09-June-02
A Matter of Heart: Heirs to the Legacy
By: Andrea Readwolf
Email: <andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com>
Rating: YA/Mature
Families: YMC Fam (Yuy-Maxwell-Chang Family: Trinity, Mara Jade, and Dylan);
Winner Fam (Quatre + Trowa, Triton&Tristan, and little sis Calista)
Peacecraft Family (Zechs Marquise/Milliard + Lucrezia/Noin Peacecraft, Kit/Katarynna, Adrian, and Nicolette/Nicole); Mazzolla Family (Mariemeia + Jake Mazzolla {OC}, Julian; Catalonia-Dorian Family (Dorothy Catalonia + Relena Dorian, Regina); Une-Po Family (Lady Une + Sally Po, Marie Une*, Michael Braddocks,Mark Braddocks, Matthew Braddocks)
Archive: Yes-- www.gwaddiction.com
Warnings: The following story contains scenes that are humorous, sappy,
fluff, with Incoherence, random PoV switching, and Sexual innuendos abound.
Original Characters are presented; all characters are IC according to the
author's interpretation of them. Mainly heterosexual situations, with hints
of YAOI and YURI.
Spoilers: Previous Matter of Heart Series Arc stories: "Dance of the Heart"
Arc and "Oh Baby, Baby" Arc. Built off of "Traditions".
Feedback: C&C is always welcomed and adored.
Acknowledgements: There have been some wonderful people who have
made my sojourn in GW-fanfiction more than just enjoyable and have
inspired me to write, write, and write some more. And to Lev, who's doing
a great job uploading these fics to GWA. Thank you.
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters belong to Bandai, Sunrise
and Sotsu Agency and are only being used for non-profit entertainment
purposes. References to printed texts, films, sitcoms, musical
pieces, and/or other fanfictions don't belong to the author either.
Original Characters, including but not limited too, the Berh
Siblings, Jake Mazzolla and "the chibis", are original and hence, the
author's own creation.
Notes: This is the story of the children, the nine children of the 6
gundam pilots (Heero--Zechs) plus the grandchild of Treize
Khushrenada. This story will not focus primarily on the characters
from the series, but rather, the generation after them. This story is
not for all die-hard fans, but runs along the lines of a more
original piece.
***These stories and the ideas contained within are copyright of the author. No reprinting or posting without permission of said author. ***
~May 227~
It was a curse. Her sister hated her. That was the only explainable reason why Mara Jade Yuy Maxwell Chang was allowing herself to be pinched, poked, and prodded in every which direction for this devil of a woman who was supposedly measuring her for her bride's maid gown.
Fed up with the cursed pins, she snatched the woman's wrist before it could stick another pin in her flesh. "Stick me again and I will break your wrist. Do you understand me?" the dark haired girl warned lowly.
The middle-aged woman looked at her with wide, alarmed eyes before wrenching her arm away and standing up. "Why, I *never*!" the old fart humphfed before storming out of the fitting room.
"Mrs. Newton? Mrs. Newton, wait! Wait!" her sister's frantic voice called after the departing figure.
Mara Jade was smirking when her older sibling rushed back into the fitting room. "Dammit, Mara Jade! If you keep this up, I'll stick you myself!" the normally sweet-tempered Trinity shouted, glaring at her little sister with large, tear-filled dark blue eyes.
"Oiya, oiya, calm down, Trin, and help me out of this torture device. I can't *move* without getting stuck!"
"Good! You deserve it!" Trinity snapped, still moving to help the other girl out of the dress scrapes. "Mara? Can't you just *please* behave yourself long enough to be fitted for the gown? This is *so* important to me! I want this wedding to be perfect."
"Then why the hell did you choose *me* as your maid of honor?" the 19-year old grudgingly asked as the last of the pinned cloth fell away from her supple and limber young body.
"Because," Trinity answered, kissing her sister's cheek. "You are my little sister and are special to me and I want all my special people with me."
Mara Jade let the older girl hold her for another minute before pushing her away. "Okay, okay, get off. You're going to give me a cavity with all this sugar-sweetness."
Trinity just laughed at her. "You just *want* people to think you're a sourpuss, Mara-chan. You can't fool me."
"Yar, yar, whatever," the younger dark-haired girl replied, grabbing her bag from the corner and leading the way back out to the waiting car. "So has Adrian figured out his court, yet? Oops, I mean his *groom's list*," she smiled with false sweetness, batting her eyelashes for her older sibling.
"Ha ha, very funny," Trinity sighed, pushing her sister inside the car. "I really wish you wouldn't try and tease him about his appointment, Mara J. You know he's nervous about the coronation."
"I know no such thing. And if he's nervous, then he should take it as a sign that he should stick to being Adrian Peacecraft and turn his nose to all this 'King of Sank' business."
"Oh, you don't really mean that, Mara Jade," Trinity smiled as the car started off to their next destination. "Besides, I'm nervous about getting married and moving away and leaving Dylan, and you, and Daddy."
"Which one?"
"*All* of them!" Trinity laughed, playfully slapping her sister.
"Okay, break time," Tristan Raberba Winner announced, tossing his pen down upon the table to blend in with the collage of notes, note cards, pens of every color, pencils (also of the colored variety), markers, highlighters, sticky-note pads, folders, binders and text books. In short, the table had become a battle zone known intimately by all university students who were 36 hours away from final exams.
Across the battle zone..err, table, Adrian Peacecraft looked up from his current stack of note cards. Dark sapphire eyes glanced quickly at the clock wall, noting that they *had* been at it for almost three hours. He yawned and stretched out his long body (at 23, the next monarch of Sank was already 6'2"). "This is the last time," he told his friend, slumping over the library table.
Tristan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know-you've only told me about a zillion times, buddy. Graduation Day in 10 days." The blond grinned. "We all have it circled in red in our agenda books, don't worry. We'll be there, cheering you on."
"Yeah, and what about *you*," the dark-haired young man asked, sending a pointed looked over at his friend.
Cue that trademark smirk that had charmed many a girls--and boys. "Oh, you know me," Tristan laughed. "I'll be changing my major again this summer. I was thinking of trying Etomology."
Adrian shook his head, stress and fatigue making his actions heavy and slow. "That would make it what? Five? Six?"
"If I switch?" Tristan's grin widened. "Eight majors."
"I can't believe your dads let you do it." Adrian's head kept shaking as he began gathering their books and things. "I mean, you've been here six years and you haven't even gotten one degree yet!"
Tristan just laughed at him. "Yeah, but all I have to do is go back and take one or two courses and I'd be eligible for 6 or 7 degrees. Besides," and here the blond young man shrugged. "My dads know I'm not ready to join the family business yet. WEI doesn't even need me--it runs itself, really."
"Yeah, but... aren't you tired of being a *student*?" Adrian asked. Only a year older than his friend, at 23 he had 3 degrees under his belt and was only 10 days away from his doctorates'. "I mean," the dark head shook again. "It will be good to get out of this place and get to work."
"Look at it this way, man: you've got a whole country knockin' on your door 'cause they think they need your guidance, right? Me? Nobody needs me, so I can be as irresponsible as I want! Besides," he added as they headed out the building, passing a small group of lovely girls. "Where else can you find such delectable distractions? It's a sweet deal, my friend."
Adrian laughed. "I'm not in the market anymore, remember?"
Tristan slapped the raven-black haired man on the back. "Adrian, whether you know it or not, you were *never* in the market. Speaking of which, I believe I heard Dad this morning mentioning something about Trinity dragging Mara J down to the shopping district?"
The Peacecraft heir groaned, thinking about the fiery-tempered girl who was about to become his sister-in-law. "We're up to four," he told Tristan, indicating the number of seamstresses the young woman had threatened to the point of the women refusing to sew the dress Trinity wanted her maid of honor to wear.
Tristan tried not to laugh--really he did. Okay, well, maybe not as earnestly as he could have. "Oh, man!" the blond hooted. "I'll tell ya, this is gonna be one blast of a party if you let the girl in it!"
"I don't have much a choice," Adrian grumbled--he didn't have anything against Mara Jade. Not really. She was a nice girl, and already like a sister to him--after all, they'd all practically grown up together because their parents were friends and co-workers. But... Mara Jade had a little temper problem. And when he said 'little', he was being very, very generous.
"So I guess," the dark-haired groom-to-be continued, "That you'll just have to keep her in line for me. Consider it part of the job of the best man."
Several seconds later, he realized Tristan wasn't walking beside him anymore. He turned and looked back at the blond who was watching him with a shocked expression.
"Are you shitting me, man? For real?" A big, goofy smile spread across the tall, blond man's face and he rushed forward, catching Adrian around the waist and whirling the large dark-haired young man around. "I thought for sure you were gonna pick Try, man," Tristan said when he finally put his friend back on his own two feet.
"Yeah, well," Adrian laughed, his cheeks slightly flushed from embarrassment as well as excitement. "I was thinking about it and, with Triton up in space and all for his internship, it was just more practical to have you fill in the spot, you know? Besides, I can't have *two* best men. *and*--" and this was the cincher, "With Mara Jade as the Maid of Honor and you as the Best Man..."
"Thanks, man," Tristan said in a more subdued tone, still smiling, blue eyes sparkling with delight. "I really appreciate this, you know?"
Adrian slapped him on the back and they headed back towards the parking lot. "Yeah, well, just as long as *you* deal with *her*, because you *know* she's going to bitch."
Tristan's smile spread into a self-satisfied smirk. "Oh, you better believe it..."
"Mara? Which photo do you like better?"
Two similar pictures of Trinity and Adrian looking mushy-gushy-couply-like were thrust in front of her nose, coming between her and the book of philosophy she was reading. "There's a difference?" she asked dryly.
"Don't be silly! Of *course* there's a difference!" Trinity said, smiling with excitement as she moved around the sofa and fell down beside her sister. "See--this one has a blue marble background and this one has the landscape background."
Mara Jade looked at the two pictures again. They were the same exact pose--the only difference *was* the background. "Hn. Which one do *you* like better?" she returned the question, clearly not caring about the all important engagement pictures.
Trinity didn't seem to notice her sister's lack of enthusiasm, however and fell into a nice long tirade about the good and bad qualities of each photograph. It was a good minute of complete silence, neither girl talking, before either one realized the other's distraction.
"What are you thinking?" Mara asked, tucking her feet farther beneath her.
Trinity smiled, unconsciously imitating the exact pose as her sister. "I want to get these announcements out by next weekend, before the engagement party," the older girl said wistfully, smiling over at her sister. "I was just running through the list of announcements again, trying to figure out if I'm forgetting about someone."
"Have you two thought about a date yet?" She was feeling relaxed, Mara Jade realized--that's why she was allowing this conversation to continue. She wasn't *really* interested. No, not at all.
"Probably sometime in December," Trinity answered, her eyes shining with dreams and fantasies. "That gives Adrian five months to settle into office. I suggested giving him more time but he insisted." She laughed lightly. "He said he didn't know how he was going to last five months without me and tried to push the date up. But I told him," and her voice took on mocking authority, "I told him I need at *least* 6 months to plan a proper wedding."
"I hope you don't think *this* will suit as a birthday present," Mara Jade scoffed, but her sister just laughed at her.
"I'm sure Tristan isn't complaining," Trinity said. "I just talked to Adrian and he told me he asked and Tristan accepted position as Adrian's Best Man. Isn't that great?"
"Tristan!" Mara Jade sat up straight, an unidentifiable look on her face. "But I thought he was going to ask *Triton* to be his Best Man!"
"Well, yes," her sister frowned, twirling one long length of silky black hair around her index finger. "I had thought he would, too, but he did reason--after all, Try's going to be in Space for much of the time, and really, Tristan and him *are* good friends, and you can't have *two* best men, can you?"
"Oh, but, Trini!" her sister cried. "Tristan and I *so* don't get along! Can't you talk to him? Change his mind?"
Trinity looked at her sister, clearly shock. "Mara Jade! I will do no such thing! You and Tristan will merely have to behave yourselves."
"Fat chance," Dylan's voice muttered.
Two dark heads turned around to the doorway where their younger brother stood. "Dad said to come an' get it if you want it."
"What is 'it'?" Mara asked suspiciously.
"Chili-cheese dogs!" the youngest member of the YMC family announced happily before ducking back out towards the dining room.
Trinity and Mara Jade looked back at each other, a pained look washing each girl's face. It was Duo's night to cook...
End Part 4
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com