April 4, 2001
This series concerns traditions and histories beyond the original Gundam Boys. These are a series of stories of traditions shared by the Boys and their offspring. The next generation if you will.
April, 203 AC
Zechs Marquise was fidgeting. He tried not to, very self-conscious and acutely aware of the swarms of people around him. He scanned the sea of faces again, searching for the familiar one belonging to his wife and long-time friend, as he shifted the dozing toddler in his arms.
"Johny, stop it!" the woman behind him hissed, yanking on a young boy's arm.
"But I gotta go to the bathroom!" the boy whined, pulling on his arm.
"It can wait," the mother replied.
"But I gotta go *now*!"
"We're almost there; hold it."
"You've got a real angel there," another woman said, pulling Zechs attention forward. He smiled nervously at the young woman standing in line before him, tugging down on Kit's blue-skirted dress where it hitched up past her knees. The woman was rocking and swinging a screaming infant. "Colic," she told him, juggling the baby.
"Ahh," he replied, nodding as if he understood.
"Johny, I said 'No!'"
Zechs felt a tug on his pants and looked down at the little boy who barely came up to his knees. "Hey mister! Did anyone ever tell ya you look a lot like that Milliardo Peacecraft guy from the Eve Wars?"
"Johny!"
"We're learning about the Eve Wars in class right now and you look an awful lot like the scan in our books," the boy went on, undeterred by his mother's outrage.
Zechs flushed and stumbled for something to say as he shifted his two and a half year old baby girl from one arm to the other. The child mumbled her discontent at being shifted before falling back to sleep. The same instant he opened his mouth to say 'yes', a familiar presence joined him.
"The Eve Wars, huh?" Noin asked, tuffing the boy's hair. "Learning anything good?"
"Nah, not really," the boy replied. "It's all just a bunch of dates that we're supposed to memorize."
"Well, that's no fun!" Noin pouted along with the boy, moving closer to Zechs and taking their daughter from him. "Wake up, kitten," she told the toddler, jiggling her until two large dark blue eyes blinked open sleepily. Kataryna Peacecraft made a face before turning her head to hide her face in her mother's shoulder. "Zechs, can you get the car to go pick up some things from Kaylee's?"
Zechs looked at her, wary. "What did you buy now?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"Oh, just a few things," Noin replied, smiling as she continued to convince her daughter she needed to wake up.
"Like what?" he prodded.
"Oh-- " Noin smiled, teasing Kit's cheek. "A few baby items. Some clothes. Some little toys. A baby book."
"Baby--?"
Zechs Marquise, aka Milliard Peacecraft, looked at his wife three years and blinked. A smile began to creep over his shocked face before he laughed outright, in the center of the shopping plaza, causing more than just several heads to turn.
"Here, let me," he said, plucking their daughter out of her arms. "You shouldn't be carrying anything heavy, you know."
Noin smirked. "It's not like she weighs a lot, Zechs," the raven-haired woman replied.
Zechs blinked, and then laughed again. "No, she doesn't, does she?" He jostled the toddler until she was squealing with delight, wide-awake now.
"Next!"
They shifted up in line. "So," Zechs asked. "When?"
"Last week."
Zechs blinked. "I meant, when are you due?"
Noin bumped him with her shoulder. "Do the math, genius." They moved up in line again. "If it's April *now*--" She smiled.
"A new year's baby, huh?" Zechs smiled down at her. She was grinning back at him. He leaned over and drop-placed a kiss on her nose. "Love you."
"Glad you realized it," Noin retorted, beaming.
"Next!" the teenager shouted at them.
Zechs and Noin started. Kit frowned at the adolescent girl. They walked down the green little walkway between the little white picket fences, fake tulips blooming with painted wooden glory to either side. Zechs climbed the three steps up the dais where some poor smuck sat, overheating, in a large white-furred costume in an even larger white whickered chair. Noin stayed next to the adolescent boy, popping his gum, waiting with a camera.
Zechs settled the 2 year old on the white lap, kissed the girl's cheek and backed away.
Kataryna Peacecraft, aka Kit, took one look at her Daddy moving away from her, one look up at the white monstrosity she was in the arms of, scrunched up her eyes and let out a wail that surpassed that of the colicky baby.
"What are you waiting for?" Noin asked the boy holding the camera. "Take the damn picture already!"
End of Part 1: Pictures with the Easter Bunny
**Note**
To this day, Kataryna Peacecraft holds a deep hatred of white rabbits.
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com