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"With A Childs Heart"Written By: Dùlin
Disclaimer : Not mine. Just playin', will give
them right back, yadda yadda ... you know the drill. And I'm broke.
Really. Rating : R Warnings : Post-EW, humor, yaoi romance and sap, bit of lime and implied lemon, language, violence, child abduction Pairings : 1x2x1, 3x4x3, 5xS, references to past 6x5 and 6x9 Author’s Note : an extra-special thanks to
Lisou-chan, my little sister, who agreed to lend her physical six-year-old
looks and part of her character to the little Alice in the fic. Well,
the truth is she nagged me until I accepted to have her being adopted
by Trowa and Quatre, so everyone’s happy now ! Thanks to karina and Gina Lin for a lot of wonderful
feedback ! "With a Childs Heart" Part 1
Quatre and Trowa got out of the shuttle in the dying day. The temperature was much lower than on L4, and Quatre shivered. “I told you to take warm clothes”, Trowa said. “I did”, Quatre answered, his lips almost turning blue. “They’re all in my bag.” Trowa rolled his eyes and took off his jacket to put it on Quatre’s shoulders. “Do you see Duo ?” “You mean you don’t ?” Quatre said with a laugh. He was right. Missing Duo would have been impossible. The young man was standing in the crowd, like a normal person waiting for friends at the spatioport, but he somehow managed to draw everyone’s attention to himself. He was dressed all in black with a flaming red T-shirt under his leather jacket. His chestnut hair was tied in his usual long braid and he was waving madly at them. Quatre noticed more than one girl drooling over his best friend’s long and muscular body. Of course, he didn’t notice the same girls shooting appreciative glances to him and Trowa. Duo ran to meet them. He literally threw himself in Quatre’s open arms. “KittyCat, so good to see ya again !” “Yeah”, Trowa smirked. “It’s only been two weeks since we parted, Duo.” Duo stuck his tongue at Trowa. “So what ? That boyfriend of yours is my best friend, and I miss every moment away from him.” He shook Trowa’s hand, and laughed. “Cat-chan, did you by any chance forget how cold it is here ?” “Just forgot to take my sweater out of my bag, Duo. How come you are not cold ?” “I grew up half-naked in those streets, KittyCat ! Being cold is not in my vocabulary. How’s the Winner tribe ?” “Everyone’s fine, Quatre said in a laugh. The children just can’t wait to meet their new cousin. I think they’re all trying to find presents for when we come back.” “And Cathy ?” “Fine too”, Trowa answered, “and very disappointed because we’re not bringing all of the children home with us.” “Come on”, Duo said, shooting a glance towards Quatre, “let’s go to the car before we get a frozen Cat-chan. I trust you to melt him again, Tro, but Iria’s gonna kill me if I send her bro home with so much as a cold.” The ride to Duo’s home lasted about an hour, during which the three friends chatted happily. Well, actually, Duo and Quatre were doing most of the talking, while Trowa was absent-mindedly stroking Quatre’s hair and occasionally letting out a ‘Hmm’. Duo finally pulled into the driveway. To Quatre’s and Trowa’s surprise, the house was dark and looked empty. “Heero’s not here ?” Quatre asked while taking his bag. “Nope”, Duo answered. “Had to go to Preventer for report. There have been attacks here lately, and we’re forming a team to try and get the ones behind it. They’re freakin’ idiots, if you’re asking me, they got some of their own men blown up in the last bombing they staged. But now, Heero reckons they could be suicide bombers, and we don’t like that.” “I see”, Trowa said. “I suppose you’re not staying here, then.” “Actually, no. I’ll just stay with you tonight and give you a lift to the orphanage tomorrow, and then I gotta take a shuttle to join Heero and Wufei.” Both Trowa and Duo felt Quatre’s disappointment. “Hey, KittyCat, I’d like to stay, I swear ! I’ll tell ya what, why don’t you just throw a welcome party for the kid, and we’ll all come so you can introduce us properly to the youngest member of the gang ?” Quatre’s face lightened up. “That’s a great idea, Duo !” **** The next morning, all three young men got up early and prepared to leave the house. Duo left Quatre and Trowa a spare key of the house for them to come back after their visit. He then drove them to a brand new house built in the middle of a great park. Thanks to a lot of generous donations, Father’s Maxwell Garden was a huge facility who could shelter and educate up to five hundred children. Duo parked near the front door. He led Quatre and Trowa up a marble stair and pushed a button near the great oaken doors. A little voice answered. “Who’s here ?” “Cam, sweetie, it’s Duo”, Duo chuckled. “Open the door, I got guests for miss Lizzie.” Quatre and Trowa looked at each other, puzzled. The great doors opened slowly, revealing a Chinese-looking girl. She was about 9 years old and wearing what looked like a school uniform. She flung herself in Duo’s arms. “Duo !!” “Shouldn’t you be in class ?” Duo asked, hugging the girl. “No ! I’m sick !” “Then you should be in bed.” “I’m bored all alone in my bed”, the girl whined. “Well, let’s just go see what miss Lizzie has to say about this”, Duo said, straightening up. “Who are they ?” the girl asked, pointing at Quatre and Trowa. Duo slapped his forehead. “Silly me ! I didn’t even introduce them properly. Cam, this is Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton. They are friends of mine, they’ve come here to adopt a child. Quatre, Trowa, this is Cameron. She’s been here since the beginning of the house.” Quatre gave a bright smile to the little girl, who smiled back. She then gave a long searching look to Trowa, and gave out another smile. “I like them”, she said in a very serious tone. “Great, guys, you passed the inspection !” Duo chuckled. “Cam always pays a lot of attention to the people who could become her friends’ parents. And she’s extremely severe !” Cam stuck out her tongue at Duo, who replied in the same way. Suddenly, the girl grabbed Duo’s sleeve. “Let’s get them to miss Lizzie, or she will say I’m making you stand at the door”, she said. “Alright, Cam ! Lead the way !” Cam ran along the corridor, took a sharp turn right and disappeared. Quatre looked at Duo with a delighted smile. “Do all the children here love you as this does ?” “You could say they all worship me, Cat-chan !” Duo laughed. “But Cam and I have somethin’ special, though. I’m just sad I can’t spend more time here. And I haven’t managed to drag Heero here with me.” Trowa smiled, trying to picture Heero surrounded by children in his mind. “Haven’t you ever wanted to adopt a child, Duo ?” he asked. “I have. My iceberg of a boyfriend isn’t really there yet, I’m afraid. I can’t blame him for it, kinda hard to imagine yourself taking care of a kid when you’ve never been a kid.” “Your childhood wasn’t exactly a bed of roses, Duo”, Trowa said evenly. “No, but at least, I had people to take care of me and love me. That’s not something your forget easily. Nah, Heero needs time to move from ‘Soldier mode’ to ‘human being mode’. I can wait. And anyway, with our jobs, maybe it’s not exactly the right time. And I can’t ask Hilde to baby-sit every time we have to go for a mission.” “Maybe not”, Trowa admitted. He turned to Quatre, and noticed the sudden tension on the young man’s face. He slid a long arm around his lover’s waist. “Nervous ?” “A little”, Quatre answered. “I never imagined it was going to be easy, but … I can’ help being tense.” “Just relax, it’ll be fine.” “What if we don’t …” “Uh uh, Quatre, no ‘what if’. I’m sure we’ll find her. And she will find us also. We will know when we see her.” “So it’s a ‘her’, then ?” Quatre asked. “Think so. I don’t know why, but you’re right, it just seems fit to take a girl.” They arrived near a well-lit office. The door was open, and Duo came in without knocking. Cam was already there, sitting on the lap of a tall woman with dark hair in a bun and kind gray eyes. “Duo ! How nice to see you here”, the woman said as a greeting. “I suppose those are the friends we talked about ?” “Yup. Miss Lizzie, this is Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton. Quatre, Trowa, this is Elizabeth Carpenter, the director of Father Maxwell’s Garden.” “Nice to meet you, miss Carpenter”, Quatre said, shaking her hand. “Lizzie”, she corrected kindly. “Everyone here calls me Lizzie.” Trowa shook her hand also, nodding in acknowledgement. Duo shot a bright smile at all of them. “Well, guys, gotta run now ! Lizzie, give them the big tour, and don’t let them get outta here without the girl of their dreams.” “Of course, Duo ! Now get going or you’ll be late !” Duo shook Trowa’s hand, planted a kiss on Quatre’s cheek and zoomed out of the office. Two hours later, Quatre and Trowa had filled forms and discussed with Lizzie about the possibilities of adoption. The young director had made them go through every formality needed, and she took them out to see the children. They visited classrooms, playgrounds, bedrooms, gardens … Trowa noticed with relief that Quatre’s nervousness had flown away. Children had surrounded them as soon as they had come out with Lizzie, and were following them everywhere, chatting in high voices and grabbing their coats. Quatre was positively glowing in the middle of all those children and happily talking with them. Trowa gave a start when a little hand found its way in his. It was Cam. The girl had put on a coat, and looked up at Trowa. The young man smiled and squeezed Cam’s hand. It happened in an almost deserted playroom. There were only about ten children there. All of them were between five and seven years old. They didn’t even look up from their games and drawings. The children that had been following Quatre, Trowa and Lizzie took off their coats and just joined their friends. The three adults stood in the doorframe. “Those are some of our youngest children”, Lizzie said. “I think you told me you didn’t want to take a child over ten.” “That’s right”, Quatre said. He turned to Trowa. “You want to come with me ?” “You go first”, Trowa answered. “Just call me when you’ve found her.” Quatre gave a soft kiss to Trowa and made his way into the room. Lizzie shot a puzzled look to Trowa. “Why don’t you go with him ?” “I trust him”, Trowa said simply. “If she’s here, he’s gonna find her.” “What do you both mean exactly by ‘find her’ ?” “Quatre and I think that we will both recognize the child that has been waiting for us. We already know her in a way. But he has to find her.” “How ?” “Quatre can see inside of each one of us, Lizzie. That’s how.” Lizzie fell silent, and watched as Quatre was kneeling beside some children and quietly speaking with them. Suddenly, he stopped near the most adorable little girl in the room. She had a wave of curly blond hear that was falling on her shoulders, and startling green eyes who almost looked like Trowa’s, except that she had a golden ring around the pupil. She was drawing something. Quatre sat at her side and said nothing. After a while, the little girl looked up with a curious glance. She saw a young man smiling at her. He had very light blond hair and very big blue eyes, and was smiling gently. She picked up a pencil and wrote down : ‘My name is Alice. What’s yours ?’ She handed the pencil over to Quatre, who wrote back : ‘I am Quatre’. Alice looked again at the man. He was still smiling. She couldn’t help smiling back, a brilliant smile that made her look like all the light in the room was suddenly directed on her. Quatre held his breath. “Trowa ?” he called in a very quiet voice. Trowa left the doorframe, closely followed by Lizzie. Both of them sat down too. Alice looked at Trowa who gave her a tender smile. “That’s her, don’t you think ?” Quatre asked almost in a whisper. “I think so, love”, Trowa answered. Alice came closer to Trowa and used her little hand to brush the man’s bangs from his face. She looked at him closely, as if inspecting every inch of his face. What she saw seemed to please her, because she decided to sit on his lap. “Hi, Alice”, Lizzie said. “Hi, miss Lizzie”, the little girl answered in a musical voice. “This is Quatre, and this is Trowa. You know why they’re here, don’t you ?” “They are going to take me home”, Alice answered. “Aren’t you ?” she added with a pleading look towards Quatre. “If you want to come with us, then yes”, Quatre answered. “If you want us to be your parents, then we’ll take you home with us.” The little girl screwed her face, apparently trying to decide whether she wanted to go with them or not. She looked up at Trowa again. “So I get two daddies ?” “Yes”, Trowa said. “Hope it doesn’t bother you.” “No. Lots of children don’t even have one daddy. I’ll be very lucky if I have two.” Both miss Lizzie and Quatre couldn’t help chuckling when they heard the girl speak so seriously. Alice smiled again. Quatre was almost hypnotized by that smile. An expression of pure joy and felicity. The girl settled more comfortably in Trowa’s arms. “I want to go home with you.” Trowa looked at Quatre. “Well, I think that settles it, then. The miss has decided.” Quatre got up. “Why don’t you just stay here with her, and I’ll finish all those papers with Lizzie ?” Trowa nodded. Alice stood up and tugged Quatre’s sleeve. The young man bent to get closer to the little face. Alice’s locked her arms around Quatre’s neck and kissed him on the cheek. “You’ll come back soon ?” she asked. “Of course, dear”, Quatre answered. “Trowa is staying with you.” Alice finally let go off him, and he followed Lizzie to her office. “I can’t believe this”, the woman said. “How did you do that ?” “Do what ?” “Sorry, I should explain myself better. How did you establish that kind of connection with her ?” “I didn’t. She was just waiting for me.” “Yes, that is what Trowa told me also. But still, you must have a gift, because it is the first time I see that, especially with Alice.” Quatre just smiled. “We don’t know much about Alice’s background”, Lizzie kept on. “Her parents were killed in a terrorist attacks three years ago. They were not from L2, and we were unable to find any blood relatives. No one has ever looked for her. We don’t know her family name nor her exact age. She’s around six.” “She’s very mature for her age.” “Yes”, Lizzie smiled. “But don’t let her quiet looks abuse you. She can become a real little demon if she wants to.” “Just like any child, I guess.” “I suppose so. You are sure you want to take her ?” “Yes. Why do you keep asking this ?” Lizzie sighed. “Quatre, a lot of people have wanted to adopt Alice in the past. But she has always refused to go with any of them. I remember a visit during which she did not even utter a word or look at the people who wanted to take her. They gave up. And here you come, you sit by her side five minutes, and she climbs into Trowa’s lap and begs you to take her home. You will understand that I am surprised.” “I see.” “Yet, I have absolutely no reason not to let you and Trowa adopt her. She obviously adores you already. It’s been a long time since she smiled like she did today. Your background has been checked”, she said with a smile, “and I think Alice will be a very happy little girl from now on.” “Thank you, Lizzie. I can’t thank you enough …” “Please, Quatre. Don’t thank me. Seeing a smile on these children’s faces is my best reward. We still have some forms to fill out. Let’s do this and then you and Trowa can help your daughter pack up her things.” ~ * ~ |
