Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Devil's Due ❯ - 25 - ( Chapter 25 )

— 25 —

December 24, A.C. 204. L-4. 12pm

"Nice of you to decide to join us for lunch," Ainslie muttered darkly to Quatre as he moved into the room.

"Nice of you to tell me we were having it," Quatre shot back irritably.

It was almost nice to be in the familiar surroundings again, the feel of the colony was different from the feel of the earth. Anyway, Quatre had gone out to try to find one of his sisters, Caitlyn, to help him pick up the last minute crap, and had ended up running around with Enica and Keya. Enica and Keya, though not twins, were both twenty-six. Enica had a little four-year-old named Ava, who had commandeered her uncle like a lovely little slave driver and he'd spent a pleasant afternoon finding Christmas lights for her enjoyment.

"Considering that there are so many of us and you are the patriarch," Ainslie noted pointedly, "I figured you'd make time to see us all."

"It's not like the clock will strike midnight on Christmas day and I'll vanish," Quatre reminded her pointedly, raising an eyebrow at her. "Besides, if you wanted my attentions so badly, you know how to call."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Did you have fun?" Bailey asked, waving Ainslie off.

"Yes, I was trying to find Caitlyn to help me find some stuff and ran into Enica and Keya...so I've been running around with Ava."

"It's nice to know you have a favorite," Ainslie snapped.

Quatre stopped to look at her.

"Do I need to remind you that you have fifty one other nieces and nephews on the grounds?"

Quatre scratched his forehead a moment as he considered that, then shrugged at her. "I seem to recall that in an hour or so I get to go read to at least twenty five of those and I don't recall being asked if I wanted to do it."

"Oh, Quatre," Margarite muttered, moving to wrap her arms around the shoulder. "Please don't fuss."

Quatre sighed, submitting to the embrace.

"We've got the older ones lined up to help you," she added, moving around to smile at him. "Come on, my Devon's rallied the troops and the lot of them are excited to help their uncle with the little ones."

"I know," he admitted glumly, pulling away from her.

"Come on," she encouraged, poking at him in the arm. "We'll probably be sending a few back with you to the base, huh? I know that Sadie's boy Coy seems to be the same despondent jackass you were when you were sixteen."

"You didn't know me when I was sixteen," he reminded her pointedly, giving her a look.

She receded, frowning slightly at him.

She hadn't seen him more than once or twice a year until after Une had gathered he and the other three pilots back up...though she hadn't been one who wanted to disinherit him.

"Sorry," he muttered, not liking that she was upset. She was the oldest and had always acted fondly toward him, so she didn't deserve the foul temper.

"You're acting all angsty," Caitlyn noted, moving down the hall with her son Aldo behind her. "Were you looking for me?"

"Ooh, Caitlyn," he said, bouncing up slightly. "I need some help in the gift department..."

"On Christmas Eve?" she asked levelly, then looked to the ceiling. "Of course you need help on Christmas Eve...why didn't you come earlier?"

"Because my friend had two guys coming back in from Europe and Asia that I wanted to greet."

"I don't believe that," Radeen noted, moving after her older sister.

"Maybe some of y'all forget," he noted, looking back into the lounge since he'd been leaving it when Margrite accosted him. "But I have this rank in the military...it's called general...lieutenant general, actually," he looked around at the group of them a moment. "It means that like...I tell everyone else what to do?"

"Nice that you'll run some army group but not the empire your father sweat blood to build," Ainslie muttered irritably.

"Ainslie," Margarite chided.

"I sweat blood to build my empire, too," Quatre reminded her darkly. "I think I sweat more blood than our father."

Bailey looked away.

"Spilled it, more like," Ainslie snapped.

Quatre focused on her in something like disgust, then looked back to Radeen and Caitlyn. "Excuse me ladies," he said politely. "I need to go rinse the blood off my hands."

And, with that, he shoved through the group of sisters toward the stairs.

- -

December 24, A.C. 204. Base. 4pm

"They've been gone a long time," Shin worried to Chai as they sat in Shin's living room. Unlike Chai's, Shin's furnishings were light in colors, including the carpeting. Also, the front door seemed almost to open into the main living area where Chai's opened into the hall...sort of. It hadn't taken either of the females long to notice that Jor and Chance's taste was very similar, so much so that they had the same entertainment center and bed.

Anyway, the houses were made from the same floor plan, so the only differences between them were the decorations inside of them.

"If they're really Christmas shopping," Chai noted, "it depends on how much they have to get."

"What do you mean if?" Shin asked nervously, looking back to her.

Chai blinked at that and shrugged. She'd forgotten how easy it had been for her to be unsure of Jordan the first few years they'd lived together. "It was just an explanatory saying," she returned. "Sorry...you don't have to worry about what he's doing, Shin. He absolutely adores you and would never do anything to hurt you."

"On purpose," she agreed.

Chai rolled her eyes slightly at that, giving the woman an amused look.

"Sorry," Shin moved back to sit again. "We should start thinking about supper, huh?"

"You're coming over for supper tomorrow, right?" Chai asked, realizing they'd never finalized their plans.

"I actually have to go to my parents," Shin said, making a face. "If you want to do a brunch or something, though..."

Chai nodded, feeling disappointed by that. She'd called her own parents and had them come to her wedding, but there hadn't been any real love there. Chai's older brother had come, too, and that had been pleasant. He'd been more engaged in the going ons than he had been since they were children. Actually, of her two brothers, the second oldest had noted he was busy and couldn't make the wedding, and had noted it was stupid of her to marry Jordan anyway before hanging up.

She had no intentions of inviting her parents or him for Christmas.

"I wasn't going to," Shin confided nervously. "I was going to tell them we should do a brunch...but it's my parents, you know?"

"I understand," Chai reassured her. "You get along with your parents...I'll have Wufei and Trowa anyway."

Shin nodded, still looking sad.

"So what should we eat for our brunch?" Chai asked, deciding to move on. "We can call Jordan and Chance and get them to pick it up before they come in."

"Ooh, good idea," Shin brightened as well.

- -

December 24, A.C. 204. L-4. 5pm

"You're not planning to buy stuff for all of them, are you?" Caitlyn asked Quatre tiredly as they moved to a cash register.

"I got people to buy stuff at the beginning of the month," he admitted quietly. "I took the lists you all sent me and..."

"Doesn't that seem sad to you?" Caitlyn asked quietly, studying his face.

He met her eyes and looked away uncomfortably with a shrug. "There are fifty-two children between the twenty-eight of you...I can only do so much, and no matter what I do, Ainslie will find fault with it."

"So instead of trying, you admit defeat to her?" the woman shook her head as the cashier started ringing up their items.

"I was informed that this stuff couldn't be found," he noted, indicating the stuff he was buying. "It's not stuff sold commonly on earth."

"You can't let Ainslie get to you, Quatre," she chided, moving around him to start loading the bags back into the cart. "Are we done here?"

"Not entirely," he said, meeting her eyes. "Well, we are, but I think I want to go grab Ember...Lisette's girl is Ember, right? The sixteen year old?"

Caitlyn blinked at him blankly.

"No one had a girl the right age," he hazarded, realizing that his idea wasn't entirely flawless. Actually, taking one of his nieces with him to go find his girlfriend a present didn't seem to work somehow. He rubbed the toe of one foot against his leg as he waited for her decision on emotion.

"Why Ember, though?" she asked curiously.

He fidgeted some, passing his card to the cashier.

"I knew it," she said in triumphant amusement. "That's why you waited and that's why you're so pissy." She considered him a moment, then leaned forward so he had to look at her. "Please tell me she's older than Ember?"

"Nineteen," he returned, taking his card back and avoiding his sister's eyes. "She's in Jordan's group."

Caitlyn sniggered slightly, touching his face with an affectionate hand. "Are you two serious?"

"We're nothing yet," he noted, looking down. "I...I only hugged her yesterday before I came."

"That's sweet," Caitlyn noted, messing more with his hair. "I'll tell you what, though. Ember's too young yet."

Quatre blinked at her.

"You'd have better luck with Keya or one of them...there's a maturity gap between sixteen and nineteen, and if your girl is on a team, she's not going to be entirely immature."

He frowned, then nodded.

"So what's her name?" Caitlyn added, turning to put the last bag into the cart as he signed.

"Simone," Quatre noted, considering the girl.

Caitlyn laughed wickedly, running her fingertips along his shoulder. It was the sweater Simone'd gotten for him. "That's where this came from, isn't it?"

"What?" Quatre demanded sharply, looking back to her. "What do you mean by that?"

"Quatre," she said seriously, studying his eyes happily. "This is synthetic material."

He flashed her a grin and shook his head hard, wishing the cashier a merry Christmas.

"And since she got you this, even though it's crap," she noted, plucking at the material, "you want to get her something?"

"Or something," he agreed grudgingly. "It's not crap."

She blinked at him with her eyebrows arched slightly. "I'm pretty sure I saw it on sale a week ago for twenty dollars."

"She's not made of money," Quatre defended the girl quickly. "Come on, Caitlyn, just because it's not my norm doesn't mean it's entirely bad."

"I think that's the sweetest thing I've ever heard you say," she noted happily, starting to push the cart as he shoved the receipt into his wallet.

"What do you mean by that?" he protested at her, catching up.

She laughed a slightly wicked laugh and patted his cheek. "Let's go call the girls and see what they can make of your little crush."

"She's not a crush," he retorted. "And we're not telling all of them!"

- -

December 24, A.C. 204. Base. 6pm

"Yes, I have it all in the fridge," Jor muttered into his phone as he and Chance tried to get the tree to stand level in its stand. "I'll call you when we're done wrapping, all right?"

"Okay," Chai agreed almost dubiously as she hung up.

"Thank god for kiosks," Chance muttered from where he was on the floor messing with the clamps.

"Chai wrapped up the rest of it, too," Jor agreed.

"Fuck," Chance muttered irritably, moving from under the thing. "This is annoying, let's trade."

"Fine," Jor muttered, waiting for his friend to take the tree and moving below it to work the twists. "So we'll run to the canteen with the one thing we forgot, have them come over to admire our handiwork...and then go set up your place?"

"If we can swing it," Chance agreed, considering the tree. "You sure we got enough lights?"

"No," Jor returned promptly, moving back. "Try it."

The tree...slumped badly to the left.

They both groaned.

"This is going to take longer than we thought," Jor noted, studying the beast almost skeptically.

"Just think of Chai," Chance suggested. "We'll figure it out as long as we keep in my why we're doing this."

"Yeah," Jor agreed tiredly. "Good idea."

- -

December 24, A.C. 204. Base. 8pm

"They're so incredibly special," Chai muttered to Shin as Chip bounced where he stood. "They left the lights on."

Shin flashed her an understanding smile...as she opened the door.

They both froze.

"What?" Zach asked, darting between them to step into the house, then squeak in delight. "A tree!" he shouted, starting to jump up and down.

Not only was it a tree, though, but it was almost fully decorated with lights around it...and the walls.

All of the presents were under it.

"Oh, Chai," Shin breathed, moving into the house and shutting the door as she stared around. "Oh..."

Chai was laughing, though she was crying slightly, moving to pick up Chip and stare at the thing in amazement.

The door opened again and Jordan moved in with Chance behind him, smiling a little abashedly.

"Oh, Jordan," Chai muttered, setting the boy down and moving into his arms as she started crying genuinely.

"I..." Jordan started, then swallowed slightly himself. He couldn't bring himself to talk, he felt severely choked up, so he just pulled her in closer to his chest.

"Sorry," Chance apologized, pulling Shin into his hug. "We had to lie to you."

She laughed lightly, moving into his arms as she shook her head.

"You guys wanna hang out here so we can wrap?" he added after a moment.

"You're horrible," Chai announced, pulling away to give him a hug.

Jordan smiled slightly at Chip, who was looking at him, then nodded at the tree in question.

The boy grinned at him.

He winked back and sighed, turning to hug Chai again. "We'll be back in a while."

She laughed a bit, leaning forward to kiss him, then buried her face in his throat. It took her a moment to pull away before she smiled and touched his face, then nodded.

He smiled more at her, happy that he'd pleased her, then kissed her for good measure and started for the door...to which Chance yanked him hard to make him follow instead of going back for another kiss.

"We don't have the time for this," Chance whispered at him, jogging toward the car. They'd parked it in Chance's drive in preparation. "I don't think they'll wait happily there for a very long time."

"I'm sorry, I just made one of my wife's wishes come true, I wanted a moment to bask in it..."

"You can bask in it all night," Chance retorted. "Give me the opportunity since I helped you..."

"I didn't say I wasn't helping," Jor whispered back as they hauled the tree off the top of the car. "I said I wanted a moment to appreciate my wife enjoying something I did for her..."

They continued in that vein, though they were working very quickly and quietly the entire time. Since they'd had to fight with Jor's tree as long as they had, they'd figured out a quicker way to get it done the second time, which meant that they were quicker about getting all but the last decorations up on that as well.

"So you can watch initially," Chance noted. "But as soon as we put Chip to bed you need to get gone."

"Orgy-boy telling me to leave?" Jor teased as he tacked a string of lights to the wall.

"Well, if you want..." Chance started in a hesitant sort of suggestion that was a complete lie.

"Hahaha," Jor retorted, moving the chair along the wall.

"You left yourself open for it and you know it," Chance retorted. He was hanging a strand along the far wall. "Besides, if you wanted to, I'm sure Shin wouldn't mind."

Jor stopped, turning to look at him.

"What?" Chance demanded, grinning wickedly at him. "You pointed out yourself that I went from her house to Sins, and it's not like we had any one on one when she got pregnant with our son."

Jor returned a very dark look, which made Chance start laughing as he stepped down to move his chair along the wall.

"You think you're funny," Jor noted pointedly. "But I don't believe it."

"You will," Chance reassured him happily. "Believe me, you will..." he trailed off, thinking a moment. "If we do this like this next year, let's do it before Christmas Eve."

"I think next year she'll want to pick it for us," Jor reassured him. "I'll make her wait until thanksgiving, though."

Chance laughed a little at that, and they went back to their work.