Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Devil's Due ❯ - 27 - ( Chapter 27 )

— 27 —

December 26, A.C. 204. L-4. 8am

Quatre laughed at Radeen's story in disbelief, rocking back where he was sitting as Ava blinked up at him tiredly.

The thing about his siblings was that his parents had really been trying for a boy. Every couple of years, they had created more children in the hope of that ends. Hence, he had twenty-eight living sisters. The four sitting across the couches had turned twenty-seven the previous month.

Quatre couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Margarite's group. They were the first set of four, and they'd been fourteen when he was...born, if that could be what it was called.

Anyway, he'd known the group with him now when he was a child, but as he'd gotten older, he'd been taken more and more along with his father to be taught the trade before they'd been sent off to boarding school.

"You're lying to me," Quatre noted happily. "You have to be lying to me."

"Would I do that?" Radeen asked innocently.

Quatre laughed even more, looking down as he noted the girl was falling asleep again. Of this set of four, Enica was the only one to have any children.

"I swear to you he's trying to woo me," Radeen added happily. "I'm not making any of this up."

"Just exaggerating a touch."

"Well...maybe a touch," Radeen grinned at him.

"As funny as it is to hear Rae lying through her teeth," Rianne muttered, shifting forward slightly to look at him. "I came for proper gossip."

"Proper gossip?" Quatre returned dryly. "You're joking, right?"

She shook her head, her eyes sparkling. "Tell us about this girl you want our help with."

"I don't actually need your help, dear," Quatre returned, shifting Ava slightly. "I have this lovely ability to tell what she really likes without an effort, I just wanted your advice on taste. I got her a necklace already, but I want to get her something...like this," he shifted one arm to show her the sleeve of his shirt.

"So go to Gimzo and grab the first thing you see," she retorted.

Quatre frowned at her, annoyed by that.

"What?" she protested, looking the shirt over. "That couldn't have cost more than...twenty dollars."

"She's nineteen, and the fact that she thought to get me anything at all more than makes up for the quality," he retorted. "Besides, her family isn't financially backed. She makes her own money, and twenty dollars on a shirt means twenty less for food...come on, I like this color and it's actually comfortable."

"Ooh," Enica noted to Keya. "Protective, isn't he?"

Keya flashed her a grin.

Rianne sighed, rolling her eyes. "Fine. Go pick her up something from Azure Clan."

"I don't know if she even likes that style," he retorted. "Maybe I should just take her to Streak..."

"If you finish that line with the word ‘red'," Rianne cut him off, "I'm going to disown you."

"That's where I buy my clothes," he retorted irritably.

"Yes, and I'm sure it's where you got that pretty little cubic on your ear, too," she fiddled with her earring.

Quatre gave her a level look. She was trying to annoy him, and it was working somewhat, but not to any true degree.

"Just find her something elegant from Azure Clan," Keya soothed. "And what was that you were saying about a necklace? If she's so strapped for cash won't she just pawn it?"

He gave her a dirty look, and her words offended him because she meant it.

"What?" she protested. "Don't look at me like that...what did I say?"

"Just because she can't go buy me some shirt from Azure or one of those doesn't mean she can't make her ends meet. I'm seriously rethinking asking any of you for advice," he noted, looking back down to the girl in his lap as he wondered what Chip was up to.

That struck him as actually sad. Sure, the boy called him uncle, but he wasn't actually kin, not by blood...and Quatre missed him more than any of the children that were his blood.

Granted, he knew Chip.

"Next time I come up, I'm bringing Chai," he mused.

"What?" they asked blankly, giving him confused looks.

"We have tea," Enica added. "You can get your butler to order some chai for you if you really want..."

Quatre started laughing weakly, kissing the top of the sleeping girl's head.

"What?" Enica protested. "Why are you laughing at us?"

"Chai Maxwell, Enica," he clarified, meeting her eyes. "Jordan's wife?"

"Jordan is Duo, right?"

"He was," Quatre agreed. "He's not now."

"Why do you want to bring his wife?" Radeen asked blankly. "I thought you liked that Simone girl."

Quatre started laughing again, closing his eyes a moment before looking to the ceiling.

They exchanged nervous looks.

"Are you...okay?" Rianne asked hesitantly, studying him.

"I'm not mad," Quatre retorted, understanding her meaning from her emotions as he gave her a dark look. "You have no idea about my life."

"You play general on earth and don't really do anything?" Radeen offered.

"I'm also the second or third strongest empath on the military pay-roll," he retorted, focusing on her. "I was also on Prozac for a year or something and I'm not now."

"That was for your depression, wasn't it?" Enica asked quietly, studying him.

"That'd be the easiest way to say it, yes," he agreed. "It was because no matter where I went I was assaulted from all sides with what everyone else was feeling."

They all frowned more at him, realizing that he could feel them that same way.

"You know I moved in with Jordan and his wife, don't you?"

"You were living with the other pilots...in that apartment?" Keya offered.

"I haven't lived there for a good year," Quatre informed her. "You realize that Jordan's only been back for a year or so now, right?"

They all exchanged looks.

"Wow," Quatre muttered, looking down to the child again. "We like...need to communicate more."

"Quatre, I honestly didn't think you wanted anything to do with any of us until you wandered off with Coy," Rianne said quietly, studying his eyes. "We don't want to interfere with your life."

"But I like you," he noted giving them all mock-confused looks.

They blinked at him.

He rolled his eyes, then sighed and started to stand. "To make a long story short, last year with the coup attempt we found Jordan and he came back to base with us to clear his friend's name–he disappeared on us when we all eighteen. Anyway," he set Ava in Enica's lap, "Chai came with him, and she's a quieting."

It was fairly evident that they didn't understand what that meant.

"Chai has the power to mute my empathy," he explained pointedly. "When she wants to, she makes it where I'm normal...like any of you, I imagine. I'm inside my own head and can see the visual side of people's moods, but I don't drown in it. She's also a special type of quieting that we've never seen before, because she makes it all go away."

"Like a bad addiction," Keya noted dryly.

"Like a good friend," Quatre retorted, stretching slightly. "Listen, I asked Caitlyn and them to come up. I can't be with too many at once, I think four or five is my limit."

"So you're kicking us out," Enica noted, rolling her eyes as she stood. "You're an ass."

"I'm damn good at it, too," he retorted. "You know how to use a phone and a vid. You can call me, it is allowed."

She gave him a look, then started from the room with the others on her heels.

"I...love you?" he offered, not wanting them to leave and be angry at him.

That made Rianne and Radeen snigger and lose what little irritation they had. Keya smacked her forehead, and she also lost her annoyance.

"Come on," Quatre protested at Enica. "I'm damn tired of being overwhelmed by people."

"Like my husband?"

"I invited you and your families to come sit with me," he returned quietly. "Whether or not you consider your husbands family is not my concern."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation at that, then shook her head at him...and led the group from the room.

Quatre sighed, rubbing at his neck as he dropped back onto the couch.

If that was how they were all going to go, he was in for a damn long day.

- -

December 26, A.C. 204. Base. 9am

"Hey," Wufei greeted Calvin and Mikel as they moved into his apartment. "How are you guys?"

"Perplexed," Mikel returned, moving around into the kitchen before looking around. "No Morgan?"

"He hasn't shown up yet," Wufei returned, pouring the batter for the pancakes he was making into the pan. "I managed to sleep in this morning, sorry for my state of...undress..."

The pair rolled their eyes at that since he was standing at the stove in his pajama pants with no shirt.

"You want food?" he added, looking back to them.

"You look different with your hair down," Mikel returned, studying him.

"It's damn annoying to sleep with it up," Wufei agreed. "I seriously have only been up long enough to piss and use mouth-wash."

Calvin laughed happily at that. "How did your Christmas go?"

"It was nice," he returned, thinking the day over. "Maxwell went and got his wife a tree and decorated their living room, so it really felt like Christmas, you know?" he flipped the thing over. "You want food or not?"

"I'll take some," Cal returned, dropping into his seat at the table. "You planning on getting clothes on any time soon?"

"I've thought about it a little," Wufei admitted happily. "We get the lab today."

"Ooh, exciting," Mikel muttered sarcastically, dropping into another seat. "You know we love the tests."

Wufei turned to frown at him.

Mikel waved it away. "I'll take some, too. Should I call Roberts?"

"He's the one who woke me up," Wufei returned, moving to the fridge for some sausage.

"You're a damn lunatic," Trowa informed them all grumpily, moving to slouch into another chair. His eyes weren't entirely open, and he hadn't bothered to put anything on over his boxers. "Why the fuck are you awake this early?"

"We get the lab today," Wufei retorted, looking back to him. "Put the coffee on and stop talking until you've had some."

"You're damn insane," Trowa retorted, then focused blearily on the empaths who were sitting back from him in their seats. "Yes, I'm annoyed. I got woken up."

"The fact that you can't even open your eyes suggests to me that you decided to let us wake you up," Wufei noted pointedly. "Put the coffee on, Trowa. You're not human until you've had half the pot."

Trowa glowered at his back, but did get up from his seat and slouch toward the machine.

"I didn't smoke yesterday," Wufei added pointedly to his friend. "I've gotten it so the craving isn't killer."

"That's good," Trowa returned in a less surly tone. The fact that Wufei was quitting smoking was something he really wanted to support–it was the reason Wufei brought it up at all, but that was beside the point.

"I'm hoping I can go at least most of today without another one," he added happily.

"I think you should have just quit cold turkey," Mikel noted. "And you haven't found any other habit for your hands and mouth."

"Yeah..." Wufei sighed as he considered that point of the process. "I just want it to go away."

"Isn't your friend supposed to be a god?" Calvin asked curiously.

Wufei sniggered, turning back to give him a look.

Calvin just grinned.

It didn't take all that long for the breakfast to be finished, and for all that Trowa bitch, moaned, and complained about being woke up, he hopped in the shower as soon as Wufei was finished. Morgan showed up around then, and Trowa decided to tag along when they all headed for the lab.

That actually explained why he let himself get woken up.

Clinton was standing outside the lab waiting for them when they showed up, looking tired. It took until Wufei was moving from his car for the guy to look up at him and smile slightly. "Morning," he said.

"Morning," Wufei returned, pulling out the card for entry. "You look tired."

"I didn't sleep well," Clinton returned, then blinked at Trowa.

"What?" Trowa asked blankly.

"You're backwards," Clinton returned.

"And inside out," Wufei agreed happily, shoving the door open. "Clinton, this is Trowa Barton."

"Lieutenant General Trowa Barton," Trowa retorted.

"Which is just as important as my lieutenant general," Wufei agreed, waving Clinton's hand away from the salute it was already performing. "Don't show him respect."

Trowa laughed at that, looking to Morgan. "You're seriously writing that crap down?"

"I'm writing down that you're backwards," Morgan retorted, then shoved him into the building.

"Huh," Clinton muttered, looking around. "Something in here feels weird."

"Weird?" Morgan asked, moving up toward him. "What do you mean?"

"Kinda...tingly," Mikel supplied, looking around. "It wasn't like this last time we came in, was it?"

"Not that I remember," Calvin agreed, frowning at him.

Trowa, however, wasn't really following to play lab assistant. He moved around the group and up the hall, looking into the window of one of the rooms.

"We can't go in there, Barton," Wufei noted pointedly. "Stop being nosy."

"He's not nosy, he's anxious," Calvin returned.

"It's here!" Trowa exclaimed happily. He turned to Wufei and pointed into the room. "Ha! It's a heart!"

They all gave him confused looks.

"Uh...a transform unit," he clarified for the empaths. Wufei knew exactly what it was.

"Why are you happy about that?" Wufei demanded in almost a sick tone. "That's for the beam sabers, right?"

Trowa lost some of his excitement at that.

"We destroyed our gundams for the peace of the entire sphere...and you're playing with thermal weaponry?"

"You don't care that I'm the M.S. mechanic," Trowa said. He wasn't entirely sure of that anymore, though. Wufei's reaction was definitely not one he'd expected.

Mikel looked to Morgan. "Trowa is upset that he's disappointed Wufei and Wufei is in a state of disbelief."

"Stop that," Wufei muttered at him irritably.

Mikel grinned at Morgan. "Now he's upset because he doesn't want either of them embarrassed."

"It's not like its projectiles," Trowa added, ignoring the empath. "It's not like...it's defensive."

"If your defensive weapon is strong enough, you take offensive action," Wufei noted. "You can make even a thermal heart offensive."

"That's more in the style of use," Trowa noted, looking away. "You can use your sword offensively, can't you?"

"You mean defensively," Wufei retorted, then sighed and rubbed at his face before shaking his head and looking back to the empaths. "I'm sorry... Come on," he added to Trowa. "We have stuff to do."

Trowa watched them walk away before looking back at the bit of machinery he'd been waiting for for the last month, sighing slightly. He'd been excited to get to play with it...but now he wasn't entirely sure if he even wanted to do it anymore.

He'd have to see how the others reacted. If they were all upset he'd abandon the notion entirely...other than that it'd be simple majority.

Watch, with his luck only one of the others would agree with Wufei and he'd still be left to make the final decision.

The former pilot wished he'd just stayed in bed.

- -

December 26, A.C. 204. L-4. 10am

Quatre was vaguely annoyed that Caitlyn's group had also not brought their husbands...or children. Caitlyn had brought Aldo, but other than that Carlene had brought Amarie...and there were six in their set.

Considering that he wasn't feeling so touchy about his family anymore, inviting the groups to sit with him for an hour or so to just chat had been meant so he could meet the brother-in-laws and the children...get to know all of them, really.

Hell, most of his siblings had been married by the time he'd fought in the first war. He'd been six when Kiley'd had Richard, seven when Bailey'd had Brooklyn, and eight when Margarite'd had Devon. He'd completely missed out on the weddings of this group, Emily, Amanda, Kendra, and Madison, because before the wars he'd been tagging along with his father or the man who'd created Sandrock...and then he was in the wars...and the invitation for Madison's wedding had gotten waylaid in the mail or something, because he didn't remember getting it.

Either that, or the fact that Madison was one of the ones who thought he should be disinherited. He'd never actually gotten a final verdict on it.

He had hopes that Radeen or Rianne might humor him when, but if what Rianne had been saying was true, they didn't want to bother him.

And with how he'd acted toward the lot of them over the past few years, he knew it was his own fault.

He sighed, rubbing at his shoulders again.

There was a tap on the door.

"Come in," he called, looking toward it.

"Hello, little brother," Emily greeted him pleasantly. "I'm not early am I?"

"Not at all," he returned, rising to smile at her son, who was studying his uncle with sparkling eyes.

"I was going to bring wine," her husband noted with a bright smile as he followed, "but she told me not to be stupid. Is it too early in the morning for that, or do you have the same bottles in here?"

Quatre genuinely smiled at that, gesturing them in.

"Unfortunately, I picked up a stray," Emily added in a mock dry tone as Amanda followed her through the door.

"I told her she was being stupid, but she doesn't believe me," Amanda noted, smiling at Quatre as she shoved her daughter forward.

It was the little girl who'd hugged him.

"Tell him hello, Autumn," Amanda prompted.

"Hello, uncle," the girl said quietly, smiling shyly up at him.

"Hello, baby-girl," he returned, hugging her. This, evidently, meant that Emily's son needed a hug. "Hello, buddy," he added to the boy.

"Braxton, why don't you and your cousin go ruin his computer," Emily suggested, gesturing toward the other rooms of the suite.

"All right, Mom," the kid returned, then stopped and looked to Quatre. "Is that okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Quatre reassured him. "Just don't get glass in Autumn's hair."

The boy flashed him a grin at that, then turned and darted out of sight with his cousin.

"I found another one, honey," another man noted to Amanda as he moved into the room with a hand on both Kendra and Madison's wrists. "Do you suppose we should throw them back out or are they big enough?"

"Don't mind him," Kendra said, breaking from the man's grip. There was more murmuring behind her as three other children moved into the room, then two more men. "This is my husband, Braunen...Braunen, you know my brother."

"Everyone knows your brother," the man agreed, then waved at him. "Hi, Mr. Winner."

"I think that might be offensive," Quatre retorted.

"If our wives are just introducing us to you," the second man noted, ushering the children in, "I don't think you can really claim that one."

There are just so many... Quatre decided not to comment on that and grinned at the man.

"I hope you really meant our families," Emily noted as she hugged the smaller girl from the new arrivals. "Your cousins are in on the computer," she added to the three children there.

"Wait a second," Quatre protested. "I need names."

"You'll never remember them all," Emily noted, waving him off. "We just told ours to call you Uncle Quatre and figured you'd be smart enough to show them affection. What's this I hear about a little girlfriend, now? Caitlyn was all a twitter about your cheap sweater."

"I like it," Quatre protested at them in disbelief.

They all grinned at that.

He coughed slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I'm not here to talk about me..."

"Well, I am," Kendra noted, moving to pour the tea on the sideboard into a cup before tsking disapprovingly.

"What?" Quatre asked warily.

"You let it get cold," she chided, moving to pull the bell-pull.

"Oh, don't!" he protested...as the gong sounded more or less throughout the house. "I use...my...phone," he added, showing it to her.

She grinned wickedly at him. "I don't get to stay in the master suites ever, so if I want to call the butler by bell-pull, I'll call the butler by bell-pull. Come on, brother, you used to annoy the hell out of me, don't start that again."

Quatre gave her a look.

"Yes?" the butler asked, looking around the room in confusion before noting it was Kendra by the pull and not Quatre.

"He's trying to pretend these are special meetings for just a few of us at a time," she returned as the men smirked and exchanged looks. "He can't really pull it off if his tea goes cold...I'll make sure to call you when we leave so you can restock."

The butler grinned at her, taking the pot.

"So let's go back to the other thing that's been bugging me," Emily noted, looking back to her brother as the various males took seats on the couches. "Coy and Brooklyn have been muttering that you said something about washing blood off your hands...were you bickering with Ainslie again?"

"Usually," he noted, rolling his eyes a bit.

"Do you suppose you'll ever grow up?"

"Unfortunately," he said dryly, "I have this tendency to get annoyed when any of my sisters treat me like a child. At that point, I generally..."

"Throw a fit," Madison agreed. "How do you even command troops if you can't keep your temper under control for ten minutes?"

Quatre made an actual effort to stop himself from sniping at her, then shrugged and looked away. "My friends treat me like an adult."

"Act like one, and we would, too," Braunen noted pointedly. "We aren't here to bitch at you," he reminded the ladies. "We're here to pay a social call for forty-five minutes and then find something else to do. Radeen noted that you said they could call. Is that a family-wide edict, or just for your favorites?"

Quatre flashed him an amused and annoyed look.

"I just ask, because if we don't clear it up, Antoni there," he pointed at the man who'd commented about wine, "will get smashed and call you."

"You'll tell me to," the man retorted. "It won't be my fault it's four in the morning," he added happily to Quatre. "And if we show up all drunk and stuff, it's his fault," he pointed at one of the other men.

"No matter if we're drinking with them or not," Amanda added happily, "it's never our fault. This is my husband, David. He likes to try to get us killed...and that's Mitchell. He does his damnedest to stay sober enough to thwart David. You think you'll remember them, little brother? Or will we be drunkenly explaining to you over the vid who we all are?"

Quatre shrugged noncommittally. "I'll recognize you four, anyway...and assume that any males with you are your husbands...and not boyfriends."

They all grinned at him for that one.

"I think we'll get along just fine," David noted to Amanda. "He seems real now, not some teenage rebel. I might even drink with him some time."

"Not tonight, though," Quatre noted. "I want to meet with as many of you as I can today so Ainslie doesn't get on me about visiting my family."

"You can't let Ainslie direct your actions," Emily noted pointedly to him. "You do that and she'll win."

Quatre gave her a look.

She shrugged noncommittally and looked to her husband. "So tonight around ten we'll all come up here and try to make enough noise to bother the whole house. Who else will come, you think?"

"I can't do big groups," Quatre cut her off quickly. "This is almost too much."

"Oh fine," she muttered petulantly to him. "You owe us a night of drunken stupidity, though."

"If Wufei can figure it out," he agreed, rubbing at his face.

"Chang?" Mitchell asked curiously. "He's the one doing that study, right? He's not using you like a guinea pig, is he?"

Quatre met his eyes a moment in amusement, then shook his head. "Wufei started that study because of me. He got the weaker empaths from the building to do the testing for him."

"That's a true friend," Antoni noted happily to Braunen. "Finds the rats to test on before even going near the source."

"Let's change the subject," Quatre suggested mock-happily. "Tell me about you...your kids...where you live. I want to make sure my phone book is up to date, too. If you do that," he cautioned Emily as she opened her mouth, "I'll tell you all about Simone."

For some reason, they were perfectly willing to start talking about themselves.