A Matter of Heart: Heirs to the Legacy 2 (The Second Set)
A Gundam Wing Fanfiction By: Andrea Readwolf
Email: andrea_readwolf @hotmail.com
Rating: YA/Mature
Families: First Generation
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)
Families: Second Generation
The Royal Peacecraft Family: King Adrian, Queen Trinity, twins Yuy (10-f)
and Maxwell (10-m)
The Winner Family (#1): Tristan + Mara Jade = Meiran (14-f), Dakota (12-f),
Jasmine (11-f), Galen (8-m), Bryce (5-m), Adrianna (4-f), Fletcher (2-m),
Hakeem (8 1/2 PN-m) *(a lot ^__^'')
The Winner Family (#2): Triton + Katarynna (Kit/Kat ^__^v) = Gabriel (6-m)
Pairings: Dylan Maxwell + Nicole Peacecraft (hoped for by Nikki); Julian
Mazzolla + Calista Winner (hoped for by Julian) [AN: has anyone else
noticed that really on Trinity and Adrian *wanted* each other from the
first? None of this 'hoped for' business...]
Archive: Yes-- www.gwaddiction.com
Warnings: The following story contains scenes that are humorous,
sappy,fluff, with rampant Incoherence, random PoV switching, and
Sexual innuendoes 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 (from the "older" crowd... and
*some* references to Dylan's past).
Spoilers: None to the original Gundam Wing Series at first; However, once
Julian has been commissioned by Calista for a special project, expect a lot
of rehashing of the series. It would be a plus to have read the previous
Matter of Heart Series Arc stories: "Dance of the Heart" Arc and "Oh Baby,
Baby" Arc. "Heirs to the Legacy" is built off of the stories forming
"Traditions".
Feedback: C&C is always welcomed and adored.
Acknowledgements: It's been three years... Three long bloody years. Hn.
And this damn story *still* isn't finished! Acknowledgements go out to all
the people who have helped me throughout this incredibly long Series--it
ain't over yet! Special Thanks go out to Zan, who must be my longest-kept
beta-reader to date! (And also a very good friend.... "How many more days
till A-kon?" "AW-what?" "What to you mean it's pronounced 'yeowie'? It's
spelt like 'ya-o-ee'." "Okay, now, seriously here; how squicked out do you
think people will be if I happen to mention the sexual relationship between
the twins? I mean, Triton and Tristan are very affectionate and all,
but...." ^___^)
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.
Additional Note: 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 often times refer to each other as
"husband" [and thus the grandchildren might at one point refer to all five
men (six in Zech's case) as "grandfather"]; please refer back to "Promise of
the Rings" Part 13 if this causes confusion.
Additional Note 2: The chibis often times refer to their parents'
friends and partners as "Uncle" or "Aunt"--in this case, the
term is used simply as one of respect since, with the exception
of Kit & Adrian's relation to Relena, all of Quatre's sisters, and
Trowa's Catherine, none of the parents really have siblings.
Additional Note 3: As hinted at in Heirs to the Legacy #1, Zechs and Noin
have separated. Zechs has somehow been coerced into living with our boys at
Emerald Gardens (we've had the 5-somes; anyone up to a 6-some?)
Translation Note: Tousan/Otousan, father, represents Heero. Chichi is often
times used for Wufei. Daddy, Duo.
***These stories and the ideas contained within are copyright of the author. No reprinting or posting without permission of said author. ***
~Paris, France April AC 242 ~
The pen scratched against the innocent paper as Nikki tried to sneak up on
him. He could have told her it was useless, that he knew where she was at
all times without having to look, but he didn't. Instead he tried to hide
his smile as the sound of her feet softly padding against the thick carpet
came nearer.
"What are you writing?" she asked, leaning her soft breasts against his back and tilting her face close to his.
He added his signature to the bottom before replying. "A birthday card. Tousan's birthday is next week."
Nikki smiled. "It's so sweet that you still send your fathers cards and gifts on their birthdays," she said, rubbing her hands along his arms before moving away to pour herself a cup of tea. "All I ever do anymore is call my parents. Mother never liked cards, a waste of money, she'd say. And dad was always embarrassed by the sentiment."
Dylan grinned, slipping the card inside an envelope and turning away from the small table. "Birthdays are special to my family, especially to my dads, 'cause for so long they never had one to celebrate, and then, of course, because they had us... "
He shook his head, smiling. "I think that they feel lucky and special, you know, because they *could* have us... and I don't mean to sound full of it, or anything, but, you know... It's kind of special. I also send them cards on my birthday to, well, thank them, you know, for having me."
He walked over to the window, staring out and down at the street below. "They almost didn't, you know, have me. They almost didn't have Trinity."
"Really?" Nikki smelled a story, and grinning, she moved closer.
"Mmmn," he nodded, not looking back. "Chichi, he came from a family that set high importance on raising children, and Daddy always liked kids, you know, he helped take care of a lot of orphans when he was just a kid, before he started Maxwell House. I think they would have adopted some kids or something, except for Tousan."
"What about your dad?" Nikki asked, settling into the love seat closest to him, hanging over the armrest.
Dylan turned around, leaning back against the window frame, crossing his arms as he watched her.
"Otousan thought they had no business trying to raise any child considering the way they were raised. You know both he and daddy were orphans? They had no memory of their mothers or fathers, and Chichi lost his family in the war when their colony exploded... Well, Uncle Quatre and Uncle Trowa thought differently. Even though Uncle Trowa was an orphan, too, he and Uncle Quatre wanted to have kids, their own kids. That's why Uncle Quatre had his sister working on cell splicing and artificial insemination in men.
"Well, Aunt Fatima, she's who was working on the project, didn't want Uncle Quatre and Uncle Trowa to be the first ones to test the procedure, but Chichi volunteered. You can bet Tousan wasn't happy with the idea, but Dad was thrilled. Together they convinced Tousan that it wasn't such a horrible idea, and he really seemed to get into it.
"Trinity was born, and everyone was happy. Uncle Trowa and Uncle Quatre went out the next day to have Triton and Tristan. And then Dad suggested having a second baby. Tousan thought he was crazy. 'Isn't one enough?' But Chichi was, 'Sure, why not?' and so they had Mara Jade. But Tousan said, 'No more.' Well, Daddy said it wasn't fair that Chichi got to have both Mara Jade and Trinity; he wanted to have a baby, too; of course Tousan couldn't have a baby because his body wasn't receptive to the procedure."
Dylan almost said that Heero was a first generation carrier of the special serums that Hiroshima, Heero's biological mother, had created to enhance the abilities of the pilots for the special machines her father and his friends were building, Gundam. But, of course, Nikki didn't know much about Gundam or its pilots, and she definitely didn't know that Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei were Gundam pilots. All she knew was that they and her father had been in the war and had met there.
"Well, Dad was always persuasive, and so after some bit of wheedling, they had me." Dylan grinned.
Nicole grinned. "And the world is a much better place because of it!" She got up and wrapped her arms around his middle.
Without thinking, Dylan's arms naturally went around her, returning the hug. "I'm glad you seem to think so."
She turned her face towards his, nuzzling his throat and chin.
"Nikki," he started, trying to squirm away from her advances.
"Dylan," she breathed, pressing forward.
"Stop," he panted, reaching for her hands.
"Why," she whispered, burying her face against his shoulders.
"Because..." His breath hitched as she twisted just that little bit, and her body fitted against his in just that right way.
"Are you going to tell me you find me undesirable," she murmured, pressing her nose to his throat.
"You know you're not," he replied readily.
"You don't care for me?"
"That's not it."
"I'm not your type?"
"Nikki..."
"Why won't you even kiss me?"
So he did.
Dylan had never been goaded into doing anything by anyone except Calista Winner. To find himself now kissing Nicolette Peacecraft because she'd goaded him into doing so...
Her lips were soft against his, her mouth silky and sweet tasting as his tongue delved and parried against hers. She moaned, her body surging against his, begging to be closer; her arms twining around his neck to hoist herself nearer to his lips. His hands smoothed down her back and over her ass, cupping and squeezing the tender mounds under his palms.
And then they were tumbling down--Dylan hadn't even been aware of their movement toward the loveseat, but he felt the cushions beneath them as he pressed closer into Nikki. He felt her soft thighs wrap around his waist, and his body reacted on its own, thrusting against her. Her lips pulled away from hers and fell to her exposed throat, laving and sucking on the tender flesh there.
"Is this... what you want?" he grounded out, nipping her shoulder.
"Y-yes," Nikki gasped, arching her body closer to his.
"Why?"
She felt cold in the sudden lack of warmth from his body. Looking up she noticed him hovering over her, looking down at her with cold, accusing eyes. She nearly cried. Nearly. Instead, she dragged large gulps of cool air into her lungs and replied, "Is it so hard to believe that I would find you desirable?"
"Yes."
"Why?" she cried, frustrated.
Dylan frowned. "I'm older than you," he replied.
She looked at him incredulously. "You're not *that* old!" she choked, trying not to laugh. "The way you say that, it's like you were as old as my father or something."
Nicole reached up to pull him back down and then twisted so his back was pushed up against the back of the couch. "Now you listen here, Mr. Maxwell. You are only ten years older than me and we both know that's not what's stopping you from making love to me at this very moment. You have a drop dead gorgeous woman in your arms right now who is *begging* you to make love to her--did I mention she's very affluent?-- and you're complaining because of a couple of years?"
"You're right," Dylan growled, grabbing her elbows and holding her close. "A drop dead gorgeous rich woman, and you know what I'm wondering? Why me? There are a billion other guys out there, why does she want to get into my pants so bad?"
His grip on her wasn't so tight as to hold back the snap of her palm across his cheek.
"You can be a real ass," she hiss angrily, wrenching her arms out of his reach and climbing off the couch.
Not quick enough, however, because he seized her around the waist and dragged her back down with him and under him. She only struggled for a moment, before settling down but refusing to look at him. That didn't prevent him from seeing the tears in her eyes, however, and deep in the region of his heart that only one person had ever touched, a pang shot through him.
"You didn't answer my question, Nikki."
She dragged on several angry breaths, willing herself to stop crying, trying to convince herself that she really shouldn't have expected more... After all, hadn't Mara Jade warned her?
"You know, your sister warned me," Nicole said bitterly softly. "She said a crush is just that. A crush, and it often hides the one you truly love, blocking you from seeing that person until you break through and get over that crush. I thought she was crazy. I thought," she went on, looking up at Dylan with red-rimmed blue eyes, "I didn't have a crush, just a love. And then that love of my life disappeared.
"Do you have any idea how depressed I was after you left like that? I thought I would go mad crazy I hurt so much all I wanted to do was sit and cry. When the offer came for me to audition for a play... that's when I began to feel alive again. It was a slow process, but I was able to rebuild my life, myself, one part at a time. I love acting and dancing and singing on stage before a crowd of people. It's about the only thing I love almost as much as you."
Dylan stared down at her, a mixture of feelings seething inside him. "You were only ten when I left," he finally said. "My sister was right. You shouldn't go trying to chase after a crush. That's all I was for you, Nikki."
Nicole heaved herself against him wildly, trying to make him get off her. After several minutes of scruffling in which Dylan refused to release her, she finally settled down--more because she was exhausted after her attempts. Hovering over her, Dylan panted, his hands holding her arms down and away from her body while his legs kept hers in check. He eyed her warily; she couldn't stand it and looked away.
After a moment of just heaving breaths, Dylan finally asked, "Are you trying to say you're still in love with me, Nikki? After fifteen years?"
"Get off me," she replied hoarsely.
"Not until you answer me."
She was shaking.
"You had no right," she whispered. "No right. You should have stayed gone. You should have left me alone. I didn't need you anymore. I didn't want you anymore. You had no right to come back waltzing into my life again, like you'd never left, making me remember all the reasons why I'd loved you back then, all the reasons why I waited like a fool, all the reasons why no one else was ever good enough... Why?"
She was young, Dylan thought. The young always misconstrued feelings. Hadn't he? He'd thought he was in love with someone, once... But it hadn't really been love, at least not in that sense. She didn't really love him; she just thought she did, but...
"Why what?"
"Why did you come to see me like that?" she asked softly, eyes closed, face turned away. "Why did you stay and offer to help me like this if you... if you *didn't* care?" She pulled a hand free and scrubbed at her face. "I just... I just don't understand you..."
Gently, softly, he leaned forward and kissed her turned cheek. "That makes two of us."
"Why do you stay here if you don't care about me?" she asked, swallowing the ball of tears in her throat.
He nuzzled her cheek until his lips were right beside her ear, and answered, "I never said I didn't care, Nikki. I care a lot. I probably care more than I should about you. That's why I stayed. Why did you let me stay?"
"I... I think I love you..." she answered, staring out the window to the blue sky above. The carpet felt coarse against her cheek, compared to the silky softness of Dylan's lips.
"Be sure, Nikki P.," he replied. "I've been hurt once by love and I swore never to fall again so easily. I think it would be really easy for me to fall in love with you right now, but you better be sure, because I don't want to be hurt again."
Her head whipped around so quickly, chunks of blonde hair went flying. Wide blue eyes stared up at him, almost afraid to believe. "You mean it?" she swallowed hard.
"Are you sure you want to... to try this, at least?" he questioned, sounding very unsure himself.
She nodded, fresh tears leaking from her eyes as her lips split into a wide smile. "I've been sure for twenty-three years."
Dylan shook his head and laughed, then took a deep sigh and a deep plunge. "Okay," he whispered just before he kissed her again.
The Gundam pilots.
He was going to meet the Gundam pilots.
He wondered what they were like. What kind of people could they have been, to make the choices that they'd had to make? What kind of people were they now, in the aftermath of what they had fought so hard for?
These questions and a thousand more raced through his head as he signed away thousands of books. These questions and more were scribbled over hundreds sheets of paper, waiting patiently to be typed up and refitted into neat groups of questions, interview-worthy. He spent his nights researching what little known facts there were about the Gundam pilots, refreshing his memory of the war facts, comparing them to his questions, generating more questions in return.
He hadn't told his manager what he was doing, instead opting to tell the man that he was planning on taking a few years off now, to settle in and enjoy the fruits of his labour, that all the notes he had been writing were lists of things he wanted to do with his daughter. It was out of respect for Callie, and the request that she'd made. He'd been asked to keep things under tight wrap until the deaths of said Gundam pilots.
He sighed, glancing over to the clock by the bedside and realizing how late it was, again. He closed down his computer after reading the email from his daughter. She was having a birthday party the Saturday before her birthday and wanted him to be there. Listed at the bottom were the top five things she 'wouldn't mind' receiving. He smiled as he climbed into bed, already mentally adding a call to his ex-wife on his agenda for the morning.
She hadn't broached the subject yet with her fathers, already knowing they wouldn't be overly thrilled at the idea of rehashing their pasts.
'Overly thrilled'? Boy, was that an understatement! They barely talked about it to their children, and then it was only to inform their children of their past because they thought their children had a right to know, not because they really wanted to talk about it. Now she was going to ask them to talk to somebody not in the immediate family? Sure, Julian was part of the family, but, it wasn't the same. He wasn't Callie or her brothers, or Dylan and his sisters... She suspected even Uncle Zechs might have told Kat and Adrian about his past but doubted Nicole knowing. It wasn't something that was discussed often, even among the children.
So far she'd drawn up four different plans for informing them of her decision and getting them to agree to it. Of the four, there were only two plans she was seriously considering.
Plan A:
She would tell her father about her deep desire to see their story told and preserved for her children and their great-grandchildren, followed by sincere begging and multiple guilt trips.
Possible, but not foolhardy.
Plan B:
She and Julian would pay a visit to Emerald Gardens and she'd inform her fathers and uncles that she had commissioned Julian to write a biography of the Gundam pilots. Then she would tell them to have fun and not to kill each other, and she would leave them alone.
Extremely possible, and if her parents didn't want to talk about it, Julian would still know they were the Gundam pilots in question and would probably hassle them until they *did* talk about.
Well, she knew which one *she* preferred.
They sneezed.
Blinking, Mara Jade stared at her fathers bemusedly. "Someone must be talking about you."
"That or running around naked in the rain really will make you sick," Duo replied, rubbing his nose.
"Too much information!" Mara Jade winced, knowing her dad was doing it to tease her, but *still*....
"Well, don't blame me, it was Q's idea," Duo replied mulishly.
"That may be so," Wufei replied as he studied the chess board between he and the blond in question, "but he has the decency not to discuss it in mixed company."
"A letter!" Jasmine's voice sounded from outside. "A letter from Uncle Dylan!"
The adults only had seconds to wait before a bushel-full of children plowed into the room, ten-year-old Jasmine, the spitting image of her mother at that age, at the center, pushing through to get to her Tousan. Grinning tooth-fully, she handed him over the seemingly innocent white envelope, saying, "It's addressed to you."
Heero reached out and took the envelope from his granddaughter, flipping it over to see the address and postmark.
DYCM
21 April 242 Paris France
Paris, FranceM. Heero Yuy
Emerald Gardens
New Hope
Sighing, he tore open the envelope and pulled out the card.
::You're HOW Old?::
::Well, look on the bright side
:: In a couple more years you'll qualify for Senior Discount.::
Beneath this was Dylan's handwriting.
::I almost gave this to Aunt Anne until I realized she *will* qualify for Senior Discount this year! I bet she's spitting nails about that! I trust everyone is doing well and the kids are all having fun with school? (Uh huh, sure, yeah right. Dakota, Jasmine, if I hear anymore about you two skipping school and what not, you'll be answering to *me*, and if you think your mother on a war rage is bad, you ain't seen nothing yet!)
::I'm working on a special project that's taking more time then I'd thought. When this is finished, I think I'll stop by home for a little bit.
::Give my love to everyone, and let them know I'm thinking of you all. Be safe, happy, and wise!::
Heero sighed, passing the card to his husbands and folding up the envelope. That was when he noticed the additional slip of paper in it.
::Things have gotten a little more complicated:: Dylan wrote. ::Nothing I can't handle, I'm sure, but... more's at stake this time. I think I will definitely come home after this, and I'll probably stay a while, too. No tricks. I'm walking straight up to the front door so you'd better have a room ready for me. I love you, and miss you more than words can say. I look forward to coming home. DM::
Heero pocketed the note before any of the others could see. Luckily, all the kids were busy trying to see the card. Trowa, however, caught his eye and questioned him.
Heero just smiled and mouthed, "Later."
Dylan had promised to come home, and Dylan was a Maxwell, and Maxwells never lied.
End Part 6
Andrea Readwolf
Please send comments to: andrea_readwolf@hotmail.com