I do not own Gundam Wing, Escaflowne, Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart, or whatever else you think I might own. I don't make any profit from this, it's just for fun!

This story is dedicated to Dark Angel for getting me interested in writing again, and to my sister who really helped me with my writer's block when I needed her. Thanks!!

The Trouble With the Truth Part Two: Time Marches On.

By: Msmelanie

Chapter Seven: You Can Teach a Young Pilot New Tricks!

When everyone got home they were all worn out, except the kids. Especially Michael.

"Can we decorate the tree now mommy? Huh, can we? Can we now mommy? Please, can we?" Michael kept saying as he constantly jumped up and down.

"Michael, how much of that candy did you actually eat before I took it away?" Hilde asked.

Michael answered back with speed and intensity in his voice. "Oh, not much mommy. Not much at all mommy. Hardly any mommy. I love you mommy. Can we decorate the christmas tree now mommy?"

Hilde just glared at Duo again. Duo just did his best to ignore Hilde's glare. Suddenly, Hilde's glare slowly became an evil grin. "We'll decorate the tree later tonight. For now, let's just relax Michael."

Most of the kids went up to their rooms, while everyone else just sat down in the living room in front of the fire.

"Relena?" Heero asked Relena as he sat down on the big couch a cushion away from her. "Will you get your daughter off my hand now?"

Relena looked at Rei still holding on to Heero. "Sorry about that, Heero. Neo and Rei have always followed their own emotions no matter what."

Heero continued to look at Relena. "Please get her off."

Relena tried coaxing Rei off of Heero. It didn't work.

"Well, maybe we can help." Quatre recommended. "Your daughter can't be tougher than all of us gundam pilots."

Wufei, Duo, Trowa, and Quatre all grabbed Rei's hands to pry her off. Every time they started getting closer to pulling her off, she'd whine like she was in pain. That caused them to lose their stance, and for those brief moments, she'd hold on even tighter than before.

Relena looked at her daughter with worry on her face. She never acts like this. What is wrong?

Suddenly, her brother came downstairs and saw that the pilots were forcing his little sister to do something against her will. Neo ran up to the pilots before Relena could stop him. He rushed head long into the pilots and pushed them all back. They all fell to the ground.

"Neo, stop that!" Relena scolded.

"They were hurting Rei!" Neo yelled back.

Relena went up to Neo. "Honey, no they're not. Your sister won't let go of Heero, and the others were just trying to help."

 Neo looked back and glared at Heero. Does this guy have a deathwish, or what? Neo stood between Rei and Heero and yanked his sisters hand away from Heero. Then Neo grabbed his sisters hand and brought her upstairs despite her protests.

The gundam pilots were stunned. They had used all their might to pull Rei off and her brother simply yanked her hand away as if it wasn't a hassle at all.

Relena sat back down on the big couch. Rei never acts like that...why did she do that?

"Anything wrong, Relena?" Catherine asked.

"No, everything's fine." replied Relena. Or is it...

Time passed by while the kids played and everyone sat around. Everyone went through the motions of the day, eating, scolding, playing, discussions, etc. Soon, it was 7:00...

"Well, I suppose we better get that tree decorated before we leave, huh?" Catherine smiled as she saw the kids all staring at the tree.

"Okay, let me get the decorations." Relena responded.

The guys watched as Relena brought down a couple of boxes labeled 'Christmas.' The children and the women started to move towards the boxes and stick trinkets on the tree. The guys stood around.

"Go ahead and help, guys." Relena said as she pulled out some lights and started to untangle them.

"What should we do?" Quatre whispered to Trowa. "I've never decorated a tree before. The servants always did it."

Trowa just looked back at Quatre. "I don't know how either."

"Duo? You know how don't you?" Quatre asked.

Duo looked at Quatre. "Well, yeah but...I haven't done it since I was a kid at my old church."

Quatre looked at Heero and Wufei. "Either of you ever done it?" Quatre asked.

Heero and Wufei just looked at each other and both shook their heads no.

"It's easy, you guys." Hilde said as she handed Quatre a santa ornament and Duo a reindeer ornament.

Duo shrugged and went up to the tree. He found a strong branch and hung the ornament over it. Then he went back to the boxes to see what else he could hang.

Quatre looked at the Santa ornament. He went over to the tree and saw all the different branches he could hang it on.

"Hang it on a strong branch." Dorothy said as she went by Quatre to hang up a red sled.

Quatre did as she said and hung it up.

"Now go get another one." Dorothy ordered.

Quatre went over to the box Duo was at.

Well those instructions are simple enough. thought Wufei. He went over to the box, while Heero and Trowa followed.

Before anyone knew it, the tree was decorated.

"It's pretty, but it's missing something." Quatre said as he looked at the tree.

"Well, of course. The lights." Relena said as she finished untangling the lights.

The guys helped the girls try and put the lights on the tree. When they were done everyone stood back to admire the tree.

"Oooh, it's pretty!" Dominic remarked.

"Very pretty!" Mingh Loh said.

"Beautiful!" the twins said.

"Nice." Jimmy said.

"Yeah, I think it's one of our most prettiest Christmas trees. It's too bad we didn't do this sooner. We could have looked at the lights longer." Relena said as she grabbed her purse.

"What do you mean?" Quatre asked.

"Oh, I guess Wufei and Duo haven't told you yet." replied Hilde.

"Told us what?" Heero said as he glared at Wufei and Duo.

"We have to meet the manager tonight. You guys have to take care of the kids." Catherine replied.

"Well, that should be easy. We took care of them for about a week once, remember?" Quatre remarked.

Hilde shook her head. "You don't understand. It's getting closer to the time the kids need to go bed. You have to help them get undressed, take a bath, and get ready for bed."

The guys looked stunned.

"Onna! I can't wash Mingh Loh, she's female!" Wufei protested.

Mae Linh laughed. "Wufei, You're her father! You can help your own daughter take her bath."

Wufei just sneered at Mae Linh.

The girls started to move out the door.

"Quatre, make sure you wash behind Dominic's ears!" Dorothy shouted out.

"Oh? Duo!" Hilde yelled out before she closed the door. "Watch Michael closely."

The guys just looked at the kids. The kids just looked at the guys.

The guys moved upstairs to their bedrooms. They sat down on their beds.

"Did any of you notice anything in the mall?" Heero asked the other pilots.

"Just people moving back and forth." Quatre replied.

"I saw an old man take more than ten minutes to decide to get an orange." Wufei replied.

"That's it?" Heero asked again.

Everyone nodded their heads.

"This is way too weird for my blood." Duo replied. "I mean I like Michael but, being his actual dad's another story. I mean, he got me into trouble."

"I know." replied Quatre. "I feel like I'm extremely out of my territory."

Heero looked down at the ground. "At least your children aren't threatening you, or holding on to you with all their might."

"Can we really ever get used to this?" Duo asked. "Day in, day out. The same boring thing over and over?"

"We can't back out though."Quatre replied. "We promised we wouldn't, remember?"

"This isn't going well though." Trowa replied. "Jimmy doesn't speak to me, and Catherine refuses to talk with me."

"Trowa, your son never talks and you were the girls' brother." Duo replied.

"So empty..." Wufei simply said. "No missions, no fighting, no peace to continually work for or to protect."

The guys all looked at the ground. Unbeknownst to them...

"Our dads want to leave?" Dominic said as he sat on the couch.

"I knew I shouldn't have listened!" Michael shouted.

"Why not tell us to our faces though? They know we can even hear whispers." Dominic said sadly.

"They probably don't know how far away we really can hear." Mingh Loh replied.

"Good riddance." Neo remarked. "If they want to leave, let them. Life was just fine with our moms before they came along."

Rei just stood silent.

"Fine! If-if Duo doesn't want to stay then...then I won't make him." Michael sadly replied.

"Let's drive them away tonight." Neo said as he looked at the others. All the children sadly shook their heads yes, except Rei