[GW] "Junior"
Black-Haired Girl

[ Fic: "Junior" : Heero Fic ]

Title: JUNIOR

Author: black_hairgirl

Warnings: Boom. Headshot.

Heero as a kid. I wrote it really fast, so I didn't get to do a revision. I looked up and was like "oh, I gotta go like.. now." I have no Internet this weekend so I had to make it fast. So, hope you enjoy!

Junior.

"Remember to exhale. When you do, all of your muscles will relax and everything will come into focus. The only muscle that should tighten is your finger on the trigger."

He looked up at me with a vivid, excited smile. Part of me hoped that he would stop smiling at me, while the other half of me- the human one I suppose – was happy to be in the presence of such an innocent, pure expression.

"Now, when the target comes around the corner there you are going to track him for twenty yards. So, where is the twenty yard mark?" I drilled him, maybe for the hundredth time that morning. The boy, who I referred to as Junior, let his shining blue eyes dart down to the street below.

"The big red sign." He answered correctly as he pointed a small finger at a billboard that had been hung on a brick wall alongside the street. The sign read "For a Better Peace Tomorrow, Support The Cause."

I nodded in approval. The boy's smile widened in accomplishment. "Yes," I said while rubbing the boy's unruly brown hair, "that's right."

I watched as he shifted and squirmed on the rickety stool I had found for him. I knew he was anxious, but I felt that he was ready for his task. I had trained him on his rifle skills for three months before this operation and I knew he would have no problem striking the target.

To him this was just a game.

He was young, maybe only five years old. I had found him a year and a half ago lost in a department store in Yokohama clutching a ragged brown teddy bear and crying for his mommy. It was rather a convenient find, considering the stolen identity I had at the time required that I had a son. I took him in, fed him, and gained his trust. Children are funny like that. They require only the basics: food, shelter and attention. I gave him all three and within six months he had become my shadow; always by my side, always willing to please.

"Now, tell me the plan." I urged. His smiling, carefree expression faded and was soon replaced by a determined, scrunched-up frown.

"The man in the green suit comes down street at ten-hundred hour," he recited from memory. "Then I track him, and when he come to red sign I pull."

Good enough. I nodded in approval. His smile returned and he practically laughed in delight. I cringed at the sound of his happiness. It was a sick thing to make a child kill a man, but it was a necessary evil on my part. I needed an assistant, and someone who I could trust. I had an accomplice once, but he turned on me. Children don't turn on you. They don't tell lies, for they are incapable of such things. They learn fast and are very reliable because they have no ulterior motives. They also have no bad habits like adults. You don't have to change "their ways" because they have none. You can mold them to suit your needs, and with this kid I did. He was perfect. Well, perfect except for his language skills which could have use some improvement, but what did he need language for? The less he could say the better.

"It is oh-nine forty five." I told him as I glanced down at my watch. "I am going to go. Oh, and Junior… don't let me down."

He straightened in his chair and gave me a mute nod. Satisfied, I left the room and traveled down the hallway towards the stairwell, and then hopped out onto the sidewalk. As I made my way down the street I glanced up at the open window. Junior had his head poking out of the window and was watching me go with an enthusiastic grin. I couldn't wave at him, but tried to smile up at him to let him know that I noticed he was looking. Once he had realized he had been detected he ducked back into his secret spot. I couldn't help but laugh to myself as he did.

"Kids…" I whispered in amusement as I wove through the crowd towards the coffee shop where the target was located. I started to feel a wave of guilt with each step as I neared the shop's entrance. What young child should be expected to snuff the life out of another human being? It was a terrible thing I was asking of the kid, but there was no better way. Normally I would use the boy as a distraction for the target. He was good at that. Most of the time he would lure the target into a particular area and from there I would do the dirty deed but this time the man we were hunting for would want me, and only me.

After all, he was the District Attorney who had put me in prison ten years ago, I was sure he wouldn't forget my face. That had been a twist of irony. Only three months ago had I received a phone call from an angry banker who wanted the D.A. taken out. I will get paid to get my own revenge.

I stepped in front of the coffee shop window and tapped on the glass. The D.A., a man named Schumecker, saw me immediately and jumped to his feet. I knew he wouldn't be able to resist talking to me. I was, I suppose, his most complicated case. He burst through the doors with his fists clenched and approached me with a rather aggressive posture.

"Lowe! What are you doing here?" The man growled at me as he approached. I smiled in greeting and held my hand out to shake his.

"Long time no see, Schumecker!"

He didn't shake my hand. Instead he glowered down at it with teeth bared as if he were about to bite it off. "Get the hell out of here, Lowe!"

I shook my head and pointed at the sidewalk. "Won't you take a walk with me?"

"No. Leave, I don't want to see your sorry face around here-"

"What if I have a few… confessions to make? Would you be so kind as to walk me to the church?"

I knew I was plucking the man's last nerves. He stomped forward at me as if to strike and I jumped away quickly. "Come now, sir. That would not be very professional, to strike one of your favorite criminals."

Schumecker shook his head and followed me, just as I thought he would. "Lowe, I will have you arrested!"

"For what? All I did was tap on the glass. I am certain there was no sign saying that I shouldn't."

Only ten yards to go.

"You are an evil man, Lowe! A bringer of death. It follows you everywhere and one day it will be the death sentence for you!" He howled while waving a fist at me. I shook my head and began walking backwards away from him, luring him towards the sign.

"Now-now. Come, you shouldn't get yourself worked up, what about your blood pressure?"

"Can it, scumbag…" he snarled.

"Scumbag? Why… what a terrible thing to say. You won't catch me, Schumecker. I will be free, always." This made his face turn purple. A bead of sweat rolled from the old man's forehead and landed on the cement sidewalk below.

One more yard.

"Over my dead body!" He bellowed.

BANG