed in a slightly dirty hot pink shirt with a white rabbit printed on it, a pair of slightly ripped, frayed, and stained jeans, and a pair of worn trainers. Their hair had been brushed and was even longer without the tangles. Yep, this child was a little girl. Her young ears perked when she heard a non-animalistic groan from a nearby alley way. She went over and gasped, it was the man who had been so kind to her the month before, trailing a pool of blood and semen. Dressed only in a badly torn shirt. He had bruises and cuts all over his body. He pulled himself foreword with only his left arm, his right dragging uselessly on the ground and his left leg was bent at a weird angle. He stopped when he saw her and smiled when he saw her.

"Hey…You're the kid from…a month ago…" he said weakly before collapsing.

As fast as she could she patted him down finding his cellphone and called 911, reporting a rape, gabbing his good hand in an attempt to comfort him. She was slightly surprised when he squeezed her hand back. When the ambulance arrived the paramedics tried to separate them but the man refused to let go. He held fast until they got to the hospital and a dirty blond female doctor with her hair in two twists assured him that the child would be there when he awoke. Afterwards a nurse took her to a room with a hospital bed and cot.

"You can take a nap on the cot if you want," the nurse told her.

After the nurse left the girl suddenly realized how tired she was before climbing onto the cot, kicking off her trainers, and fell asleep. When she awoke she found that the braided male was laying in the hospital bed and there five other men in the room.

"She's awake," said the second tallest of the group who long reddish brown bangs covering one of his green eyes.

The shortest one with short, wavy blond hair knelt down to her level and said, "Hi there. We want to thank you for saving our friend. Can you tell us your name?"

"It's Angeni Gabriella Carina…I'm five…" she said.

"Ok, Angeni, where are your parents?" asked the tallest of the group with long platinum blond hair.

"They're dead…They died in the war."

"You really are like me, huh?" came a raspy voice from the bed.

"Duo!" cried the all the other males.

"Duo?" repeated Angeni.

"That's my name, Annie," said the braided male, "I owe you big time."

Angeni blinked at her new nick name but didn't comment.

"And just how do you propose to repay her, Maxwell?" asked a Chinese male who with his black hair in a rat tail.

"I want to adopt her, if she's ok with it," said Duo looking at Angeni for her answer.

"Yes!" she cried happily before climbing on to his bed and gently hugging him.

Duo laughed before giving her a one-armed hug.

"Well, looks like we have work to do. *Sniff. Sniff.* And this little lady need a bath," said the short blond

Angeni giggled softly and said, "I'm a stinker."

Soon they were shooed out by the lady doctor with the blond twists whom the short blond or Quatre told her was named Sally.

"Why do I have to bathe her?" asked the Chinese man called Wufei.

"Because I'm looking to see if she has any living family, Quatre's getting the adoption papers ready, Trowa's picking a children's furniture catalog as well as a toy catalog, and Zechs is busy getting clothing catalogs," said the messy haired male AKA Heero.

Angeni looked up at Wufei, dressed in a bath robe that was way too big on her tiny frame.

"I'm sorry Mr. Wufei, I don't mean to be a burden," she said softly.

The Chinese man sighed and muttered, "Where the detangling/no more tears shampoo?"

After a while Angeni had pretty much adjusted to her new life. Although there were still times when she was surprised. Like when Quatre told her that she could pick out all her own things from catalogs, and what's more they would all be brand new. As she was looking through the catalogs Heero started running his fingers through her hair.

"You hair is very pretty when it's all clean," he said.

This caused her to blush and hide her face inside the catalog she was looking at. After an extensive search they learned that Angeni, who's name was a native American word for Spirit, had no living family so Duo would be able to adopt her.

"We're going to go see Duo today so he can sign the adoption papers. So what outfit do you want to wear?" Quatre asked the little girl as they stood in front of her new closet that was filled to the brim with the latest in formal and casual fashions for a little girl.

Quatre's sisters, Cathy, Relena, Dorothy, Sally, Noin, and Hildie had all insisted on helping completing her wardrobe. It had everything, shirts, dresses, shorts, skirts, shoes, socks, accessories, and pants. After a few moments Gabriella pointed to a pink skirt, a white shirt, pink fringed socks, and white Mary Jane shoes. After her hair was brushed Trowa had put a pink ribbon in her hair to finish the outfit.

"You look really cute Annie," said Duo when he saw the child, but he flinched slightly at the sight of all this male friends.

She blushed slightly, Duo was going to be released in a few days, after Sally was sure that the infections that Duo had gotten after and because of his rape had cleared up. Although he would still be skittish around other males fro a while she had said. But Quatre figured the sooner they got the papers signed the better.

"Duo, just sign these papers and she'll officially and legally your daughter," said the shorter blond putting the papers on to Duo's table so he could sign them.

"Who's got a pen?" asked the injured male.

"Here," said Wufei handing a pen to him.

As he did their hands brushed, Duo flinched and unnoticed by the other males but not to a certain child, Wufei blushed slightly but looked a little upset at Duo's flinch.

Once Duo had calmed down he promptly signed the papers and smiled at the little girl, "From now on you're Angeni Gabriella Carina-Maxwell."

She smiled back and said, "Thank you Mama."

Duo choked on his own spit, "Mama?"

Heero snickered, it had been him who had encouraged the child to call Duo Mama.

"Heero, did you tell her to call Duo that?" asked Quatre putting his hands on his hips.

"Maybe…" said the man who used to be known as the Perfect Solider.

By now Angeni had climbed into the bed to sit on Duo's lap.

"Did I do bad?" she asked drawing the other's attention to her.

"No, Angel, you didn't," said Wufei giving her another nick name before patting her head.

There was a flash of light and the little girl rubbed her eyes cutely.

Trowa smiled holding up a camera.

"Trowa, you could of warned us," said Wufei.

"I wanted to capture the natural scene," said the European male.

"I see spots…" said Angeni blinking.

"That's normal, it should go away soon," said Zechs.

Duo smiled, it seemed that Angeni had wormed her way into all the ex-pilots' hearts.

TBC