DISCLAIMER: I own neither Harry Potter, nor Gundam Wing. If I did, I'd be a whole lot richer than I am now, and I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.
Author's note: I'm sorry this took so long to get out. They've increased the hours at my work recently, plus truth is this chapter was for some reason much harder to right than any of the others so far.
Chapter 6 – Telling Them
Heero Yuy – Preventer Agent, ex-terrorist, trained assassin, and the Prefect Soldier pilot of the Gundam Wing Zero – was not having a good day.
The day had started so normally too. He'd woken up as usual, caught up in his lover's possessive embrace (and it still amazed him, even after two years together, that the former God of Death was such a cuddlier). Once Heero had managed to extract himself, he grabbed a quick shower, and headed downstairs. It his turn to make breakfast and by the time he was done the rest of his fellow pilots had wandered in. After everyone had eaten, and the usual fight over whose turn it was to wash the dishes was out of the way, the five had headed off to work. All perfectly normal in the lives of the five former Gundam Pilots.
However, it wasn't long after that things started to break off from their normal routine, and as far as Heero was concerned, not in a good way.
Wufei and his partner, Sally Po, being called in to go on a mission to the nearby city of Devon first thing that morning; that was fine.
Wufei and Sally being called in to go for a mission by Une herself before their shift had even officially began; well, that was a little stranger, but it was still acceptable. Such had happened a few times in the past when the case in question was important, though usually at those times Une would call all six of them in.
Wufei and Sally being called in first thing for – as Wufei called it when he checked in with his fellow pilots before he set out as was the somewhat paranoid five's standard procedure (in the case that backup was needed, they certainly weren't going to intrust their comrade's well being to anybody. Even now, five years after the war ended, they only truly trusted each other, with Sally and the Maganacs slowly creeping their way in as well. It was only natural, therefore, that they do their best to be constantly aware of where their fellow ex-pilots were at all times when on the job) – a pathetically low brow job, that even the most inept so-called agent the Preventers stooped to hire for unknown reasons in the last batch of not-so-hopefuls could have handled; now that was certainly a surprise. What in all of known space was Une up o sending two of her best agents on such a mission? Hopefully there was more to this that Wufei hadn't been told yet, otherwise Heero was sure they would be hearing about it for months.
The next couple of hours went more or less as Heero had expected the day to go however, and he was able to put Wufei's unusually low level mission to the back of his mind for a few hours. The morning was spent quietly as Heero and Quatre worked their way through the paperwork from their last case, while in the office across from theirs' Trowa and Duo assumingly did the same. That was until about quater to noon, when Duo wondered in to ask if either Heero or Quatre had any idea why Trowa was called to Une's office for something to which Duo was notably not invited.
Heero and Quatre were at a loss about what that could be about. One, they never went on missions alone, so there was no reason for Trowa to be called in without Duo. Two, Trowa hadn't done anything that would warrant a remand as far as he knew, and despite her current position Heero doubted Une could ever have better information on one of his brothers than he did. Three, despite Trowa's skills which were obviously a cut above even the best agents in the Preventers – excluding his fellow pilots of course – Trowa had already made it clear that he had no desire to rise any higher in the ranks as that would take him out of the field and put him behind a desk, so any possible promotion is out. On that same token, he wouldn't have been called in to discuss any possible further training, as Une knew full well he had training that went far above any the agency offered. And four, Heero was sure that Une wouldn't have called in Trowa to try and have him squeal on Duo's pranking behaviour again. Despite the fact that his lover had been cutting down lately, Une no doubt had learnt her lesson about that now.
So why was Une breaking procedures that she herself wrote most of and was very insistent that be followed (much to the occasional annoyance of all five pilots who were much more inclined to do things their own way, but that was another story). Mission briefing were always done with all participants present, and Heero had already ruled out the reasons why an agents would be asked to see a superior alone.
Indeed, the only one Heero hadn't mentally listed was possible news about an agent's family. And that was ridiculous as he and his fellow pilots were Trowa's family. Three of them were right here, and in the unlikely event that something had happened to Wufei since Heero had talked to him a few hours ago, the rest of them would have been called in too. The only other family Trowa had was…
"Could something have happened to Catherine?" Heero asked hesitantly.
From the looks on Quatre and Duo's faces when they turned to stare at them, the thought that something might have happened to the circus star hadn't occurred to them before either. For a moment the three simply stared at each other, before all at once the three jumped into action. Heero quickly opened his computer to search the Preventer database of any mention of a Catherine Bloom. Quatre instantly reached out to Trowa with his Space Heart, looking for any indication in his lover's mood that they might be right in their assessment. Duo, well unfortunately Duo wasn't really able to help in this situation. As good as his computer skills were, they still paled in comparison to Heero's, and he certainly lacked any kind of ability like Quatre's Space Heart to help him in this situation. In turn Duo was forced to restrain himself to swearing quietly under his breath and watch Heero's search over his shoulder.
Heero and Quatre's searches had mixed results.
Heero, on one hand, was able to confirm that nothing in the Preventer database, or the L3 news headlines which was where the circus was currently located, showed any indication that something might have happened to Trowa's sister. Indeed, all he could find on the girl in recent news was rather flattering review on the circus from some local newspaper. Heero was relieved. He didn't know Catherine that well; the girl had been cold to the pilots for a long time after the war, as she had blamed them for putting her 'little brother' in danger. She wasn't overly fond of his work at the Preventers either. Personally, Heero could understand her desire to keep a love one from harm, but considering the career she evidently would have chosen for Trowa involved working with animals fully capable of eating him, and getting knives thrown at him on a regular basis, he couldn't help but think she didn't exactly have that much room to complain about Trowa's job being dangerous. Still, she had been trying to open up with the former pilots in more recent times, mostly since Trowa and Quatre started dating and it became clear they intended to be together for a long time. What's more, she and Trowa remained quite close. Even if they didn't see each other in person all that much these days, they still maintained contact, and would engage in a long videoconference at least once a week. Trowa would be devastated if anything happened to Catherine, and for that reason alone, Heero was glad that it appeared that she was all right.
Quatre on the other hand didn't appear to have such good news. Heero didn't even pretend to understand how Quatre's empathy worked. Such things were way beyond his understanding. However, after five nearly six years with Quatre, Heero knew all too well that it did work and that he could trust whatever Quatre said in relation to it. So when whatever Quatre picked up in relation to Trowa made the former Sandrock pilot swear out loud (and wasn't that a shock, coming from the normally refined and exceptionally well mannered Quatre), Heero and Duo knew that whatever Trowa was being told was bad. A fact that was confirmed when a worried Quatre turned to Heero and Duo to tell them that Trowa was currently awash in a whole plethora of ever changing emotions. The main two of which seemed to be anger and fear. The second nearly had Heero tearing out of the office that very minute to find and save Trowa from whatever was threatening him, with only Quatre's reassurance that the fear was for someone other than Trowa himself that had him staying put for the moment.
As it was, it was quite a few tense minutes in the office before Quatre announced that Trowa had left Une's office and was heading back their way. The minutes that followed were even tenser as they waited for their fellow pilot to return and tell them what was wrong. Had the journey from Une's office always been so long?
At long last Trowa finally arrived. However, if any of the pilots in the room expected that once their comrade and friend arrived everything would go back to normal, they were quickly disillusioned by the look on his face. Trowa was visually showing stress, something that Heero couldn't remember happening since… actually he wasn't quite sure he had ever seen his friend looking so upset. It was so shocking and so disturbing to see the normally so stoic former pilot look like this that for a moment Heero was struck speechless.
A very short moment mind you, before training and the protective side of him that had become so fond of his friends – his family – kicked in and Heero found himself filled with righteous anger and the desire to run out and destroy whatever had made his brother look like that. From what he could see from Duo from the corner of his eye, his lover would be right behind him.
Of course Quatre as usual when it involved Trowa was even quicker, and was even now rushing forward to engulf his boyfriend in a hug and demand to know what was wrong.
Trowa was as usual a man of few words. Instead of answering verbally he simply held out the folder that until now the others had missed in their concern for brother. Since Quatre clearly had no intention of letting go of his boyfriend anytime soon – most likely not until his space heart assured him that he was feeling better – Duo as the next one closest came forward to grab it.
"What's this?" Duo demanded, speaking quickly as he was liable to do when upset. Even as he spoke he was opening the file and speed-reading it. "A FRA report? Holy Shit, Trowa, you got siblings? Little siblings? How is that a bad thing?"
Heero felt his eyes widen involuntarily at that. Trowa had younger siblings? Since when? Why were they only hearing about it now? For a moment Heero wondered the same as Duo, how is that a bad thing? He knew Trowa was somewhat upset that he didn't know where he came from or who his real family was, despite how much he had resigned himself to never really knowing. Heero knew, and Duo knew, because they felt the exact same way. Wufei was different, he knew who his family was even if had had lost them all in the war. When the RFA came out, the others all knew Wufei was secretly hoping that some unknown relative would appear, somehow managing to escape the explosion that took their colony, only to be devastated yet not surprised when it didn't happen. Out of all of them, Quatre was they only one lucky enough to still have blood family. At least, the only one until now. So why was Trowa so upset?
Something was very wrong with this.
"Keep reading." Trowa said tensely, seemingly trying to bury himself in his smaller lover's embrace. Heero almost winced at this further sigh of his brother's turmoil, as the tall pilot was not really one for PDA. Neither was he really, it was something he and Trowa shared, along with their mutual understanding and sympathy of the fact that their lovers were both so touchy. For Trowa to be clinging to Quatre so much must mean he was even more upset than Heero had thought, and he already thought he was extremely upset.
"Keep reading, huh?" Duo repeated as he turned to the next page in the file. Actually, Heero thought with narrowed eyes on his lover, wasn't that file suspiciously thick for a RFA file? "What else is in here? Huh, a medical report? Why would a medical report be in a… oh." Duo suddenly went silent, deadly silent, and his eyes seemed to turn to ice. He began reading faster.
"Yeah, oh." Trowa muttered darkly.
Quatre was starting to look alarmed by everything he was sensing, both from Trowa and now Duo.
Heero couldn't take it anymore, and went over to take the file from Duo, who was no all but growling in his anger. It didn't take long before Heero could see why.
"They've been abused." Heero said bluntly after quickly scanning the pages, before going back to read them over again in more detail. "Badly."
"Abused and abandoned." Trowa confirmed, even as Quatre gasped in outrage. "They were drugged then dumped in an alleyway in Devon yesterday. If they hadn't taken shelter in a local library and the librarian on duty hadn't been concerned enough by their appearance to call the Preventers…"
"Come sit down." Quatre said when Trowa trailed off. Quickly he led his lover over to the couch in the corner that Heero and Quatre used for power naps on long cases. Under any other circumstances, Heero would be surprised that Trowa went so easily, but with everything that had happened in the last little while Heero barely even noticed. "How, how old are they?" Quatre asked a little hesitantly once they were both sitting.
"Harry, my brother, is seven." Trowa said. Despite everything else, he still looked a little awed at the words 'my brother'. "My sister, Luna, is six."
"Your parents?" Heero felt compelled to ask, as he hadn't seen anything about parents in the report.
"Dead, car crash five years ago. At least that's what Harry and Luna were told. They were both raised, if you can call it that, by people they know only as 'Uncle Vernon' and "Aunt Petunia'. No known last names, and the RFA hasn't picked up a match on either of them, yet."
Duo started muttering several unpleasant things under his breath at the mention of the abusers, which Heero pretended not to hear on account of many of the things he was apparently considering doing to 'Uncle Vernon' and 'Aunt Petunia' were very illegal. Not that Heero didn't think for a moment that they wouldn't deserve it, but still…
Duo hated child abusers with a passion. So did all the others of course – hell, so did everyone who worked in Law Enforcement – but Duo really hated child abusers. Out of all of them, Duo childhood was by far the worst. While Oden Lowe, and the mercenaries who took Trowa in were far from the most loving people ever, at least they were taken care of. Duo on the other hand spent most of his childhood on the streets. Eventually he was taken in by the Maxwell Church and Orphanage, and was happy there for a time until… well they called it the 'Maxwell Church Massacre' for a reason.
"Where are they now?" Heero asked, hoping to and successfully distracting his lover from him homicidal thought for the moment.
"They should be about half way between Devon and North Port right now."
"Oh really?" Quatre asked, his voice deceptively calm in a way that had Heero prepared to start running any moment. When Quatre used that voice, it was a clear warning to those who knew him that he sure as hell better like your answer. "And who exactly is bring them? Why were we not asked to pick them up?"
"Wufei and Sally." Trowa answered the first question and seemingly ignoring the second. "That was their mission this morning, to confirm that they really were my siblings then bring them back here if they were."
"Oh, well that's good then." Quatre said happily, clearly trusting that Wufei and Sally would keep his lover's siblings out of trouble. Heero had to admit he too was relived to hear that their newest family members would be in Wufei's capable hands as well. And Sally wasn't exactly a push over either. "Have you contacted them yet? To see how they're doing?"
"No." Trowa said, looking surprised like he hadn't thought of that. Heero wouldn't have blamed him, he hadn't though of it either.
"Well, let's do that now then." Quatre said brightly, getting up and heading over to his phone. "I'll put it on speaker."
AWAC *** AWAC *** AWACSome distance away, a Preventer car drove steadily towards North Port. Wufei sat in the front seat, Sally once again refusing to let him drive when he was upset. Wufei thought he was quite a good driver, but according to Sally when angry he drove the car like it was a Gundam. Also according to Sally, this was a bad thing. Wufei didn't see it, but this was one of those instances that Sally was able to out stubborn the younger man.
Despite Wufei's annoyance at being once again forced into the passenger seat, he was taking advantage of this to subtly check on the two minors – Trowa's siblings – at regular intervals throughout the trip. He suspected that the two knew what he was doing, as they seemed hyper aware of their surroundings. Most likely a side effect of how they were raised. Still, they never said anything about it.
In fact, the two never said anything at all, not since they got into the car. Instead, they sat as close to each other as possible with their seatbelts on, and alternatively looked out the windows, and at each other as if to insure that their brother/sister hadn't mysteriously disappeared during the trip. It was touching how close the two were, although it also highlighted to Wufei how badly to the two would no doubt react if separated in the near future. Something to be careful of no doubt, until he, Trowa and the rest of their brothers earned their trust, along with the rest of the problems Wufei could already see in their future. But they would succeed in the end, and turn these two in happy, productive little members of society. Any other option was unacceptable.
The fact that Wufei was already considering himself and the rest of his brothers to be a part of the children's future didn't even warrant a mention in Wufei's mind. Of course they would all do what they could to help Trowa with this. They were family, and their family had just grown by two.
Wufei was brought out of his thoughts suddenly by his phone ringing. The noise seemed so loud in the until now silent car that Wufei despite all his training almost jumped, and was quite relived to see that no one seemed to have noticed. He couldn't help but notice though that Harry and Luna did jump slightly, and were now staring at him and the phone in avid interest. Feeling oddly self-conscious, Wufei decided that maybe answering in his native language was a good idea.
"Chang here." He answered in Chinese.
"Wufei, it's Quatre." A well known voice answered, seemingly automatically in the same language. "And the others too, of course. Why are we speaking in Chinese?"
"I was wondering when you'd call." Wufei answered "Because as far as I know, certain minors don't speak Chinese." At the last second, Wufei decided to call Harry and Luna 'certain minors' instead of 'Trowa's siblings', just in case the others hadn't been told yet. Of course, if they hadn't been told by now then Wufei would have some strong words to say to Une next time he saw her, but still…
"Are Harry and Luna okay, Wufei?" That was Trowa, his voice filled with an anxiety only one of his fellow Gundam pilots would recognise. Ah, good, so they did know.
"As good as can be expected under the circumstances." Wufei answered. "Clinging to each other pretty badly, and wary of everything. I would not recommend separating them under any circumstances in the near future, I don't think they'd take it well. Still, all things considered I'd say they're being very brave about everything. You're brother's already showing himself to be quite honourable Trowa, and very protective of his little sister."
"And, do they know about me?" Trowa asked, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant. Though, really, under the circumstances who could blame him.
"They do." Wufei said, unable to stop the small smile from crossing his face at being able to give Trowa good news to that question. "And they seem quite cautiously optimistic to meet you."
"Good, that's good." Trowa said softly, before falling silent.
"What do they look like?" Duo's voice pipped up after a moment, when it became clear that Trowa wasn't going to say anything else.
"Harry's got black hair, and the same green eyes as Trowa. Luna's got long hair the same colour as Trowa's, and hazel eyes. All three of you seem to have variations of the same nose. Both of them are somewhat small for their age, and they're both very cute."
"Did Chang Wufei just say 'cute'?" Duo asked, sounding half disbelieving half amused.
"Not now Duo." Heero answered, before speaking up obviously talking to Wufei now. "What's your ETA?"
"About twenty minutes, thirty if we hit traffic." Wufei answered. "Of course Sally refused to let me drive, so it may be longer. The onna's so slow behind the wheel."
"Better a few minutes later than risk getting into a crash and risk dieing a horrible flaming death, Wufei." Sally said then, startling Wufei who hadn't realised she'd been listening until now. Of course, the woman was half Chinese as well, maybe he should have used Arabic. "I know what you drive like when angry."
Wufei choose to ignore that, along with the snickering coming from the braided menace that clearly said that those on the other side of the phone heard that too.
"Understood" Heero answered in regards to the ETA. Wufei's eyes narrowed slightly, was that amusement he heard in 01's voice?
"We I should probably go, I need to call Rashid and get things ready for Harry and Luna at the house. No good brings them home if we have no where to put them."Quatre said. Wufei almost snorted, and from the other side of the phone somebody – most likely Duo – did snort. Only Quatre could think a forty bedroom mansion would have 'no where to put them'.
"Look after them for me, Wufei." Trowa said rather than asked. There was no need to ask as the answer was painfully obvious.
"Of course." Wufei answered. "We'll be there soon." Both sides hang-up without saying goodbye. A small superstitions all the pilots indulged in.
Once he'd put his phone away, Wufei glanced once more back at the two via the rear-view mirror, and almost laughed out loud. The two were both staring at him with narrowed eyes, and Wufei was certain he knew why. Apparently the two had realised that he'd been speaking in Chinese to keep them from eavesdropping, and were decidedly Not Amused at being left out. Part of him rejoiced that they both still had that kind of fire within them, especially Luna who had so far been so quite and shy. Another part however, was stuck on the much simpler though that he couldn't believe how – and he could barely believe he was using this word, even in his own head – how damn adorable they both looked right then.
One thing was for certain, Wufei thought, while allowing a small smile to cross his face. Life was certainly about to get interesting with these two in it.