Disclaimer- I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters from the series and will never claim to own them. However, the plot, Anita (Cassarah), Blaine, and the little children all belong to me.

A/N- Please don't flame me if you don't like the story. If the characters are OOC, that's something that's almost unavoidable as none of the Gundam Wing characters belong to me, and they never will. Basically, if you don't like what you're reading, stop reading it and hit the back button on your browser. I don't want to hear your fussing just because something isn't to your liking. Fuss to yourself, not me.

The reason why our lovely Mary S- I mean heroine went almost an entire chapter without a name being mentioned last chapter was because she was having an identity crisis. 'Nough said. Thanks and enjoy~

After spending what felt like forever asleep, Cassarah (formerly known as Anita) was greeted with the bright morning light, much to her displeasure. She would have loved to sleep in that bed forever if it were possible, but it wasn't and now she was dealing with a very chipper blonde who appeared to be a morning person. Or maybe he just drank too much coffee. Whatever the reason, he was the cause for her waking up because he was drawing back the curtains and opening the blinds in the room he'd so kindly provided for her.

"Good morning, Cassarah." Quatre said, turning around to face her. "I hope that you slept well."

"Mnngh…" She mumbled as she rolled over and pulled the covers over her head. "Why so early?"

"Don't you think you've slept enough?" He replied. "Would a cup of coffee be enough to get you to wake up?"

"Don't want any." She said with a yawn before sitting up, realizing he was going to keep talking to her until she was wide-eyed and awake. "M'hungry, though."

"What would you like to eat, then?"

Cassarah didn't answer immediately. She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to eat and she really had to think about it. She could ask for a traditional breakfast with eggs and pancakes, but pancakes didn't really sound all that appetizing right at that very moment. Toast sounded pretty good, though, but bread was a filler and she really needed to eat something that wasn't going to make her full before she actually got enough to eat. Suddenly the thought of eating real food made her decision extremely complicated and she ruffled her own hair in frustration with a groan.

"I don't know." She huffed. "Apples. Eggs. I don't know. No toast. Surprise me?"

And it was just that that he did, but not with the food he chose. No, he got her some scrambled eggs and an apple, but he didn't exactly let her leave the room. So, really, it became breakfast in bed with a nice cup of freshly brewed tea. It was like being some kind of princess and Cassarah certainly wasn't princess material, so this was really awkward and embarrassing for her.

"Why in bed?" She asked, staring down at the tray on her lap.

"You seemed quite content with hulling yourself up in this room," Quatre explained. "I thought it would be better if I just brought the food to you instead of asking you to come to it."

She felt the need to argue against his point, but there wasn't an argument that she could come up with that would actually make sense. So she turned her attention to the food in her lap and decided it best to take her aggression out on that. However, there's not much you can do to a bunch of scrambled eggs that hasn't already been done and it wasn't a good idea to act like a fool with a knife while peeling an apple.

"This isn't fair." She said suddenly, placing the apple and knife back down on the tray and looking up at Quatre.

"Hm?" He asked, not quite sure what she meant.

"For me to be sitting here," She began. "You know, eating like this in such a place. Because those kids probably aren't this lucky and I know it. So why do I get special treatment?"

"Don't think like that." He said, but it almost sounded like he was trying to be more authoritative. "You give people far less credit than they deserve. While I'm not entirely sure whom you're talking about, I do know that you mentioned someone else was with them and, from the way you spoke about him, he was old enough to take care of himself. Do you really have so little faith in him that you don't think he can handle taking care of other people, as well?"

"But he doesn't think things through clearly!" She protested.

"Not to be rude, but you don't seem to do that, either, so where's the difference?" The blonde man asked.

Cassarah didn't respond. There was no way for her to respond, because he was right. There was no difference, so her argument was invalid. Frustrated, she picked the apple back up and began to peel it again before cutting it up. Maybe Quatre was right.

Maybe Blaine deserved more credit than she was giving him. Maybe he was actually doing a better job at taking care of the kids than she had. But that thought made her smile a little bit. For a young man who was still growing himself to take care of a bunch of screaming children better than a woman, that would be a sight to see. That would be just great, but there was no telling now because she was hours away from her old "home".

"No, you're right." She said.

Her comment seemed to be just enough to please Quatre because he backed off. The whole point was to try and get her to stop being so down and depressive because it was bringing down the mood of everyone and that was no good. If they could get her to be just a little more optimistic that would be just great.

"If you're done, you can take a shower and get into a change of clothes." He said with a smile. "You aren't much smaller than I am, so I think we can fit you into some of mine with the aid of a belt."

"Y-Yeah." She replied. "Thanks. That sounds nice."

"The hell…?" Cassarah grumbled as she tried to fasten the belt Quatre had given her. "How's this even supposed to work?"

It was one of those belts with holes going all the way around it and a buckle that had a notch on the end of it, but how it was supposed to even fasten was lost on the redhead and she fiddled with it. Of course, every second she spent trying to figure it out, she grew more and more annoyed until she was at the point where she was just going to give up and ask for help. The thought of it was very embarrassing, but it didn't seem like she was going to get anywhere without bothering. So, after gathering up the courage to actually do so, she poked her head out the door and motioned for Quatre to come into the room.

"What?" He asked.

"Just come here, please." She begged. "Quickly."

The looks she was getting from everyone else in the room made her feel even more embarrassed, so she quickly ducked back into the room and waiting for Quatre to come. Of course, explaining to him that she couldn't figure out how to work the belt he gave her would make her look like an idiot, but at least she'd be doing it behind closed doors. This day was turning out to be very strange.

"What's wrong?" The blonde man asked.

"This belt." Cassarah groaned. "How do you even fasten it? Why would you give me a belt that I don't understand?"

"Oh, uh, here." He said as he took the ends of the belt away from her. "It's not that hard. This piece just pops into one of the holes like this."

As he explained how the belt worked, he pulled it tight around her waist and fastened it for her. Much to her surprise, it was actually a lot easier to figure out than she'd been making it out to be. However, that didn't change the fact that he should have just given her a regular belt to begin with rather than a fancy looking one that would likely cause problems.

"Th-Thanks." She mumbled.

"It's fine." He replied. "Would you like me to get you a hair brush, as well?"

"Y-Yeah." She replied as she ran her hand through the wet tangles in her hair. "That would be nice. I could use something to tie it back with, too, if you don't mind."

Quatre was off then and came back with a hairbrush and hair tie so she could pull her hair back. She thanked him and he left the room to give her some space. She stood in front of a floor length mirror and felt the urge to mock herself for looking so plain, especially since she was currently staying in the house of a very not plain looking guy and his very pretty friends were also here, though one of them happened to be her friend as well. And somehow his hair was longer and prettier than her own. Then again, she didn't get the chance to wash her hair as often as she should have because she'd been living without running water for several months.

Her showers then had just been when she'd stand out in the pouring rain, or when she managed to con someone into letting her and the kids use their bathroom. Thinking back on it, that wasn't a good way to be raising kids and she should have tried to actually get a job, but without any legal documents of any kind, it would have been impossible. If she ever went back to the life, she hoped she would at least try to do something differently. Living like that was no good. She was lucky she'd never been caught stealing food or else she would have ended up in jail.

She sighed and tried to push those thoughts to the back of her mind as she brushed her hair back out of her face. Nothing special about her face, really. Her skin was pale and she had dark circles under her eyes from losing sleep too many nights in a row. She leaned forward as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail before pulling down on her bottom eyelid. Her eyes were kind of pretty if you liked pale green eyes.

She was surprised at how poorly she'd managed her own body up till now. She was too young to be having any kind of wrinkles and yet there were a few here and there, but they were mostly under her eyes. It wouldn't hurt to go outside in the sun a little more just so she didn't look like a ghost. And she was so wrapped up in inspecting every inch of her face and body that she didn't hear the door to the room open and she had absolutely no idea that Duo was standing there watching her like she was some kind of circus act. Though, from someone else's point of view, it was actually kind of amusing watching a girl look at herself in a mirror the way Cassarah had been.

"Hey." He said, not sure if she'd hear him or not.

Luckily for him, she did. Unluckily for him, he surprised her enough that she yelped and nearly jumped out of her own skin. The normal response at that point would be to say "hello" back, but Cassarah didn't. She just stood there and stared like a deer caught in headlights for a few seconds before looking down at her feet and fiddling with the hem on the sweater Quatre had lent her.

"You know," he began, "usually this is the point when you say 'hey' back. Just in case you forgot."

"I didn't forget." She mumbled.