Wings and Tears: Part Four
There was a knock on the door of the room. It woke both Heero and Duo.
“Go away!” yelled Duo, his face still buried in Heero’s chest. “It’s too early.”
“You two do
know that it is almost
“Solo?!” he asked the door.
“Well…yeah.” Solo joked from the other side. Duo got up from the bed and quickly moved to open the door. He found the mirror image of himself, only 20 years younger and with shorter red hair.
“Oh God.” Duo said, tears forming in his eyes once again. Then he gathered his son into his arms.
~~
Michael entered the room to find Lorelei standing, looking blankly into space, in the middle of the room.
“Lorrie?” he asked her. She turned to face him, her eyes were swollen with tears.
“I…I let him go. I told him he was more than welcome to visit with his father. So he hid his wings, dressed in human clothes, tied back his hair, and left.” She started to sob again. “I hope he has a good time.”
“Shhh.” Michael cooed, and came to wrap her in his thick arms. “It will be alright. He will come back.” He whispered this in her ear, addressing the fear she had in her heart.
“He is just like his father.” She said as soon as her tears stopped, and Michael did not have a response for that.
~~
“Master Quatre, I must protest to this.” Quatre handed Rasid a basket and he handed it to Adua, who then took it to the mini-van waiting outside. “You going out alone, it’s not a good idea.”
“I won’t be going out alone. Trowa, Duo, Heero, Wufei, Solo and Hanna will be going with me.”
“I mean without any professional guards!”
Quatre shot Rasid a ‘gimme-a-break’ look. The four Maquanacs had showed up shortly after Solo had made his appearance. “Rasid…who is a Master at sword-play and martial arts?”
“Wufei.”
“And you can do those sexy…um, I mean, really cool flippy things and kicks and stuff.”
Rasid sighed, “Trowa....although I don’t think its sexy…”
“I should hope not, and who is supposedly the Perfect Solider?”
“Heero,” the taller one responded dully.
“And who can put up a pretty good fight, or even talk his way out of it?”
“Duo.”
“And who did you, yourself, teach to throw a decent punch?”
“You, Master Quatre.”
“And who were the Gundam pilots?”
“Ok, you’ve proven your point! But still, I think it’s a bad idea.”
“You’re welcome to come along.”
Rasid shook his head, “The sand of the desert is one thing, the sands of the beach are completely different, and we were just stopping by.”
“Ok.” Quatre gave his old friend a hug and then moved back to the common sitting room of his house. Duo was standing behind Solo, braiding his hair. Duo’s son’s head moved every once and awhile as Duo tugged on his red hair. Duo’s fingers moved skillfully and quickly. Quatre was again stuck by how similar they looked. Solo’s violet looked at Quatre and he smiled. A blast from the past.
“Are you guys ready to go?” Quatre asked.
“Almost, Kat.” Duo said, concentrating on the French Braid. Heero stood.
“You have every thing packed, Quatre?”
“Yeah.” Quatre responded.
“DADDY!” Hanna’s voice squealed as she ran into the room. She was wearing a loose white shirt that someone had tied to her side. Her pink bathing suit could be seen by a small gap between the shirt and the blue jeans she was wearing. Trowa appeared in the room behind her. Quatre bent to pick her up, “Ug, you’re getting heavy, that means you’re growing.” Hanna giggled and threw her arms around his neck.
“Rasid and the others are just leaving, shouldn’t we be going too?”
“Done.” Duo said, letting his son’s hair go. Solo’s thin fingers reached up feel the braid.
“Cool,” he said smiling. Then he stood.
“Come on, everyone. Where’s Wufei?” Trowa said, then moved back into the hall. “Wufei!?” he called.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Wufei said, and then quickly ran down the stairs, a backpack flung over his shoulder. Together they all left the mansion. The Maquanacs were all piling into a truck.
“Bye guys!” called Hanna.
“Good-bye Mistress Hanna! Master Quatre!” they called back.
“Have fun at the beach you guys!” called Abdul.
“We will!” cried Hanna back.
“Bye!” Quatre said, before they reached the mini-van. The truck started and moved towards the mansion’s gates. Duo, Heero and Solo moved to the back of the van, Duo sat in the middle. Solo was excited and eagerly pulled on his seat belt, even though he knew there was no point to it, if they got in an accident he wouldn’t be hurt. Duo smiled at his son and grabbed the hand of his husband. Heero smiled at him. Wufei climbed to sit in the seat behind the driver’s side, and Trowa helped Hanna into the seat on the passenger side. She smiled and laughed as he tickled her a little before stepping back to shut the door. Quatre climbed up to the driver’s side and Trowa moved into the passenger. They both slipped on their seat belts and looked at each other and then leaned forward to kiss before Quatre started up the van.
“Oh, come on guys, let’s just go!” Duo mock-protested. The van burst out in giggles. Quatre started up the van and slowly took the path the Maquanacs had just left with.
“I have a question Daddy.” Hanna said almost immediately.
“Yes Sweetie?” asked Quatre.
“Is Solo an angel?”
Everyone was taken aback by the question. Solo and Quatre looked at each other using the rearview mirror. Solo nodded at him a bit, signaling it was ok for the little girl to know. Quatre then shot a glance at his husband. Trowa turned around the seat to view his daughter.
“Yes, Hanna, he is. How did you know that?”
“A while ago I was playing this game, where I pretended I was invisible, and I heard you and Daddy talking about Uncle Duo. I didn’t mean to over hear, but I was moving around so quietly you didn’t hear me.” She explained with her innocent voice. “And you said that Uncle Duo used to be an angel, and you were talking about this woman…she had a weird name.”
“Lorelei?” Solo asked.
“Yeah. Anyway, if Uncle Duo used to be an angel, then doesn’t that mean that Solo could be one two.”
“I am.” Solo said, “But you can’t tell anyone else. Understand Hanna.”
“It will be our secret.” Duo said, his voice had lost a small amount of its bliss, “Got it Sweetie?”
Hanna nodded and then mimed zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the zipper.
“Good.” Solo said.
“Does that mean you have wings?” Hanna asked.
“Yeah,” Solo leaned towards her a little, “But there magical so I can hide them, that way the people who don’t know the secret can’t figure it out.”
“Can I see them?” she asked eagerly.
“Maybe later, ok?” Quatre asked, as he reached out an arm to punch in the code of the gates, which slowly opened to let the van pass through.
“Ok!” With that the little girl was content and as they got on the road she squealed for her favorite tape to be played. Wufei sighed as the small puppets of her favorite television show started to use their high pitched voices to sing about tolerance. Hanna, of course, knew all of the words.
“Even if they say strange words. Even if they dress in funny clothes. Even if they have bad teeth. Tolerate! Tolerate! Love everyone!” she shrieked. Duo and Solo exchanged glances and then smiled at each other. Solo then turned to look out the window, fascinated by the scenery of Earth.
Finally the car stopped. As Solo got out he stared, awestruck by the shoreline.
“That…that’s the ocean?” the young angel asked.
“Yup,” said his father, who was at the back of the van, helping to get the blankets and chairs they would be sitting on.
“Come on, Solo! I’ll show you my favorite spot! We have to hurry, someone else might take it!” Hanna declared and held out her small hand for Solo to hold. He took it and she instantly pulled him to the beach. “We have to hurry!” she screamed and started to hasten her steps. Solo chased after her and the two kicked up sand from their feet. Finally the small girl let go of his hand and they ran. She giggled, and screamed, “Slowpoke!” Solo laughed back.
“I don’t know where I’m going!” he called to her. She turned her small head to stick out her tongue. The people already at the beach watched them as Hanna led Solo close to the dip in the sand that marked high tide. Her ‘spot’ was five feet from a barbeque pit and about twenty from a lifeguard post.
“Come on!” She yelled as she quickly pulled off her white over shirt and blue jeans. Then she kicked off her sandals. She now was wearing nothing but her pink bathing suit, a small yellow flower was sewn onto the front. He quickly followed her example, kicked off his own sandals and removed the blue and white striped over shirt he wore, then the white tank top under it. The swimming trunks he had borrowed from Quatre were a dark blue. “Come on!” she called again, and then ran into the ocean waves, screaming, hands flying over her head. “YYYAYYYY!!!”
Solo followed her and she splashed water at him when he entered the current. He returned the favor, soaking her blonde hair. She laughed and they got into a splashing fight.
“Hanna, Solo! You two be careful!” called Quatre. The adults had caught up with the children. This had caused a temporarily cease-fire in their water war. They both looked at their parents. Duo and Heero were picking up their discarded clothes, shaking away the sand. Wufei and Trowa were setting up chairs. Quatre stood at the boundary of high tide and looked out to them.
“We will!” called Hanna.
“Don’t go out to far!” warned Quatre.
“We won’t!” called back Solo. Then the two youngsters looked back at each other, suspiciously, before the water started flying again.
Quatre turned back to the others. The spot was completely ready for the adults to relax. Each of them pulled out canned drinks from and ice box that Heero and Duo had carried from the van. Then they relaxed in the five matching blue beach chairs. They watched Hanna and Solo fight with water.
“God, Kat…we’re old!” Duo complained.
“Not that old.” Quatre responded.
“Yes, that old!”
“This from someone who knows people who live forever?” Wufei asked, glancing around Heero to look at Duo over his red sunglasses.
“Very few things last forever.” Duo quoted Michael.
“Yeah, but even in human standards we aren’t that old.” Heero said, still looking out to the ocean, his blue eyes bare to the Sun.
“Yes we are!” Duo insisted nudging his husband with his elbow. “I mean, honestly, how many of you guys thought we would live this long?” Duo opened his arms and looked at his friends.
“Ok, but that doesn’t count,” Wufei stated.
“Yes it does, we’re old!” Duo wined and titled his head to look at the sky through his dark violet sunglasses.
Quatre shrugged, “I like the idea of dying of old age,” he said casually. “It’s much better than an explosion, a stab wound, a bloody battle…need I go on? Think of all the people who didn’t get that.” He didn’t need to say, ‘who we stopped from having that’, they all knew what he meant.
“Yeah…but whatever happened to those naïve kids who controlled those God-forsaken machines?” Duo asked.
“They became us.” Trowa answered.
There was a pause where the five of them once again looked at the ocean, to Solo and Hanna playing in the waves.
“Shit, Kat…we’ve got kids.” Duo whispered, leaning to Quatre.
“I almost pity them.” Quatre responded. Then the two friends started laughing.
They ate dinner as the Sun started to set, using the pit to cook chicken and roast marshmallows. Solo and Hanna were soaked in salt water and sat by the fire to dry their suits and bodies before they redressed in their clothes, Solo slipped into a pair of pants his father had packed for him. High tide came out with the moon, but Hanna’s spot was just far enough away so they didn’t have to move. Solo and Hanna laid on a blanket as the stars appeared. When enough of these small lights in the sky were out, Solo started to point out constellations to Hanna. She then started to make her own.
“See? It’s a teddy bear!” she pointed and traced the imaginary lines with her finger, Solo’s head was right by hers so he could see what she pointed out clearly. “There is its ears, and its belly, and arms, and legs.”
“Oh yeah I see it!” Solo said, “That’s its face.” He pointed.
“No!” she protested and grabbed his arm, traced the face she saw for him, “That’s its face!”
“Oh…oh I see what you mean. Yes! It is a teddy bear!”
Hanna giggled, “Yup!”
“Ok, Hanna, Solo, I think its time to go.”
“Awwww! Papa! I don’t wanna!”
“I know Hanna, but we really should be heading back home. You’ve all covered in sand and salt and you have school in the morning!”
“But I--”
“You are going to school, Hanna, end of story.” The adults had already started to pack up.
By the time they arrived back at the mansion, Hanna had fallen asleep.