Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Always There For You ❯ 8 ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: Simply put, I don't own Gundam Wing!
AN: Enjoy the chapter! And please review!

Always There For You Chapter 8:

Rain and Derek watched as the tall brunette boy shut the door, then walked over to stand next to the girl they didn't know. The girl spoke up.

"Ok, we don't have much time, so I'm gonna explain things quickly." The girl said. Rain and Derek simply nodded, urging her to continue.

"First of all, I'm Chang Mei Li and this is Jason Barton." The girl said, gesturing towards the boy and herself. Rain realized at that moment why the two had looked so familiar. Mei Li and Jason looked a lot like their parents. Derek and Rain knew that the former gundam pilots, Chang Wufei and Trowa Barton, had kids Rain's age, but they'd never actually met them. The girl continued speaking.

"Our parents have been working on the same case as your parents have." Mei Li said with a nod towards Derek. Derek nodded to show that he already knew that.

"Our parents sent us to help you guys out. Our job now is to go look for Relena. Aldrico will be back soon with our change of clothes and Shelly will most likely come by to make sure we're not stirring up any trouble. He seems like the kind of person who would be suspicious of anyone. Especially since he's forming a team for the soul purpose of disrupting the peace. " Mei Li said. Derek and Rain nodded in agreement.

"So what now?" Derek asked.

"Well, first we should all take our showers so that Shelly won't be suspicious if he checks on us." Mei Li said.

"Ok, then what?" Rain asked.

"Then we'll get changed when Aldrico brings us clothes. And after that, we'll go find Relena." Mei Li answered. Rain and Derek nodded.

"I hope you guys aren't too tired from all that fighting today because I have a feeling things are gonna get rough." Mei Li said forebodingly. Rain and Derek both shook their heads. They'd almost completely recovered from all the training already. Mei Li and Jason looked like they were almost back to their full energy levels too.

"Alright, we'll meet back up in this room in an hour." Mei Li said as she headed towards the door. She waited for Rain to follow. Rain walked over to the door with her. Mei Li opened the door and peered out. When she was sure the coast was clear, she slipped out the door and into the hallway. Rain glanced briefly at Jason and Derek. Rain realized then that Jason hadn't spoken the entire time. She didn't really think about it for long. She figured he was just the quiet type like his dad. Rain nodded a goodbye to Derek and Jason before she slipped out the door behind Mei Li. Rain shut the door behind herself. She followed as Mei Li led the way into their room. Mei Li closed the door behind them after she had checked the hallway again.

~~~

About half an hour later, Rain and Mei Li had both taken their showers and were sitting on their beds, waiting for Aldrico to arrive with their change of clothes. They were clad in white terry bathrobes and were towel-drying their hair with light blue towels. Rain finished drying her hair as best she could and set the damp towel down beside her. She turned towards Mei Li while she waited for her to finish drying her hair.

When Mei Li finished drying her hair about a minute later, she set her towel aside and thought for a moment. Shelly had checked on the pair right after they'd both finished their showers. Rain and Mei Li were both happy that he hadn't stayed long.

Mei Li hadn't had any major encounter with Shelly like Rain had, but she still got a bad feeling whenever he was around. Her father would probably think of her as weak for letting one person creep her out so much, but Mei Li didn't care. She knew her mother would agree with her if she were there, and her father would probably agree if he'd actually been around Shelly. Mei Li knew her father always said women were weak, but he'd never called her or her mother weak. When he said things about women being weak around her mother, it seemed more like an ongoing joke between them. Mei Li knew that her father wasn't really sexist towards her mother. And she knew that her father was proud of her, despite the fact that she was a female.

When Mei Li was a baby, Wufei had made a secret vow that his daughter would be strong, like her parents. So far, Wufei had kept to his vow. Mei Li nearly matched her father in strength, skill, and knowledge. She was a perfect gundam child just like Rain, Derek, and Jason. Any of them could easily follow in their parents' footsteps, but none of the ex-pilots ever planned for them to do so. They simply wanted their kids to live normal lives, but be prepared should something ever happen. The ex-pilots knew all too well how things could spring up out of the blue.

Mei Li glanced towards Rain. Mei Li felt a bit awkward with the silence between them. She and Rain hadn't really talked since they'd left the boys' room. Mei Li decided to try and start a conversation while they waited for Aldrico.

"So..." Mei Li began. Rain looked up at her.

"So...?" Rain said, quirking an eyebrow at Mei Li. Mei Li thought quickly for some random thing to talk about after she'd gotten Rain's attention.

"Are you and Derek a couple?" Mei Li asked. Rain laughed.

"No, we're just really close friends, been that way since we were little..." Rain said, smiling a bit as she remembered some of the good old times. Rain still saw Derek as always being a close friend of hers, even though she hadn't really known it was he and not some completely different guy named Max. The point was, Rain and Derek were buds, even when they didn't know that they'd already been friends back before Derek had moved away.

"Oh. Ok, just thought I'd ask...I couldn't think of anything to talk about." Mei Li said with a shrug. Rain nodded.

"Well, what about you and Jason? Are you two dating?" Rain asked. A half amused smirk crossed onto Mei Li's face. She looked even more like her father when she did that.

"No. We're just friends. We've known each other for years. Our parents have been working together throughout most of our lives and lived right by each other for the most part too...so...I guess it just made sense that we'd end up being friends." Mei Li said, still smirking slightly. Rain nodded, an empathetic look on her face.

"Yeah, it's the same with me and Derek. Our parents were best friends and worked together. So we always hung out together when we were little. And, after Derek moved back...we went to the same school." Rain said. Mei Li got a thoughtful look on her face.

"You mean when he and his parents moved back to Earth?" Mei Li asked. Rain nodded.

"I thought they weren't supposed to tell anyone they were back on earth, not even your dad...?" Mei Li said.

"Yeah, they didn't. It's really weird actually. Derek and I were friends before he moved to L2 back when we were little. And when he and his family came back, everyone called him Max, so I didn't really recognize him. I went by my middle name too, so he didn't recognize me either. And then, a few years later, we had mutual friends, and became close friends, even though we didn't recognize each other." Rain stopped, unsure if she was making any sense. Mei Li nodded like she understood.

"So you two both went by different names, didn't recognize each other as your childhood friends, but still ended up meeting later and becoming friends all over again?" Mei Li asked. She sounded intrigued. Rain nodded.

"So when did you guys finally recognize each other?" Mei Li asked.

"When we saw each other's parents, right before Derek moved back to L2." Rain answered.

"Ohhhh. You mean when the Preventors found that new evidence about your mom right?" Mei Li asked.

"Yep." Rain said simply.

"Wow, that is weird...Cool, but weird..." Mei Li said. Rain nodded.

"So what about you and Jason's parents? Are they close friends too? I haven't really seen your dads together in a while, so I don't really know how they get along." Rain said. Mei Li smirked slightly.

"Well, I guess they could classify as friends. Maybe this is bad for me to say, but my dad's not exactly the friendly type. And Jason's dad's usually pretty quiet. So, they're pretty close, but neither of them really show it." Mei Li said. Rain nodded, accepting the answer.

"So how come Derek and I never met you or Jason?" Rain asked. Mei Li shrugged.

"Well, Jason and I were both home schooled. I lived in L.A with my parents and Jason traveled around Earth and the colonies with his parents in the circus. My parents worked at the Preventors, and Jason's dad just helped the Preventors out every now and then when he wasn't busy with the circus. And with our parents being so busy with the case and all, I guess they never got around to introducing us." Mei Li said with another shrug. Rain nodded.

Neither Rain, nor Mei Li said anything for a while. They both wished that they had met under different circumstances, but neither of them voiced that opinion. They didn't know if they would see each other in the future either, but they both hoped so.

There was a knock on the door. Mei Li got up to answer it. Rain remained seated on the edge of her bed and watched. Mei Li opened the door. Rain could see Aldrico standing outside the door, in the hallway holding two black shoeboxes with a small stack of clothing folded on top.

"Here're you outfits." Aldrico said, handing the clothes and shoeboxes to Mei Li. She took them and Aldrico gave her a quick nod before turning and walking down the hallway. Mei Li shut the door and walked back over to Rain. She set the shoeboxes and clothes down on Rain's bed. Mei Li separated the clothing into two stacks. Rain pulled one stack towards herself and Mei Li took the other one. They both had received entirely black outfits. Their outfits consisted of a pair of black athletic pants, a black tank top, and a pair of black socks; even the sports bras and underwear they received were black. Rain and Mei Li quickly changed into their new outfits.

When they were finished dressing, Rain opened the shoeboxes and took out two pairs of black combat boots. She checked the sizes and handed one pair to Mei Li, keeping the other pair for herself. They both sat down on the edge of the bed to lace their boots up. While Rain was lacing up her left boot, she wondered how everything had been the right size. She shrugged it off, feeling no need to wonder about something so trivial at that moment. Rain slid the bottom of her pants leg over the top of her boot and stood up. Mei Li stood up as well. Rain picked up Mei Li's and her ponytail holders off of the bedside table. She handed Mei Li's to her. Rain and Mei Li both wordlessly pulled their hair back into high ponytails.

Rain looked herself over, then looked at Mei Li. Mei Li looked up after doing a quick check on herself as well. They both gave a slight nod showing that they looked alright. Mei Li glanced at her watch.

"Ok, time to go meet the boys. You ready?" Mei Li asked.

"Let's go." Rain said with a quick nod. They both walked over to the door.

Mei Li opened the door and checked the hallway. She stepped out into the hallway and nodded to show that the coast was clear. Rain shut the door behind herself before joining Mei Li in front of the boys' door. Mei Li knocked twice. The door opened after a fraction of a second and the girls slipped inside.

Jason, who had opened the door, quickly shut it behind Rain and Mei Li. He walked over to where they were standing by his and Derek's beds. Mei Li and Rain took a second to look Jason and Derek over. They were wearing outfits similar to the ones she and Mei Li were wearing. The only difference was that the boys had black formfitting t-shirts instead of the black tank tops the girls were wearing. They girls noticed that Jason and Derek were looking them over as well. They all shared looks showing that they all looked ok.

"You guys ready?" Mei Li asked.

"Uhmhm." Derek and Jason both said with a nod.

"What about you guys?" Derek asked. Rain and Mei Li both nodded affirmatively. Derek looked closely at Rain, asking her again with his eyes. She nodded once, a determined look coming onto her face.

"Ok, good." Derek said. Rain looked around at the other's faces. She wondered for a split second if Jason and Derek had talked to each other like she and Mei Li had. Rain decided to ask Derek later when there weren't more important things to consider.

There was a knock at the door, which interrupted Rain from her thoughts. Jason went to answer it. Rain had a tiny nervous shiver go through her when she saw Aldrico standing outside the door. She looked questioningly from Mei Li to Jason when Jason stepped aside and Aldrico walked in. Neither of them noticed her looks. She gave Derek the same look when he glanced at her. He appeared equally confused. Jason shut the door. He and Aldrico walked over to the others.

"Did you bring everything?" Mei Li asked as Aldrico set a medium sized, black duffle bag down on the floor. He crouched down and unzipped it before sliding it over to her.

"Yeah." Aldrico replied.

"Good." Mei Li said as she crouched down beside the duffle bag and reached inside. She pulled out an automatic handgun and clicked off the safety.

"Very good."

-End Of Chapter 8-

Gomen nasai for this chapter being so short! And I'm sorry this is so late. I haven't had Internet access for a while so I've been unable to get online and upload chapters.
Well, what did you guys think? Do you love it, hate it, adore it, despise it? Please let me know! I need feedback before I put the next chapter up! So please please please review! Domo arigato minna! Ja ne!
-AlyRain