Warning: this fic is majorly silly! It's an alternaverse that has Heero and Relena as five-year-olds meeting at a playground.
Guess who the parents are…
 
 

"Heero! Let go of your friend's collar! Heero!" the little boy looked up, still not letting go of the terrified kid who would not let
him play with his Gundam model. "Heero, dear, come on, how many times do we have to go through this?" The young woman
said as she ran to the scene, then freed the scared child from her son's hold. Little Heero pouted just as his mother gave him the
"What am I to do with you" look. Her dark blue eyes, even darker than his own, not letting go of the child's face. Firm, yet
gentle.

"But he started it," Heero protested. "He wouldn't let me play self-destruct with his Gundam!" The young woman rolled her
eyes and sweatdropped, as she placed her hands on the little boy's shoulders. "Heero, look at me," she said. The boy kept
pouting. "There's tons of other fun games you can play… you know, apart from the self-destruct game." "Aw, mommie, but
that's not fun. I wanna blow something up. Can I can I can I?" little Heero insisted. The young woman ran a hand on her face
and went on explaining to her son that once he blows up a toy, or smashes it or something, that's it… no more toy, and it's bad
enough when he does it to his own, but he definitely should not do it with other kids' toys.

Heero frowned, giving his mother what looked like the early version of a death stare, then he broke loose and ran away,
screaming, "You're mean to me! Big bad meany!" The young woman got up, shook her head and let out a deep sigh. Then she
walked over to one of the benches by the jungle gym and sat down. Her son was already letting off his anger by climbing on the
monkey bars with the sole strength of his little arms. She kept a close watch on him, hoping he would not push any of the other
kids off the jungle gym if they happened to get in his way.

That was the third park they had to change in two weeks. All because of some "accident", like Heero punching a little boy in
the face and knocking off his loose tooth, or Heero pushing a little girl on a swing so hard that she started screaming… or
Heero breaking someone's toy, or Heero kicking a parent in the shins, or… well, you get the picture. Sometimes the young
woman felt like she got tired just watching her son. Not to mention never letting her guard off, always expecting him to break
into a fight with another kid. And then taking the heat from some rightfully mad parent. That was simply exhausting. More so
than work. She got up abruptly as she noticed her son rubbing his hands in anticipation, getting ready to push an unsuspecting
little girl down the slide.

"Heero, don't even think about it," she warned. Heero turned around and stuck his tongue out at her, then went about his
business without bothering the other child. The young woman sighed relief, then sat back on the bench. She really didn't feel like
dealing with any upset parents that day. Work had been bad enough already, and being a single mom was all but easy.
Especially with a son as rambunctious as her own.

She was called back to Earth by a man's voice commenting to her, "Boy, your little one sure looks like a handful!" She
mechanically replied, "Yeah, tell me about it…", then turned around to see who was the next parent she would have to humbly
apologize to. She was pleasantly surprised in seeing the voice had come from a rather attractive young man. He smiled and sat
down on the bench beside her. The young woman suddenly felt her cheeks go on fire, and prayed that she wasn't blushing or
anything. The last thing she needed was some young father feeling sexually harassed.

She tried to act casual, and got up again to repeat her warning to little Heero, who was now contemplating emptying a bucket
of sand onto a little boy who was quietly playing with his truck in the sand box. Heero looked at his mother, then stretched the
corners of his mouth with the two index fingers and flicked his tongue as if to mimic some kind of monster. Her lips stretched in
a half-smile, as she sat down again. Another diplomatic disaster avoided. For now. She heard the young man chuckle and felt
herself blush again. She closed her eyes and shook her head as a bout of laughter stretched her lips in a smile.

"He's hilarious. How old is he?" the young man asked, hoping to start a conversation with her. She turned to him, a smile on her
face, and replied, "Oh, he's only five. Which one is your child?" she asked, quite pleased that the young man had started the
conversation first. He pointed to a little girl with long light brown hair, two little braids at the sides of her head, joined at the
back by a colourful barrette. She sweatdropped as she recognized her as the same little girl that Heero had contemplated
pushing down the slide five minutes earlier. "Her name's Relena. She's also five," he continued.

"She's adorable, " the young woman commented, following the little child with her eyes, a smile on her face. "Yeah, well, she
can be a little bit of a handful herself," he replied, looking up at the branches of the large oak tree they were sitting under.
"Sweet and all, but she sure knows how to get her way…" he continued, turning his head to the side to meet the young
woman's eyes. They looked at each other for a second, both feeling the sort of sweet embarrassment of two people who
understand each other without need for words.

"Um… do you live around here?" the young man was the first to speak again. She replied that, yes, they had just moved to that
area from half-way across the country. He straightened up on the bench and blurted out enthusiastically, "That's great! Hey,
maybe my sister and your son will be classmates in September. I'm enrolling Relena at St. Elizabeth Elementary…" Her smile
widened as she cocked her head and repeated,

"Sister? Relena is your little sister?" He blushed and replied that, yeah, most people thought he was her father, but they were
really siblings. He had been taking care of her ever since their parents passed away. The young woman looked away and
nervously passed a hand through her short black hair, as she mumbled an apology for digging up painful memories. "Oh, it's
totally alright," he replied, his ice-blue eyes not leaving her face. "That was a while ago. Relena barely even remembers them.
So in a way it's kind of like I'm her father…" She found herself thinking he had a dazzling smile, and felt silly for sitting there,
flirting with him right in front of her son and all the other parents.

Her son! She slapped her forehead as she suddenly realized that she hadn't been keeping her eyes on Heero, and that he could
have gotten into all sorts of trouble during that brief moment. Just then the young man was also startled by a piercing scream.
"Oh, dear God, Relena!", he exclaimed. He jumped up as fast as a lightning and ran to his little sister, followed by the young
woman, who was just frantic at the thought of her son hurting the little girl, all her worst-case scenarios running through her
head. Including having to change another park. And enrolling his son at some other school instead of Saint Elizabeth. Damn, she
thought, they only lived a few bocks from there, it would have been so convenient.

As soon as they got to the sand box where the screams had come from, they both stopped short, their jaws literally hitting the
grass. There was little Heero, face down in the sand, trying to scream for help as little Relena pinned him down, trying to shove
mud into his mouth. "C'm on, you're s'posed to eat it and say it's yummy," she kept repeating in her best persuasive tone. Heero
kept squirming underneath her weight, unable to break free, and Relena was getting more ticked off by the minute, her little
voice becoming more and more commanding. "Do it, Heero. Come on, be good and I'll let you go. Open your mouth and say,
'Mmmm, it's yummy, Relena-sama, you make the best mud pies."

The young man was the first to snap out of it and react. He walked over and grabbed his sister, persuading her to let go of the
poor little boy, and no doubt wishing he had earplugs the moment she started screaming her lungs out in protest. As soon as he
managed to separate the two children, the young woman also ran to the sand box and took her terrified little boy in her arms.
"Now, that's quite the role reversal," she thought, as she wiped the sand away from her wailing son's mouth. Meanwhile, the
young man had sat the kicking, screaming Relena on one of his knees and was trying to explain to her that it wasn't nice to beat
up little boys if they refused to play house with her.

He then turned to Heero's mother, completely, utterly mortified for his sister's aggressiveness, and mumbled an endless series of
excuses, hoping she would not sue him or anything. He didn't even dare hoping she would want to have anything to do with him
any more, but when their eyes met, he saw that she wasn't mad. Just very puzzled. He sat there speechless, having used up all
the apologies he knew in the English language, and just looking very sheepish. Her little boy had stopped crying. She looked
back at him, and mumbled, "Look, that's… not a big deal… really. Nobody got hurt, so… it's fine." She didn't really know
what to say, since this was the first time she was on the mad-parent-whose-kid-was-beaten-up side. She brushed her little
boy's hair away from his face and kissed his forehead. He kept holding on to his mother's neck for dear life.

When she raised her eyes, the young man was whispering something in his sister's ear. The little girl walked over to the woman
and tapped Heero on his shoulder. As soon as he turned around, still a little shaky, she stretched her hand out to him and
mumbled, in her sweet five-year-old voice, "Heero… I'm sorry. Wanna be friends? I promise I won't make you eat mud pies
any more." Heero looked up at her, a little hesitant, then at his mom, who smiled and nodded to encourage him to accept the
apology, then back to Relena. He went, "Oh, alright, I guess…" and reached for her little hand. "Friends," he said. Then he
turned to the jungle gym and went, "Hey, wanna go on the swing an' I can push you?" "Yeah! Sounds cool!" she replied, and
they both ran to the middle of the playground, hand in hand.

The man and the woman looked at each other incredulously, and both said at the same time, "Kids… Go figure, eh?", then
started laughing at the two little enemies-turned-buddies. Then the woman got up and called to her son, "Heero… make nice,
eh?" The little boy gave her the ok sign and started pushing the swing, with little Relena squealing, "Wheeee! Faster! Higher!"

The young woman turned to the man, as if waiting for him to follow her back to the bench underneath the oak tree. He quickly
caught up to her and they walked side by side. "You know what?" she said, without looking at him, "At first it scared the hell
out of me… You know… being a single parent… but I have no doubt that adopting Heero was the best thing that ever
happened to me." His eyes grew wider, realizing the young woman he had been flirting with all afternoon was actually single,
and for a second he contemplated reaching for her hand.

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean," he replied, blushing and staring at the ground. Then he looked up at her just before she
sat down on the bench and exclaimed, "Oh, geez! What a twit! I haven't even introduced myself yet… Anyway, I'm Mirialdo
Peacecraft…" "That's alright," she replied, "I forgot all about it myself. Nice to meet you. I'm Lucrezia Noin."

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