Once again, the disclaimer :  I.....do....not....own....it....*sobs* Like every other GW fanfic girl, I wish I did...especially Heero and Duo....*hugs and squeezes the life out of imaginary Duo and Heero*

Still…..want…..feedback…..

Heart of the Storm

Chapter 3

The ballroom of one of Quatre’s many mansions was decorated in the usual party attire: balloons, crepe paper, the works.  There was a stage set up on one side of the room where a band was playing several types of music.  On the opposite side, a table was set up with different types of food and drink.  On the side opposite from the door was a large window that opened up to a large patio.

Quatre hosted parties frequently, especially when he or another one of the Gundam pilots had something to celebrate.

This was just one of those parties that didn’t have a specific meaning.  It was basically a reunion.

Quatre had just finished preparations when his guest began to arrive.

The first to arrive was Heero Yuy with Relena Peacecraft holding tightly to his arm.

Quatre was about to greet them when he noticed a 3-yr-old miniature Heero walking to the opposite side of Relena.

Quatre looked between Heero and Relena and looked back to the little boy.

“When did this happen, Heero?  Relena?”

“You got me,” said Heero in his usual monotone voice.

Relena lightly slapped the back of his head.  He glanced at her, giving a small smile, something that was once a rare occurance.  Heero was gradually becoming less and less of the perfect solder.  Funny how it was Relena that changed it all.  He was seen smiling quite often when he was with her.

Quatre smiled.  “He looks just like you, Heero.”

“Yeah, and he acts just like Heero to.”

Quatre chuckled at Relena.

“Say ‘hello’ to Quatre, Aaron.”

“Hello, Aaron,” said Quatre, smiling.

Aaron nodded a greeting similar to what Heero, the perfect soldier, would do.

Quatre smiled up to Relena.  “You’re right, he is a miniature Heero.  There's a play area set up in the other room with a nanny.  Four of my sisters are coming with their husbands.  Each of them has two children so I thought it’d be nice for them to have somewhere to play rather than run amok in here.”

“Good idea.”  She took the boy’s hand.  “Come on, Aaron.”

Aaron nodded to Relena and walked with her.

“First door on the right, Relena,” said Quatre as they left.

“So,” Quatre turned to Heero.  “What have you been up to the last 10 years?  Other than, obviously, spending some time with Relena?”

A server came over to them carrying two glasses of champagne.  They each took a glass.

“That was one night…in the cockpit of Wing Zero.”  Heero grinned, looking to Quatre.

Quatre, who was in the middle of taking a drink of his champagne, sputtered the drink down the front of his shirt.  “What? How? No, wait, I don’t want to know.”

“It wasn’t easy.”

“I’m going to go change,” said Quatre, running out of the room.

Relena walked in and stepped aside as Quatre ran past her, his face beet red.

Relena smiled and walked over to Heero, taking a glass of champagne as she passed a server.

“You told him, didn’t you?”

“I couldn’t resist.”  He grinned, giving her a slight kiss on the forehead.  “Besides, I still gotta pay you back for spreading it to nearly all of Preventer HQ.”

“Now, I told you, Heero, that wasn’t my fault.  I told one person.”

“The one person who just happened to be someone who loves spreading around juicy bits of gossip.”  He smiled.  “I know you, Relena.  You wanted everyone to know.”  Heero, of course, was talking about Hilde.  She and Relena had become very good friends, the best of friends, in fact.  Relena told Hilde EVERYTHING and the same went vise versa.

Relena smiled.  “So what are you gonna do about it?”

He smiled and pulled her close.  “You think anyone would miss us if we disappeared for a few hours?”

“I’m certain I would.”  They looked towards the door and saw Milliardo Peacecraft and his wife, Lucrezia, or "Noin" as everyone still continued to call her,  enter.  Milliardo was giving Heero a death glare.

Heero resumed his “perfect soldier” attitude and stepped away from Relena.   He walked over to one side of the room, folded his arms, and leaned against the wall.

Relena shot a glance at Milliardo.  “Party pooper.”

“It’s bad enough that I have a nephew that looks and acts exactly like him.”  A server offered he and Noin a glass of champagne.  Milliardo chose one of the glasses and Noin declined.

“It’s just as bad that I have a nephew that looks just like you and another on the way.”  Relena smiled sweetly at her brother before leaning on the wall next to Heero.

Quatre came in with a clean dry shirt on.

Everyone else came in.  Except for Trowa, Eric, and Izreina  They were supposed to be there, too.

The ladies huddled over on one side of the room, talking about different things.  The guys on the opposite side, doing whatever it was they used to do.  The majority of the action on the guy’s side was Duo annoying the hell out of everyone.

All action on both sides of the room stopped when Trowa entered with Kalinda.

Everyone stared at them for a few minutes before squeals of excitement came from Quatre’s four sisters.  Quatre finally smiled at Kalinda and walked towards them.

“I was wondering how long it would be before you finally came home.”  He wrapped his arms around Kalinda in a big brotherly hug.  The other four sisters fell into a hug around them.

The rest of the group just stared.

“Quatre has a twin?” Relena looked at Noin.

“Apparently so.”

“Brother, sisters, air please,” came Kalinda’s muffled voice under the pile.  They all backed away a little.  Kalinda smiled.  “It’s nice to see all of you.  And, I can’t wait to meet the other 25 sisters.  Seems I’ll have to visit each colony to get a chance to.”

Quatre smiled and turned to the room.  “Everyone, this is Kalli Nichole Winner, and my now, you’ve already guessed, she’s my twin sister.  Kalli, over there is Heero Yuy.”  Heero nodded a greeting.  “Chang Wufei.”  Wufei bowed slightly. “Duo Maxwell.”

“Mr. Maxwell and I have already met once, this evening.”

Quatre nodded.  “Milliardo Peacecraft.  And that’s Bob, Mike, Dave, and Tom Wilkinson.  Four brothers and married to those four.”  He nodded to their sisters.

Milliardo nodded a greeting, remembering Kalli from a very very long time ago.  Bob, Mike, Dave, and Tom each waved as Quatre named them.

Quatre turned to the other side.  “There’s Mrs. Lucrezia Noin-Peacecraft, married to Milliardo.” Noin smiled and waved, also remembering Kalli.  “Miss Sally Po.”  Sally nodded.  “Mrs. Hilde Maxwell, Duo’s wife.”  Hilde smiled.  “Lady Une.”  Une smiled and nodded, not letting it slip that she already knew Kalli.  “And Miss Relena Peacecraft.”  Relena smiled.

“Miss Relena would probably know me as Kalinda Guro.”

“You’re Ambassador Guro’s daughter?” asked Relena.

“Adoptive daughter.”

Relena smiled.  “He’s spoken very highly of you.”

Kalli smiled.  “I’m assuming you’ll be at the conference tomorrow?  Father’s trying to get me to go, but I’m not sure.”

“I was asked to go, but I don’t think I’ll go either.  You know, most of the people that go don't even care about what’s supposed to be discussed during those conferences.  They go just to get away from their own problems in their own governments.  Your father’s the only one I can half-way stand to be in the same room with.”

Kalli nodded.  “Father says the same thing.”  Kalli looked towards the door as Eric and Izreina entered.  She nodded a greeting to Izreina, smiling warmly.

Izreina nodded in return then glanced around the room, her eyes immediately falling upon Duo.  Eric nudged her.

“Go on,” he whispered.

Everyone looked at her, then to Duo.

Duo felt the color drain from his face for a minute.  Rainy.  He walked slowly towards her, stopping just inches away.  “Izreina.”

Izreina’s eyes looked to the floor for a moment before looking back up at Duo.  “Issac.”

Eric stepped away from the twins.  Quatre looked at him.  “You knew that they were brother and sister?  Why hadn’t you said anything?”

Eric looked at Quatre.  “Iz wasn’t ready to go to him yet.  She’s been afraid that she’s let him down in some way.”

Duo and Izreina continued to stare at each other for several quiet minutes.  Duo’s color returned to his face as a smile spread across his lips.  The same smile spread across Izreina’s lips.

“Izreina!”  Duo wrapped his arms around her neck, holding her tightly.

“Issac.  I am SO sorry that I haven’t looked for you like I promised.”  Izreina hugged him tightly also.

“Don’t worry about it.  What’s important is you’re here, now.”

Kalli smiled softly and glanced at Une who was also smiling.

They were about to get on with the party, and Duo was about to introduce his sister to the group, when they heard two young voices shouting.

“INJUSTICE!”

Two small identical boys resembling Wufei ran into the room and each took a hold of one of Sally’s legs.  The boys were soaking wet.  Sally glanced at Wufei.  “You had to teach them your sense of justice, didn’t you?”

“It’s not my fault, woman.  I can’t help it if they hang on every word coming out of my mouth.”  Wufei folded his arms, leaning against the wall not far from Heero and Relena.

A small girl and boy resembling Noin and Milliardo ran over to them.  The girl attached herself to Milliardo and the boy attached himself to Noin.  Both were also soaking wet and were whimpering.

Each of Quatre’s sisters’ children ran in, also soaking wet, and attaching themselves to their mothers.

“Mission Complete.”  Aaron walked into the room holding a water pistol.

A miniature Duo stepped up beside him, also holding a water pistol.  “Gotcha.”

Aaron tugged on the little Duo’s braid and shot him in the face with the water pistol.  “Shut up, Maxwell, Jr.”

Duo Jr. whimpered and ran over to Hilde, dropping his water pistol.

Izreina glanced at her brother.  “You’re a dad?”  Of course he’s a dad.  You’ve been keeping an eye on him since he joined the Preventers.  You know damn well he’s a dad.  And that his son is just like he was at that age.  She smiled to herself.  Yes, he is, isn’t he?

Duo smiled.  “Yeah, well it was just as much Hilde’s fault as it was mine.”  He led Izreina over to Hilde and Duo Jr.  “Hilde, this is my sister, Izreina.  ‘Rainy,’ this is my wife, Hilde.”

Hilde smiled, and so did Izreina.

“Duo, we’d better take Duo Jr. home and dry him up, plus, it’s past his bed time.”  She held Duo Jr. by the hand and led him out.

Duo nodded.  “ ‘Rainy’, would you come to the house tomorrow?  For lunch?  Hilde’s a great cook.  She makes macaroni just like Mom used to.”  He smiled.

Izreina smiled.  “Alright, Issac.  Or would you rather be called ‘Duo’?”

“For you, anything.”  He smiled and took off after Hilde and Duo Jr.  “Later, everyone.”

Aaron was still holding his water pistol and shot Duo Jr. one more time in the head before they left.

Relena sighed, laying a hand on her forehead.  She glanced at Heero who had a small smile on his face.  “You’re encouraging him.”

He smiled at Relena.  “Not my fault.”

Relena sighed again and walked over to Aaron, grabbed his hand, pulled the water pistol out of it, and dragged him out of the room.  Heero followed.

Everyone else dragged their soaking kids out of the room.  Une, Trowa, Quatre, Izreina, Eric and Kalli remained.

Quatre shook his head.  “Reminder, next time, forget the kids.”  He looked at Kalli.  “I guess that’s it for the party.  Sorry you didn’t get to see how interesting things get with those guys together.”

Kalli smiled.  “Oh, I’m sure I can guess pretty well.” Probably as interesting as things get when Iz, Trin, and I get together.

She glanced in Une’s direction, then Izreina’s.  Meet me in an hour at Father’s apartment.  Tempest has gone missing again.

Une and Izreina nodded and slipped out before Quatre and Trowa could notice.  Eric walked to the door.

“Since everyone else has already left, Quatre, I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.”

Quatre nodded.  “Good night, Eric.”

“Good night, Quatre.”  He left.

Kalli smiled to her brother.  “I wasn’t going to stay long anyway.  Father will be wondering where I disappeared to.”  She kissed Quatre on the cheek.  “I hope to get to know you and our sisters better, Quatre.”

“How about joining me for lunch tomorrow?”

Kalli smiled and nodded.  “Alright.  Good night, brother.”

“Good night, sister.”

She smiled at Trowa.  “Care to walk me out, circus-man?”

Trowa smiled down at her.  “I’ll walk you home, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.”

“Good night Quatre.”

Quatre smiled and nodded.  “Good night, Trowa.”