Kracken
Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.
warning:Male/male sex, slight M-preg, violence, language, graphic.
Reflections of You
Arrangements.
"Are you guys ready?" Duo asked as he looked at the nervous men standing
around him.
Wu Fei nodded firmly, Trowa shrugged, Quatre swallowed hard, and Heero looked as if he were about to run behind enemy lines.
"They're just kids, guys!" Duo growled as he opened the door. "Get a grip!"
" 'Bout time," Scav grumbled. Seated on the carpet of one of Quatre's bungalows, he was waving a stuffed bunny at one of the babies rolling about the carpet. The doctor was standing behind him, looking on as if he were supervising.
They all stood and looked down at the babies. They were strong and perfect, dark hair messy little mops on their round heads. Duo was the first to crouch and looked closer. He grinned. "Hey, blue eyes, both of them."
"I think this one's starting to get purple, though," Scav disagreed. "Doc says they almost always start blue."
"Yeah?" Duo looked even more pleased. "He's got my chin too."
Wu Fei grunted. "He's a baby, Duo."
Duo rubbed his chin. "The other one doesn't have it."
Quatre bent down and frowned. "I don't see anything of me."
"Maybe their toes," Duo chuckled. "I'm sure you're in there somewhere."
Duo sat on the carpet and gingerly picked a baby up in his arms. Scav was right there showing him how to hold it properly. Duo snickered at him. "Maybe we should hire you as a nanny?"
Scav made a face. "And be on the grid? No, thanks. I think I'll stay the mysterious uncle and find another hidey hole."
Duo looked at his son with fascination. He felt a thrill in the pit of his stomach and a bit of fear as he looked up at the others.
"Well?" he asked softly. "What do we do? All live together and raise them, or draw straws?"
Wu Fei crossed his arms over his chest tightly. "It's enough to know that my DNA survives. I don't have any inclination to raise children."
"Don't look at me," Trowa snorted.
Quatre hesitated. He reached out for the other baby and picked it up. "I think I might want to raise my children."
"Heero?" Duo nodded and then gave Heero a serious look "What're you thinking?"
Heero seemed overwhelmed. He put a hand to his mouth as if to hide some strong emotion and then he said softly, "I want to know my sons... very well."
Duo cradled their son. Holding him, he felt a strong urge to keep them both safe, but he wasn't under any illusion as to how little he knew about taking care of babies.
"I know we made plans, Heero, but..." Duo nuzzled a soft cheek with his nose and that baby made a happy, gurgling sound, "I think we need help. Quatre has an entire staff that can show us what to do. Maybe we should consider staying with him and the kids?"
Quatre nodded eagerly. "That would be fine with me," he agreed.
Heero seemed relieved. He lowered his hand, revealing a smile as he looked down at Duo. "I'd like that," he replied.
Duo grinned back, but the doctor erased that expression when he pointed out, "We still have to report all of this to the authorities. We still have to try to paint your defection and defiance of the law in a light that will save you from jail sentences."
Quatre straightened, cradling his son close. "That's what lawyers are for, Doctor, and I have a great deal of them. It's time they earned their keep."
"They might try to take the babies away," Duo thought, feeling fear
grip him. "What if they don't think we're-"
"Then I'll make sure they go with me again," Scav said, cutting his worries off. "They won't keep our kids locked up with strangers. The thing to do is test the waters first. Don't let 'em know where the kids are until we know how things are."
"The rest of us didn't break the law," Wu Fei pointed out, "at least as far as the authorities know. We can claim paternity and take them if we must."
Duo nodded, but he wasn't completely convinced that everything would go their way. He was too used to the things he loved being ripped from him. He wouldn't go public without at least a few back up plans, he decided, just in case.
Duo stared at the 3-D vid of his sons as they waited for their
meeting with government officials. Heero sat beside him in a stiff
backed chair, the reflective, cherry wood meeting table seeming a
vast landscape before them. Guards stood on the opposite side of
that surface, watching Heero and Duo nervously.
"No lawyers," Duo murmured as he decided that, yes, one of
his sons was going to inherit his eyes. "Armed guards. Not a good
way to start."
"We're presenting our proof and our reasoning," Heero
replied as he traced a pattern on the table with one, blunt
finger. "Charges haven't been leveled yet."
"If you think they'll let us walk out of here, free as
birds..." Duo growled.
Heero shot him a look. "If you think I'm not prepared..."
Duo smiled. He pointed to his other son, "He has your
cheeks."
"Michael Maxwell," Heero said, leaning in to look as
well. "It was good that everyone agreed to name him after Scav."
Duo nodded and snickered. "It's not like he uses it. Dutro
Quhecha Maxwell is going to be explaining his name his entire life,
though." He looked embarrassed. "You really didn't have to give them
my last name."
"You sacrificed the most," Heero told him and then
grimaced. "It would have been better, though, if we could have
agreed to name the second child something else."
Duo rolled eyes at him. "No one could agree. Condensing all
of our names, seemed a time saving solution. He can always change it
later."
Heero grunted.
"Seems kind of overwhelming, doesn't it?" Duo said as he
smiled at the vid. "Being parents."
"We haven't been given much of a chance yet," Heero
complained.
"We will," Duo scowled determinedly. "As soon as we
straighten these people out."
The door opened and Relena and her council entered, looking
very serious. They arranged themselves in their chairs around the
table and Relena positioned herself directly across from them, a
sheaf of documents in her manicured hands.
"Good day, gentleman," Relena began. "We are pleased that
you've decided to comply with our orders to present yourselves
before us. We are ready to hear your arguments and hope, that you
will listen to our council as well."
"Sure," Duo replied nervously, swallowed, and then shot his
paperwork across the table to Relena.
"Doctor reports," Duo told her. "Our kids are not clones,
they are a genetic mixture of our sperm."
She opened and looked over the documents, studied the seals,
and stamps, and then slid it over to an expert seated beside her,
looking relieved. "That resolves a very grave matter."
"I bet," Duo grunted.
"Other things still need resolution," a man down the table
from Relena growled. "You willfully broke many laws, committed
violence, and ignored our will."
"To save two, innocent lives from a mistake," Heero replied
quietly. "We risked ourselves to keep the government from executing
it's own citizens until proof could be presented to clear them of
their clone status."
Relena looked uncomfortable. She had to thread a needle of
law and a desire to keep Heero and Duo out of prison. Duo didn't
trust her, but Heero was looking confident that she would find a way
to free them.
It was a long, drawn out process. They were forced to
receive severe lectures, sentenced to community time, and ordered
to make public announcements about their mistakes. They would be
under a two year probation. Any further crimes would be punished to
the full extent of the law.
Duo almost nodded off several times and Heero looked angry
through most of it. When everyone had spoken, Heero pulled out
papers and presented them to Relena. "The children, Michael and
Dutro, will be under the guardianship of Duo, myself, and Quatre
Winner. In the event that we are compromised, guardianship will fall
to Trowa Barton and Chang Wu Fei."
Relena clasped her hands and looked down at the
papers. "This will be taken under advisement."
Duo started. "What?"
"The children were part of an illegal operation," Relena
reminded them. "Therefore they should be placed under the authority
of special services until your competence, and legal standing, as
guardians can be established."
"Taken from the brightest and the best," Duo sneered. "The
military been talking to you already?"
Relena looked angry. "No. We are at peace. We don't condone
the development of weapons, human or machine."
"I'm sure there's people who don't agree with you," Heero
told her. "Make certain they aren't the ones convincing you to take
this course of action."
Relena looked concerned and then said, "I will take that
advice, Mr. Yuy. Now, if you will give the children over to our
custody..."
Duo grinned. "Sure, sure, we'll go get them. They're our
kids, so, I'm not worried that we won't get to be their parents in
the end. You're a fair person. I trust you."
Relena inclined her head in acknowledgment as both Duo and
Heero stood up.
"About an hour and we'll have the kids here," Duo promised.
"Make the call," one of the council said. "We won't allow
you to leave this building until they are in our custody."
"Yeah, I can understand that," Duo sighed as he rubbed the
back of his neck. "We'll use the lobby phone. My cells dead."
The councilman nodded to a guard to follow them. The man
gripped his rifle and nervously followed in their wake as Heero and
Duo went into the lobby of the council chambers.
Duo said over his shoulder to the guard, "You can either
step back and pretend we over powered you, or you can end up with
some broken bones... at the very least."
The guard went wide eyed and then replied in a frightened
voice, "I knew this would happen."
"Your choice," Heero ground out.
"I'd like to live, please, unhurt," the guard replied.
"Good choice," Duo snickered. "See ya."
The guard watched as Heero and Duo both darted into the
milling crowd in the lobby. He counted for a few seconds, until he
felt reasonably safe, and then shouted, "They've escaped!"
Duo sat back in his chair, tense and frowning as Heero paced the floor, jiggling
Michael, and making meaningless, soothing mumbles. The clock was just reaching
three in the morning and the baby had not stopped crying since one. It's face
screwed up and red, it's fierce cries of discontent were eating both Heero and
Duo alive. Opened diapers were spilled out on the floor, formula was cooling
on a side table, and several toys and ointments were jumbled together in the
empty basinet. In contrast, his brother, Dutro was sleeping soundly, pacifier
hanging from lax lips.
"We could leave him on someone's doorstep," Duo suggested with the voice of the desperate. "Anyone's better than us."
Heero glared at Duo. "You're not helping."
The small satellite, a well hidden Winner playground, had been appointed with every convenience and had turned out to be the perfect hiding place for the children of Gundam pilots. Unfortunately, Quatre's staff had yet to reach it with the same speed as two expert pilots in a fast shuttle. Left to their own devices, and with only the brief communications window allowed them each day, asking for advice had proven almost impossible.
"Look at the notes again," Heero growled.
Duo unfolded a creased paper, smoothed it out, and wearily read, "Excessive crying: diaper rash, full diaper, constipation, hunger, colic... we already when through this, Heero! There's nothing we haven't checked aside from breast feeding him. I gotta tell you, that I'm not going for that one."
"We should have brought-" Heero began in frustration.
"Let's not go over that again, either!" Duo snarled. "We didn't have time to bring anyone else. We were lucky to get through space security before they figured out we were outer space bound."
The baby suddenly burped and spit up onto Heero's shoulder. It's crying increased.
"Get a rag!" Heero barked.
"Okay, okay!" Duo growled, "but yelling isn't going to calm Junior down."
Duo dragged himself wearily into the kitchen, glared blearily around with blood shot eyes, and then spied the dish rag under the stack of pots and pans that had been cleaned from dinner. Duo began teasing it out and then yanked it, with temper, when it resisted him. The pots and pans went clanging and clattering to the floor. Furious, he kicked them and sent them in every direction.
"Duo!" Heero snarled from the doorway. "Clean it up and get me the damned rag."
The baby increased it's crying, little fists flailing. Duo let out a long breath. "Sorry," he mumbled, angry with himself, now, for not being able to control his temper. He bent and began picking up the pans as he continued dejectedly, "Maybe Relena was right? Maybe we have bitten off more than we can chew." His hand came in contact with a steel colander.
"Duo, it's just a baby," Heero soothed. "Don't give up. We'll figure this out."
"At his expense?" Duo wondered, nodding to the baby. He began to put the colander on the counter and then paused, an idea coming to him. "Heero?" he asked, "Is there a flashlight around here?"
Heero's attention was on the baby again. "What?" he asked distractedly as he began jiggling the baby again.
"A flashlight?" Duo persisted.
"Left hand drawer," Heero told him as he irritably retrieved the rag himself and began cleaning his shoulder awkwardly.
Duo found the flashlight, tightened his grip on the colander, and then reached to turn out the light.
"Duo?!" Heero protested.
Duo turned on the flashlight. "Just a sec," he said as he placed the colander over the light.
The holes in the steel colander were suddenly projectors. A pattern formed all around them. The baby fell silent, eyes wide, as he struggled to follow the bits of light.
Heero grunted.
Duo grinned, took hold of Heero's elbow,and lowered them both to the floor. Leaning against a cabinet, spilled pots and pans all around them, Duo turned the colander to make the pattern twist and turn. The baby giggled, burped again, and then looked very tired and pleased with himself.
"Better than breast feeding," Duo snorted softly.
Heero smiled softly as he cradled the baby against his chest. Listening to his heartbeat, the baby finally went to sleep.
"Love you," Heero whispered and gave Duo a heartfelt look.
Duo swallowed and leaned into Heero. "Maybe we can do this? We might have to stay on the lam our whole lives, and share the kids with the other guys, and never sleep again, but... I think it's worth it."
"I think so too," Heero replied.
Duo made the lights play on the wall for their own amusement, but then eventually put the colander aside. Leaving the flashlight on, they rested against each other and slowly fell asleep with their baby curled against their hearts.
THE END
End
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