Fifty-Two

Family

      “No,” I repeated again, sighing, “He didn’t say anything but our names.”
      “And you’re sure?”
      Quatre could get repetitive, “Yes. Ask Nikki...”
      They all turned and looked at her, she nodded, “He only said our names...”
      “What do you think they wanted?”
      She shrugged, “I don’t know...”
      Heero was also annoyed, staring at the floor, thinking, “We totalled the base!” he burst out finally, “What could they be thinking...there’s nowhere else they could be...”
      We were all quiet as we looked at him and he started pacing again.
      “It was Wester, Ai, she wouldn’t keep all her suits at one base.” Nikki sighed.
      He stopped and watched her a moment, thinking, “You were in their computers, did you see...”
      At her frown he trailed off and started pacing again.
      She was also quiet a time, thinking, “She must’ve known I’d get into the computers...” she looked up to him, “That’s it.” her voice wasn’t triumphant, “She knew I would be helping you so she didn’t put it in the computers...”
      “How did she know you’d be helping?” Wufei asked.
      She looked at him a moment, “She knew me. We were together from the start of the war. She knew how my mind worked. It’s not hard to see that I’d help...”
      He nodded.
      I was amused, a kind of...uneasy...friendship had formed between them. I wasn’t sure why that was amusing though...or when it had happened.
      “So...she knew you’d help...but how did she know you were with us?” I asked, looking up to her.
      “Well, Heero said they’d probably been following you guys since the war was over...you guy’s lived with us...and there’s no way she wouldn’t know me...” she started thinking, a frown on her face.
      Heero walked over to where she lounged in the chair, her legs over the side, and sat down in front of her on the edge, “So you think she was following you too?” he ran a hand through her hair.
      She shrugged, “It’s possible. But I doubt it, she was intending a clean break...”
      “Clean?” he snorted, “Making her best friend think she’d been killed...that’s clean?”
      Nikki smiled at him slightly, “You know what I mean.”
      He nodded.
      “So what do we do now?” I asked.
      He looked at me, then at his watch, “It’s seven-thirty...” he grinned at me, “We get drunk...”
      “We eat first, then drink.” Kitty cut in.
      Quatre and Trowa looked at her, as if thinking her too young.
      I smiled, “Don’t try it. She knows not to drink too much. You try and tell her no, and it’ll be worse’n last time...” that was for Trowa’s benefit.
      Quatre frowned, “Guys, she’s seventeen, still a minor...”
      Nikki leveled him with a cool look, “You didn’t seem adverse to her drinking at your grand dinners...” the last was only a tad sarcastic.
      “That’s exactly it, grand dinners. Social...”
      “That’s not going to work.” she informed him.
      He smiled at her, “What? You gonna try and convince me otherwise?” he grinned, “That might be fun...” he glanced at Heero and shook his head, becoming serious again, “No, if her parents...”
      Nikki’s eyes went wide, “Shit!” she looked to Kris and Sam.
      They grinned at her.
      I exchanged an amused glance with Heero.
      “Oops...” he muttered, also grinning.
      “What...” Quatre started as she dashed to the phone.
      Nikki looked at him, “We’ve been here about two and a half months now...And I haven’t even called my parents...they have no idea where I am...”
      Quatre snorted, “I doubt that.” she gave him a questioning look, “With all the press that’s been here and seen you, you think they never found out your names?” he grinned, “They get pictures of you at the table with me every time...”
      Nikki thought about that, “Well,” she shrugged, “I still need to let’em know...”
      “So, Duo,” Heero started, pulling Trowa and Quatre’s attention from her as Wufei grinned at Sally, “What do you want to drink tonight?”
      I smiled at him, “Let’s just wait and see...”
      “You guy’s are gonna drink?” Sally sounded disapproving.
      Heero smiled at her.
      “I don’t think you should...”
      He waited a second, still grinning, “Okay, I think that covers your obligation, what are you gonna have?”
      “I’m invited?” Sally acted surprised.
      Heero laughed, “Hmm...let me see...Me and Nikki...Duo and Kris...Trowa and Kitty...Quatre and Sam....” he acted surprised, “Wufei and...who?”
      She laughed, “So it’s a couples thing only...is Zechs invited?”
      Quatre shrugged, “We may as well make it something for my guests...it wouldn’t do to have you come and them not. So just bring’em to my bar tonight after we eat.”
      She nodded.
      “Hello, Mom...” Nikki started, and we could hear a sudden deluge of angered words, Nikki squirmed until it was over, “But, Mom, Quatre’s...”
      “How informal! I didn’t raise a daughter to be rude!” we heard that quite clearly.
      Quatre grinned and joined Nikki, “Mrs. Kaze?” he asked.
      There was a hush from the other end, then, “Mr. Winner...please forgive my daughter...”
      Quatre laughed, “Forgive her what?”
      “Well, she’s...”
      “Staying in a guest suite here...”
      They continued to talk.
      “Who is it, Mom?” a male voice asked from somewhere after a while.
      I grinned at Nikki, “Loop it.” I pointed to the screen, exchanging a mischievous grin with Heero. Nothin’ better than to fuck with Brendon...
      She looked at me, shocked, shaking her head.
      Quatre, evidently, didn’t remember how her brother felt about us, he gave her an arch look and hit the button.
      “It’s Nikki...” Nikki’s mom replied, appearing on the screen.
      “It is? Let me talk to her...”
      The woman moved aside. Brendon appeared. He looked over the room, and saw me, then Heero, “What are they doing there...Nikki...”
      Quatre suddenly remembered and closed his eyes, taking a breath.
      Nikki sighed heavily, “Hi, Brendon, how are you?”
      He looked at her, “Nikki, what did I tell you?”
      She rolled her eyes, “Don’t even start that! You know it will work as good this time as it did last time...” She rolled her eyes and took a breath, “Brendon, I’d like you to meet Quatre Winner, Quatre, this is my dear brother Brendon...”
      Quatre smiled emptily, “We’ve met.” Brendon was aggravated.
      At one point, when all five of us had been at Heero’s and none of the girls were there, Brendon had come over and confronted us. He had said to leave them alone, that we were a danger to them. He had ended up fighting Heero...that had been fun.
      “And Chang Wufei...” She continued, pointing out Wufei.
      He nodded and Brendon’s look became more surly.
      “And Trowa Barton.” she smiled, gesturing to Trowa. “And I’m sure you remember Sam, Kris, and Kitty...Kat, I mean.” they all nodded too. She smiled at me, “And I know you didn’t forget Duo...”
      He glared at me.
      Heero got up and walked to her, looking a little too smug. He leaned down and kissed her...a kiss that would be better left in a bedroom...and the fact that Nikki returned it didn’t help either...When she pulled back slightly and muttered something that sounded like ‘later’, Brendon’s mouth looked as if it would fall open, he looked very very pissed.
      “Heero, I’m gonna kick your ass if I find out...”
      Heero turned to the screen, “What? That we’re together?” he grinned larger, “That we had sex?”
      Brendon was glaring.
      “Heero...” Nikki hissed at him.
      He looked at her, “What? He’d find out sooner or later...”
      “I am going to kill you.” Brendon said clearly and concisely.
      Heero smiled at him, “I’d like to see you try...”
      Wufei stood, “Nice seeing you again, Brendon.”
      Brendon focused on him, “What?”
      “Nice seeing you again. I’m sure Heero won’t mind if you come visit.”
      That was a threat if I’d ever heard one.
      “I think I just might...” Brendon muttered, glaring at him.
      “Brendon,” Nikki cut in, “You don’t need any more enemies...and your being rude to Quatre...” she pointed at him.
      “And you should be thanking them, Brendon...” Sam interrupted, grinning as he scowled, “They did rescue us from the Lunar Base...”
      “Rubbish. The Lunar Base was destroyed completely by you guys to save...some...hostages...”
      Heero smirked, “Did it ever occur to you to ask who? Why? We don’t do unprovoked attacks...Do you have any idea what-so-ever what’s happening?”
      They glared at each other.
      Suddenly the screen split in half and the smiling face of Nikki’s sister appeared, “How did you fall in that good of company?” she demanded playfully.
      Nikki was delighted, “Mary! Hi, how are you? Is everybody there?”
      Mary nodded, “Yeah, and Dad was getting pissed ‘cause you hadn’t called...”
      Nikki smiled, “Is he home?”
      The screen split again, “Yes, I’m home...”
      He was glaring at Heero.
      “Mr. Kaze...” Heero muttered, shocked, shifting slightly from Nikki, dropping his arm...which had been around her waist.
      I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was regretting what he’d said...and done...for Brendon’s sake...Mr. Kaze didn’t have a problem with us, but maybe with that nice little display Heero had given them, he might...
      “Hello, Heero...” Mr. Kaze muttered, looking him over searchingly, “We’re going to talk...Later.”
      Heero met Nikki’s eyes, and I could tell he wanted her to get him out of it.
      “Hi, Daddy...” Nikki said.
      “Hi, Baby, Do you mind...” The screen split again, again, and again.
      “How many phones do you have...” Wufei muttered quietly.
      Nikki smiled, “Enough for all of us to have one...”
      Now, Nikki’s entire family was staring down at us.
      “...telling me what the hell is going on?” Mr. Kaze finished, ignoring the fact that she wasn’t completely listening.
      Nikki smiled sheepishly at him, “It’s a long story...”
      “Sum it up.” he said.
      “You’re not mad at me, are you?” she asked, looking innocent and using the meek tone. Heero looked away slightly as I averted my eyes. That tone had to be evil...
      I hid my smile as her father also looked away slightly, then rolled his eyes, “I’m mad at the situation that made you not call us for three months...”
      “You haven’t been here that long, have you...” Sally was unsure.
      Nikki thought about it, “Close enough...I hadn’t called for a while before we left...”
      Her father wasn’t listening. He was going on about how he didn’t like to be informed from the media that one of his babies had suddenly turned up on a colony he wasn’t aware she even knew people on, without a word from her. The fact that she was dining with business men, Gundam pilots, and other influential people...in clothes she could never afford...and on and on and on...then he noticed Quatre’s slight frown.
      He shut up quickly.
      “Don’t worry, Mr. Kaze...” I spoke up, “We’ve been takin’ good care of your...Baby...And as for the clothes, Quatre doesn’t mind, do you, Quatre...” I ignored the look she gave me when I called her ‘Baby’. I generally didn’t use the term the same way her father did and didn’t mean it the same way he had this time...it was just to annoy her...tease her. Not annoy, tease...tease...I smiled.
      Quatre smiled back, “No, I don’t, as a matter of fact, I’m more than happy...”
      “We’ll pay you back...” Mr. Kaze cut in.
      Quatre smiled, “No, Nikki’s done more than enough already. Don’t worry about it, please, Mr. Kaze. I consider her being here a blessing...” he grinned at her, thinking fast, “Especially since she’s taking that job...” He was watching her, a smirk on his face.
      She took a breath as if to speak, a look of ‘No you did not!’ on her face.
      “A job?” he looked at her incredulously, “From Mr. Winner...himself...”
      Nikki gave Quatre an ‘I’ll get you’ sort of look and nodded to her father, smiling, “Isn’t that great?”
      “That’s wonderful!” Mary cried, clapping her hands in a Nikki-fashion over enthusiastic...she was better at it somehow...
      Nikki rolled her eyes.
      “What position?” Adam asked.
      “Personal assistant.” Quatre replied.
      “Nikki...” Adam’s voice held a knowing ring, “You didn’t...do anything to get that position did you?”
      She repeated the look, her bearing aghast, “Hush, You...”
      He grinned.
      “Adam...” Mary reprimanded.
      Quatre started laughing, looking away.
      “What?” Adam defended himself, “I know how she is...” he looked back at us, “And look at Mr. Winner, there? You don’t get that red from innocent...interactions...”
      Quatre looked at him, his color returning, “Excuse me? She got the job on her own merit.”
      “From what?” he returned flicking his eyebrows, “She’s got a lot of merit from a lot of things...”
      “Adam...” Mary hissed as Brendon and her parents changed focus.
      Adam started laughing.
      “As a communications expert.” Quatre replied levelly, glancing at Nikki.
      “Well...” she hid her annoyance, “I gotta go...”
      “I would like to speak to you and Heero, Sister-dear...” Adam, broke in before she could say anything else, “Alone,” he looked quickly to Quatre, “No offense...” he refocused on her, “Soon. All right?”
      Nikki sighed and Heero smiled, “Why? You think...”
      “Heero!” Nikki hissed and he hugged her as her family started muttering their good bye’s and hanging up, when she didn’t pull away from him, he buried his face in her neck and just stood there holding her. “All right, Adam, I’ll call you later.”
      “You better...” now he was the only one on the screen, and he focused on Sam, “What did I tell ya...”
      She laughed, “If you remember, I agreed and laughed ‘cause it had taken you so long to figure out...”
      “I love you, Brother.” Nikki muttered to him, then gave Sam a level look.
      “Love you too,” he grinned, “Be good...”
      Nikki looked as if she’d say something to that, but the screen went blank. There was silence a while, “God, I hate it when Brendon does that...”
      Heero chuckled.
      No one else seemed to notice the flash in her eyes when he’d told her ‘Be good...’ It wasn’t a happy flash.
      She smacked Heero on the shoulder, “I’m gonna be hearing about that...”
      He pulled back, “What, you embarrassed of me?”
      She frowned at him, “Don’t be stupid...you know how my brother is...”
      Heero’s face went dark for a moment and I could tell his eyes had flicked toward me, “Yeah, he seems to be the cause of all sorts of problems...”
      “You’re brother thinks you’d do things to get a job?” Quatre asked with a grin, then got a look like something had just occurred to him, “So is that what all your games were?” he flicked his eyebrows like Adam had.
      “Tcch, shut-up.” she shook her head, “He was just doing that to embarrass me in front of you guys...”
      Quatre laughed delightedly.
      She ran her tongue across her lips, “But I could reward you somehow...”
      He looked to Heero, both eyebrows raised.
      Heero averted his eyes, leaving Quatre free to say what he would.
      Quatre looked languidly back to Nikki, “Have any ideas?”
      Nikki nodded, getting her extremely flirtatious look, “A few...” she gestured to the door with her head, “C’mere.” she started for it, patting her back pocket.
      Heero tossed her his wallet, grinning.
      Quatre stopped as the wallet skimmed by his face, looking at him, “Okay. You win, Nikki.” he held his hands up in surrender, “I give.”
      Nikki laughed at him.
      He looked to me, “Just think, all this just because I gave Nikki a job...”
      Interesting phrasing...
      I frowned slightly, pretending to think about that and not die laughing at the same time, “Isn’t it Nikki who gives the jobs?”
      Her mouth dropped open and she jumped at me. We landed with a thud and she started tickling me...I couldn’t stop laughing at first as everyone watched us, but finally got it together. “Nu-huh, Sweetheart, that’s not how it works!” I flipped her over and started tickling her.
      Finally she squirmed away, rolling out of reach.
      “You’re an ass.” she told me, wiping tears from her eyes. She focused on Quatre, who was grinning, “You do realize that it’ll be all over L-1 by dawn, don’t you?”
      He smiled, “What? The job or the means by which you got it?”
      She made a face at him, “Oh, hush.”
      He chuckled, “So you’re mom’s in the gossip ring?”
      Nikki shook her head, “No, Mary is. She’s gonna tell everyone...” she sighed, resigned to this now.
      “What, you embarrassed of me?” Quatre asked with a facetious grin.
      We laughed and she made a ‘tcch’ sound, giving him a look.
      I laughed at her, “Well, Nikki, at least now you’ll only have to call the school...” I stood up and held a hand out to help her up.
      She watched me warily as she accepted my hand.
      It was hard not to give any sign as I pulled her to her feet...and started tickling her again.
      She squealed, trying to pull away.
      Normally I gave her a fair chance, but this was just too promising. I didn’t let her go.
      We ended up on the couch and I collapsed against her.
      She caught her breath finally, shaking her head at me. “Feel better?”
      I nodded, “Much.” I flipped onto my back to look up into her face.
      As I moved, I caught a glance of Heero’s face. He looked like he was trying his damnedest to be pissed.
      I sat up quickly as Nikki moved to him, kissing him.
      Wufei had fallen silent, thinking, now he gave her a curious look, “How did he know we were Gundam pilots?” he asked, meaning Nikki’s father.
      “Because,” Heero said calmly, “I told him.”
      “And so did I. That was an interesting time...” I exchanged a grin with Heero.
      “It wasn’t too long after that that Brendon decided he didn’t like us,” he nodded at me, “Then he tried to kick my ass because of it...” he smiled at Nikki, who was giving him an utterly shocked look, and nodded, “Yeah. He did. I knew you’d be mad at me if I put him in the hospital, so I just defended myself and finally succeeded in making my point.” he grinned, “He told me that if you and I ever got together...”
      “She gets it, Heero...” I broke in, knowing he would probably ‘accidentally’ let it slip that I’d nearly put him in the hospital. I had considered her feelings on it, but hadn’t been as nice as Heero had, I kicked the little fucker’s ass...I hadn’t put him in the hospital...quite...maybe stitches...at the most...I hoped...I hadn’t ever asked...
      She looked at me, then at Heero, then back to me, “Duo...”
      “He started it...” I protested, knowing how childish it sounded and hoping that would pacify her.
      Fortunately, I was right.
      I smiled at her as she rolled her eyes.
      Heero grinned at me for the briefest of moments and took a breath.
      “I’m gonna go get dinner...” I started.
      “Wait, Duo...” Kris called as I neared the door and I waited, hoping Heero would stay quiet, he just grinned evilly at me. Kris and I started out he door together.
      “Why don’t you just call down?” she asked after a moment.
      I grinned, “I wasn’t as considerate of her brother as Heero was, she doesn’t realize that though, and I really don’t want any more people mad at me for a while...” I put an arm over her shoulder.
      She laughed at me, “Yes she does...know it, that is. She thought it was funny... and that Heero not mentioning it was cute...she was annoyed though, because he kept trying to use it as a point for her to stay away from you two.”
      I smiled down at her and shook my head...sometimes they knew too much.

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Kyeian