Tanoshii Shi o Motarasu

-----part 1-----

The city streets were crowded as Heero Yuy made his way through the shopping district. The war was still on, even now, ten years after the death of his partner, Duo Maxwell. His mutilated body, along with that of billionaire pilot Quatre Raberba Winner, had been found in the basement of an abandoned warehouse almost a year after they'd gone missing, their bodies too badly mutilated for an open casket funeral. Instead, Heero had had them cremated and their ashes mingled. The other pilots had all agreed that when their time came, their ashes would be mingled with Duo's and Quatre's; together in death even as they had been in life. 

The sound of laughter could be heard, distant but rapidly drawing closer. Then Heero saw them, two children, about ten years of age, running down the street. 

"This way!" the chestnut-haired boy laughed. "It's down this street!" he collided with Heero a second later.

Heero looked down at the boy. He was much younger, but otherwise a perfect copy of...

"Duo?!"

The boy shook his head. "That's my mommy's name. My name is Shiichi."


Heero stared, stunned, at the child. "Um... " he looked over at the blond child. "Who's your friend?"

Shiichi looked over at the blond child, who was as close a replica of Quatre as he was of Duo. "That's Kiniro. Hey, Kinny!" he called.

Kiniro joined his friend. "Yeah, Shiichi?"

"This guy knew Mommy Duo." Shiichi grinned.

"Wow!" Kiniro looked up at Heero. "Did you know Mommy Quatre, too?" 

A moment later, Shiichi was poking at Heero, who was lying on the ground.

"I wonder why he fainted." the child blinked. "Let's get him home."

The two little boys grabbed the straps of Heero's tanktop and dragged him on down the road.

*****

"Where is he?" Wufei paced. "Damn him, there is no justice in make me wait this way."

'Calm down, Wufei." Trowa soothed, "I'm sure Heero's fine."

"Like Duo and Quatre are fine?" Wufei blurted out before he could stop himself. "Oh my god.. Trowa, I'm sorry."

Trowa shook his head, tears in his eyes. Even now he still missed the blond billionaire. Quatre had willed his estate to the rest of the pilots in case he died, so they could all stay together, even after the war, and Trowa cherished every last memento. But he would've given them all up if he could've had Quatre back in his arms.

"I'll be okay." he wiped a tear from his face. "I have to finish cooking." he returned to the kitchen.

//Real smart, Wufei.// The Chinese pilot chastised himself. //And what do you care if Heero's late. He's not going to fall in love with you. He's still pining over Duo, just like Trowa's still not gotten over Quatre."

****

Heero woke as he was being dragged along by the same pair of kids whose uncanny resemblances to Duo and Quatre had caused him to faint a short time earlier. 

"So, where are we going?" he asked the boy who looked like Duo.

The kids stopped. 

"Well, since you're awake, mister, you can walk yourself." the chestnut-haired boy pouted. "You weigh a ton!"

Heero glared at him. 

"Well, you do." Kiniro agreed.

"Well, I suppose I do seem to weigh a lot to two kids who are dragging me." Heero agreed. "But I'm not overweight."

"Thank Shinigami." Shiichi sighed, as he looked over the railing at the ocean.

"What?" Heero whispered. "What did you just say?"

"I found out that my mommy's god was Shinigami, so he's mine, too." Shiichi told Heero. "That's okay, isn't it?"

Heero nodded, tears falling down his cheeks. "That's fine."

"How come you're crying, mister?"

"My name's not mister. It's Heero. Heero Yuy."

"The Gundam Pilot?" Kiniro asked. 

"That's too cool!" Shiichi laughed. "Mommy said you were grumpy, but you don't seem that bad."

"Said?" Heero asked.

"Uh huh. In mommy's book it says you're grumpy." Shiichi took out a small book and handed it to Heero. "Kiniro and I found it before we ran away from the bad people. That's how we know those people were bad."

Heero read a few pages, then stopped. He stuffed the diary into his pocket. "You're both coming with me." he told them. "I'm taking you back to the safehouse. Whoever had you won't get to you there."

"We get to go with you?" Shiichi's eyes lit up. "With Heero Yuy?"

Heero nodded. 

Both little boys cheered and danced in a circle. "We're gonna live with Heero! We're gonna live with Heero!", they chanted happily.

*****

"I'm home!" 

Wufei turned to reprimand Heero and put on a justice rant when he saw the Perfect Soldier's two companions. "What the...?!"

"Run along for a bit and explore the house." Heero told the two kids. "I have to talk with your Uncle Wufei for a bit."

The kids nodded and ran off to explore the rest of the Winner Estate.

"Heero... they looked like..."

"They're clones." Heero explained, handing Wufei Duo's diary. "Duo kept a diary during his and Quatre's captivity."

"It says here that they were altered so their bodies could carry the clones inside them and later deliver... " he looked up in horrified understanding and his eyes met Heero's.

Heero, who had come to the same conclusion, nodded, solemnly. "Duo and Quatre died in childbirth." he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.

*****

Kiniro watched Rashid sleep in his chair for a while, then got bored. He went over to the man and tugged his eyelid. "Mister?" he asked.

Rashid opened his eyes and toppled over in astonishment. "Master Quatre?!" He quickly remembered Quatre's funeral, and noticed how much younger than Quatre the child was. "Oh... You look like Quatre. What's your name?"

"Kiniro." the blond child replied. "Quatre was my mommy?"

"Your... mommy?"

"Uh huh." 

"Don't you mean your daddy?" Rashid asked.

"Nope. My mommy."

Rashid didn't bother asking for details, the kid was too young. Instead, he hugged the child. "You look just like your mommy." he said, tears falling from his eyes. "We all loved your mommy very much. He was very kind and gentle."

"I wish I'd known him." Kiniro told Rashid. "Will you tell me about him?"

"Of course." Rashid patted his own knee. "Come, sit on my lap and I'll you all about Quatre."

Kiniro scrambled up onto Rashid's knee and the dark-haired man began his tale.

-----part 2-----

Rashid told little Kiniro all he knew about Quatre, and that was a lot. He told him about his birth, his upbringing, and his life as a Gundam Pilot. The tale lasted well into the evening with them pausing only long enough for Rashid to get them both a couple of sandwiches. While he was up, Rashid noticed Shiichi in Heero's room, bugging the Perfect Soldier as the man tried to work at his computer.

"Come on, then." he offered his hand. "I'll tell you a story."

The chestnut-haired child grinned and followed Rashid and Kiniro back to the living room.

Heero didn't know whether to be relieved or not, on the one hand, he was busy and the child was distracting. It was just that he reminded Heero so much of Duo.

Trowa passed them in the hallway and almost went into shock. "Quatre?!"

"No, Mr. Barton," Rashid apologized, "this is Master Kiniro. He's Quatre's ... um... his son."

Trowa wandered off to digest this information and find something to wash it down with, preferably pocky.

*****

After a couple more hours, Rashid looked down to see both children sound asleep on his lap. He carried Quatre's and Duo's clones to the bedroom where Quatre had once slept and tucked them into the bed. "Good night." he told them. "Pleasant dreams."

*****

"Anything?" Trowa asked. 

"Nothing. We have no idea who these people were or anything."

"We'll have to ask the kids." Wufei decided. "If we have to, we'll ask them to point out where..."

"No." Trowa interrupted. "When I was traumatized as a kid the last place I wanted to go was back to where it happened. We can't subject them to the same thing."

-----TBC-----