As the month of the party approached, Eleanor got more and more excited. School let out for the summer, and on days when his baby-sitting plan fell through, Heero had to take her to the office with him. There, she would chatter away to her "Uncle Woofy" and ask her "Aunt Sally" to tell her all about Princess Relena. Wufei quickly grew resigned to the fact that his name would be mangled and Sally would tease him for it.

"Can't you teach that child to say my name correctly?!" Wufei finally demanded in exasperation.

"I think it's cute," Sally said.

"I know. That's why she does it," Heero said. "She knows how to say your name correctly, but she also knows that she gets more of a reaction when she says it incorrectly."

Sally grinned. "That's Duo's child, all right."

Just at that moment, Eleanor came bouncing back into the office with a handful of printer paper and a box full of crayons. Instantly, that line of conversation ended. They were careful not to discuss Eleanor's real father in front of her, afraid that they would have to be the ones to explain who he was and why she'd never met him.

"Touchan! Look! I drew a picture of Uncle Woofy!"

Heero took the proffered paper and glanced at it. "That's nice, sweetheart, but why is he breathing fire?"

"'Cause I can't draw yells," she explained as Wufei sputtered indignantly. "Aunt Hilde tried to teach me, but I'm still learning. See?" She showed him another paper, this one covered with symbols such as *!#@.

Heero's eyes widened. "Hilde taught you this? Did she teach you the words they stand for?"

Eleanor shook her head, her red pigtails flapping. "No. She said I wasn't allowed to know yet."

Heero breathed a sigh of relief, and mentally postponed the date of Hilde's death.

"Touchan, is Aunt Hilde going to be at the party?"

"No," Heero told her sadly. "But your Uncles Trowa and Quatre are going to be there."

Eleanor's face brightened. "Oh good. I like them. And Uncle Trowa gives good piggyback rides."

Wufei sighed. "It is a sad day indeed when Trowa Barton's role in life has been reduced to giving piggyback rides to a five-year-old."

Several weeks later, as they sat aboard the plane that took them towards the reunion, Heero found himself wishing that Trowa, regardless of his role in life, was present to entertain his "niece".

"Are we there yet?" Eleanor asked for what seemed like the billionth time.

"No," he told her again. "Why don't you take a nap?"

"Don't wanna," she grumbled, staring out the window.

Heero settled back to reading his book, but five minutes later, he heard, "Are we there yet?" again. This time, however, it was said in a sort of whimper.

"No, we... sweetheart, what's wrong?"

Eleanor's face had gone even paler than usual. "Touchan, my stomach hurts!"

Heero suddenly discovered just how much worse his trip could be.

Heero was immensely relieved to see that Quatre and Trowa had come to meet them. He happily deposited his charge in the arms of her two "uncles" and went off to try to clean himself up.

"I don't understand it," he muttered as he sat in the front seat of the car with his face to the wind (Quatre having rolled down the window to dispel the lingering smell). "She's never been motion sick before."

Quatre just shrugged. "There's got to be a first time for everything."

Eleanor, meanwhile, was sitting in the back seat, soaking up the attention offered to her. She was leaning up against Trowa, who rubbed her stomach soothingly and asked at regular intervals if she still felt sick.

When they finally arrived at the large house they would be staying at, Relena was waiting for them, along with Sally and Wufei, who had arrived early. Relena beamed at Heero, but refrained from hugging him when she saw the state of his clothes.

"Where's Eleanor?" she asked.

Two large, violet eyes peeked out from behind Heero's legs, then vanished again.

"She's being shy," Heero said, sounding almost confused. Such behavior was unusual for her.

Relena knelt down and tried to peer behind Heero. The violet eyes peeked out again, and she flashed an encouraging smile. She was rewarded when Eleanor finally stepped out to where everyone could see her, one small hand still fisted in Heero's pant leg.

"Hello, Eleanor," Relena said, still smiling gently.

"Hi," Eleanor said back. She regarded Relena, and gradually the shyness faded to be replaced by curiosity. "Where's your tiara?" she asked.

Relena laughed. "I don't wear it anymore. It's heavy, and it catches in my hair."

"But it's pretty," Eleanor said.

"But I'm not a princess anymore, and vice-foreign ministers don't wear crowns or tiaras."

"They should."

Relena laughed, and Eleanor grinned at her, and she caught her breathe. For one moment, she'd felt that it had been Duo smiling with her.

"She looks just like..." she began, but cut it off upon seeing the look on Heero's face. It was a mixture of alarm and pain.

"What?" Eleanor was confused. "What do I look like?"

Relena, realizing that she had almost put her foot in it, swallowed, summoned a smile, and said, "You look very pretty."

The diversion worked; Eleanor giggled and twirled, showing off the light blue dress she'd gotten as a hand-me-down from one of Quatre's many nieces.

"Well," Heero interrupted rather hastily. "I still need to clean up, so if you could just show me to my room, please."

As he walked up the stairs with Eleanor in tow, Relena gazed after him thoughtfully.

"I wanted to thank you for your quick understanding earlier." Heero's voice startled her. Relena spun around to see him standing in the doorway, dressed in jeans and a tank top, his hair still wet from a shower.

"I don't really understand," she answered. "Have you never mentioned Duo to her?"

"No. Never."

"Why not?"

Heero gave her a look that said she ought to be able to figure that one out on her own. "Do you want to be the one to sit down with a five-year-old and try to explain to her why she doesn't know this person you claim is her father? Do you want to try and make her understand why Duo's not here?"

"But his disappearance has nothing to do with her!"

"But– she won't understand that," Heero pointed out. "She won't understand the why of it, so she'll blame herself somehow."

"Like you do?" Relena's voice was sad.

Heero stayed silent.

"You aren't still beating yourself up about whatever happened between you two, are you?"

Heero sighed. "I suppose I am. But that has nothing to do with Eleanor. I keep Elly for Elly, not for Duo."

"Speaking of keeping her near you, I hope you like the room arrangements," Relena said, hoping to change the subject.

Heero nodded. "It's good that you put her in a room nearby; she has a habit of climbing into bed with me at odd hours of the night."

Relena laughed. "Still doesn't sleep through the night, does she?"

"Sometimes she does, and sometimes she doesn't."

Relena smiled sympathetically. "Poor Heero."

"Poor Heero" wasn't the only one being subjected to Eleanor's whims. Quatre and Trowa, who only saw her two or three times a year, quickly found that they were extremely susceptible to Eleanor's puppy eyes. Trowa was constantly being suckered into playing tag with her, or giving her piggyback rides. Quatre seemed only too happy to give her large amounts of sugar or tell her long stories. Sometimes, he would play his violin for her, and she would listen to him, entranced. When he stopped, she would bounce up and cry, "Play more, Uncle Quatre! Play more! Please?" That please usually proved to be Quatre's undoing.

Quatre also discovered that he was pretty good at singing lullabies after Heero, tired of trying to deal with Eleanor when she was on a sugar high, had dumped her on Quatre and told him to make her go to sleep. Quatre was usually successful at making her go to sleep, but even he couldn't make her stay asleep, and Heero often woke up in the morning to find Eleanor asleep next to him.

Relena also seemed to enjoy spoiling the child, much to Heero's exasperation. He was beginning to think that everyone except Wufei had conspired to undermine him. And even Wufei seemed to be softening to her, although he still insisted that he disliked children. What made things worse was that Heero had trouble staying mad at any of them once he saw the smile on Eleanor's face.

Heero peered cautiously around the door frame. Finding Eleanor asleep in Quatre's lap, he entered softly.

"She finally dropped off," Quatre said softly

"Good."

"You ought to feel ashamed, always dumping your daughter on me," Quatre goaded with a smile.

Heero snorted. "I don't feel the least bit remorseful, considering you're one of the ones mostly responsible for getting her so hyped up." His eyes softened as they turned on the sleeping girl. "I'll just take her and tuck her into bed, shall I?"

"I rather hoped you would," Quatre said. "My legs have gone to sleep."

Heero picked her up and, leaving Quatre to try and restore feeling to his numb legs, carried her to her room. Since she was already in her pajamas, all he had to do was put her in bed and tuck her in. Still, he lingered, stroking her hair and kissing her cheek before leaving the room to join Quatre and the others downstairs.

Zechs and Noin had left the reunion a week early, and Relena had already gone to bed, so it was just Heero, Trowa, Quatre, Wufei, and Sally left. They sat in the living room, reminiscing about old times and occasionally sipping alcoholic beverages. They were still talking when, around midnight, there was a knock at the front door.

"Who can that be at this hour?" Sally wondered as they all rose instinctively.

"I'll get it," Wufei grumbled, but no one else sat down. Instead, they all trailed behind him to see who the visitor was. As Wufei opened the door, there was a collective gasp.

Duo Maxwell stood on the doorstep.

No one spoke for a full minute. They all stood and stared at the apparition on the doorstep. He looked much as he had during the war; a little older and taller, but still strong and slender, still dressed all in black with a braid that trailed past his hips. He met their gazes and summoned up a smile.

"Hi. I read in the paper that there was a reunion for all Gundam pilots, so I decided to show up. Sorry I'm late."

That seemed to break the spell for everyone except Heero. Suddenly Duo was in the house and being hugged by Quatre and Sally. Wufei kept asking questions about Duo's whereabouts that nobody bothered to answer, and Trowa was as close to babbling as he ever got. Heero stood pale and unmoving, his eyes never leaving Duo.

"And here I was worried 'cause I didn't get an invitation," Duo was saying.

"That's because we couldn't find you to send you one," Quatre said. "But you know you're always welcome."

Duo grinned and looked around, surveying the room. His eyes fell on Heero, and the grin faltered a little.

"Hi Heero," he said very quietly. "How's Relena?"

Heero shrugged. "Fine, from what I've seen."

"From what you've seen?" Duo repeated uncertainly.

Heero nodded. "In the past week."

"But aren't you her head of security?"

"No. Not anymore."

"So things didn't work out between you?" Duo asked, managing to sound hopeful and ashamed of that hope at the same time.

"There was never much of anything between us to work out," Heero told him firmly, hoping Duo would believe him this time.

Duo smiled.

"So," Quatre said hesitantly. "It's late, and I'm sure you're tired. We can interrogate you in the morning. We'll find you a room to stay in. Goodness knows there are enough of them here."

"I'll show you," Heero said abruptly, catching Duo's wrist in a strong grip and leading him off towards the stairs.

"Um... thanks." Duo experimentally tried to free his hand and found that he couldn't. "G'night all!" And he tamely followed Heero up the stairs.

Heero knew that there was an empty room a little ways down the hall, but he led Duo to his room anyway. Once inside, he shut the door quietly.

"Um, Heero? Isn't this..." Duo started, but Heero cut him off.

"I'll take you to a room of your own in a minute. I want to talk to you first."

Duo looked apprehensive. "What about?"

"About the end of the war, and what happened. And what didn't happen."

Duo swallowed nervously. "What's to say?"

"Why didn't you wait for me to explain?"

Duo stopped fidgeting and looked at him. "Explain what?"

"I was going to ask you to come with me."

Duo laughed bitterly. "To Relena? Even if I had let you ask, I probably would have refused." He turned away.

"But there's never been anything between me and Relena!" Heero protested.

Duo shrugged. "Now I know that. But you know what they say; hindsight is 20:20. That wasn't what I thought then." He turned back to find Heero looking not at him, but at the floor. "Heero?"

"You were the one I wanted to keep with me after the war," Heero mumbled.

Duo's eyes widened as he heard. Hesitantly, he stepped over to Heero and put a hand under his chin, tipping his face up so he could see his eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't know I would hurt you. I thought I was making things easier for you."

"I know," Heero murmured. "It was my fault for not making things clear."

Duo smiled sadly at him. "Heero, I love you, but you have this tendency to blame yourself even for things that aren't your fault. You're rather like Quatre that way."

Heero looked at him sharply. "What did you say?"

"I said that you blame yourself for..."

"No, before that."

Duo obediently thought back and realized what Heero was driving at. "I said I love you."

"Still?"

"What do you mean, still? I never stopped, I just gave up hope of ever getting what I wanted."

"I missed you," Heero whispered, putting his face up very close to Duo's. When he was sure the gesture would be accepted, he kissed him.

He'd forgotten how good it felt to kiss Duo, to feel Duo's arms around his waist and Duo's body heat warming him.

They broke apart for air, and Heero opened his mouth to speak, but Duo grabbed his face in his hands. "It's been too long," Duo muttered as he kissed him again, more fiercely.

/I can't tell him now!/ Heero thought desperately. /How can I tell him now?/

Then, as Duo's hands moved down to grab the hem of his shirt, all other thoughts fled from Heero's mind.

Around 3:00 AM, the door to Heero's room opened very softly, then shut behind the small figure of Eleanor. Padding on the soft carpet, she noiselessly approached the bed. The room was dark, and she was still rather sleepy, but she unerringly located her foster father. Lifting up the covers gently, she crawled into bed next to him and snuggled up. In less than a minute, she was asleep again.

Sunlight filtered in thin beams through the window shade. One of those beams found its way to Heero's face, waking him up. He was about to turn over, but his sleepy mind registered that doing so would disrupt one of the two warm figures on either side of him. So he settle for tightening his arms around both bodies before trying to slip back to sleep.

His squeeze woke Duo, who snuggled closer and let an arm creep across Heero's chest. He flexed his hand absently, and suddenly encountered another hand that didn't feel like Heero's. He squeezed it. Definitely not Heero's. It was far too small.

Eleanor's eyes blinked open just as Duo sat up to see who the hand belonged to. Their eyes met, and for a moment they simply stared at each other. Then Duo's startled yelp mingled with Eleanor's earwax-melting scream.

Heero grabbed a pillow and pulled it over his face. "Why me?" he muttered into its feathery depths. "Why me?"

Somehow, he had not pictured the highlight of his morning as this: trying to explain to his five-year-old foster daughter why there was a naked man in his bed.

"Heero," Duo's voice sounded shaky. "Who's this?"

"Touchan!" Eleanor wailed, throwing herself behind Heero. "Who is he?! Where are his clothes?!"

Duo froze. "Touchan?" he repeated. "You have a daughter?"

Heero's mouth fell open, then closed again. The absolute irony of the situation hit him and left him speechless. Unfortunately, Duo took silence as assent. Before Heero could regain his composure, Duo was out of the bed and grabbing for his clothes.

"Duo!" he cried desperately as he watched the end of Duo's braid follow its owner out the door. "Wait! You haven't let me explain yet!"

Quatre looked up from his breakfast plate and blinked at the sight of Duo rushing down the stairs, in the process of putting his shirt on. He bypassed the table and headed straight for the door.

"Where are you going?" Quatre called after him.

"To think," Duo answered.

"But you haven't given us any explanations yet!"

Duo stopped just at the door. "Explanations," he repeated, turning slowly. Suddenly, he came stalking back towards Quatre. "You guys aren't the only ones who want an explanation! Why did no one mention to me that Heero had a daughter?! Who's she by?!"

"B...but Duo," Quatre stammered. "That's– your daughter!"

Duo froze, and the color started to drain from his face. "My..."

Quatre nodded. "Her mother died, and no one could find you, so Heero took her in."

"Daughter," Duo said weakly. Taking no notice of Heero rushing down the stairs wearing nothing but his jeans, Duo slid to the floor in a dead faint.

When Duo next opened his eyes, he was back in Heero's bed. At first he thought that the whole daughter mess might have been just a dream, but then he noticed that he was still dressed and Wufei was sitting calmly by the door. Damn. There went that idea.

"What the hell happened?" he asked Wufei as he sat up.

"You fainted," came the answer.

Duo shook his head and tried to sound superior. "I did not. Fainting, as you well know, implies weakness. It would be beneath my dignity to do such a thing."

Wufei snorted. "If you ever had any dignity, it's all gone now. I might as well tell you that Relena's security staff found you duffel and began searching it, thinking it contained a bomb."

Duo groaned. "What next?"

"I believe everyone in the building has been acquainted with the fact that you possess a pair of heart patterned boxers."

Duo blushed crimson. "They were a gift, okay? I can't believe they searched my bag."

"What on earth possessed you to leave it just outside the gate? Of course they thought it was a bomb."

Grinning cheekily, Duo replied, "Well, they wouldn't let me in since I didn't have and invitation, and I couldn't very well climb the wall with it, now could I? Come to think of it, I should have known that Heero wasn't in charge of security anymore; he would never have let things get that lax." He glanced around the room, then asked, "Speaking of Heero, where is he?"

"Off trying to recover your stuff, I believe."

"Ah."

Silence filled the room. Wufei was perfectly content not to talk, and Duo stopped asking questions. He was afraid of bringing up the most obvious topic: his daughter. He was trying very hard not to think about her and all the implications she brought with her.

It was obvious that Heero knew by now that after they had parted, Duo had sought relief from loneliness with women. Not just one either, although possibly Heero didn't know that. But Duo figured that it should also be obvious that those attachments hadn't meant much to him. After all, he hadn't even stayed around long enough to find out that he'd knocked up one of his lady friends, right?

More daunting than the issue of who he had slept with was the child herself. Old relationships could be explained away, but there was no way that little girl was leaving. How in the world had Heero ended up with her? Not that that was necessarily a bad thing; of all the people in the world that the girl could have gone to, Heero was one of the better choices, even if it did put him in an uncomfortable situation. Still, Heero was the last person Duo thought of when he imagined a parent.

Speaking of Heero and parenting...

"Come on, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere." Heero's coaxing voice came from the hall. "You can let go."

"No!"

The door opened, and Heero came into the room. His progress was rather slow and awkward, as he was weighed down by Duo's duffel on his shoulder and Duo's daughter on his leg. She was sitting on his foot with her arms around his knee, clinging like a burr so that Heero was forced to drag her along with each step he took.

Wufei raised his eyebrows at the scene. "Eleanor, why are you hanging on Heero's leg?"

/Eleanor,/ Duo thought. /Her name is Eleanor./

Heero dropped the duffel, reached down, and detached Eleanor from his leg. "Elly," he said gently, "I'm going to hand you off to your Uncle Woofy for a minute, okay?"

"Yuy!" Wufei yelled. "No wonder she always says my name wrong!"

Heero ignored him. "Okay, sweetheart?"

Eleanor shook her head, threw her arms around his neck, and hid her face in his shoulder.

"No?" Heero sighed in defeat. "Wufei, could I ask you to wait outside for a few minutes?"

Still grumbling about the injustice of it all, and the indignity of being called Woofy, Wufei left the room and closed the door behind him.

Heero pulled the chair Wufei had vacated closer to the bed where Duo sat, and sat down. Putting Eleanor in his lap, he turned her to face Duo. "Duo," he said, sounding rather shaky. "This is you daughter, Eleanor Maxwell."

"Yuy," Eleanor piped up. Heero's gaze flicked down at her, then jumped back up to meet Duo's.

"Hi Eleanor," Duo said. She simply stared at him and didn't say anything.

Heero sighed as he watched Duo try to cover his disappointment. "All right. You don't have to talk to him. But I need to. So let's take you out to play with your uncles."

Eleanor suddenly let out a wail and flung her arms around her foster father. Her large, violet eyes glimmered with tears. "No! No! No!" she wailed.

"What's wrong, honey? What's wrong?" Heero was distressed by her sudden breakdown.

"I don't wanna leave!" she sobbed. "I wanna stay with you!!"

"Honey, it's just for a few minutes..."

"No! I heard Uncle Quatre talking! I don't want to leave with him," here she pointed at Duo, "I wanna stay with you! You're my dad!"

Heero patted her awkwardly, looking nervously at Duo. He'd imagined a lot of scenarios involving Duo's return, and thought that he had exhausted all the possibilities. In the worst one, Duo was horrified by Eleanor and walked out, leaving Heero to deal with a broken heart and a daughter with security issues. Never, never had he imagined that Duo would leave and try to take Eleanor with him. Now the thought scared him more than anything.

Fortunately, Duo was quick to allay those fears for both of them. Leaning over, he reached out to pat Eleanor on the back soothingly. She stiffened and squirmed away from him. Duo paused and withdrew his hand slowly, looking hurt, but said, "Don't worry. I'm not gonna try and take you away from your daddy."

"Hear that?" Heero asked, immensely relieved. "No one's going to take you away."

Eleanor sniffled. "Uncle Quatre was talking to Aunt Sally about custody or something. He said I wouldn't live with you any more."

"Well, he was wrong," Duo said firmly.

"So calm down, sweetheart. Now dry your eyes and go out and play with you Uncle Woofy. Maybe you can draw me another picture of him, hm?" Heero set her down gently and patted her back. "I'll be downstairs in a few minutes; I just need to talk to Duo, okay?" Still sniffling a little, she nodded and went out the door, closing it behind her.

As soon as she was gone, Heero turned back to Duo. "I'm sorry about that," he muttered. "I know that was something of a shock for you."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Duo answered. "Why didn't you tell me about her the minute I walked in the door?"

"Scared," Heero answered. "I didn't know how you'd react, and I didn't want to scare you off. Besides, I'm selfish. I wanted to know if you came back for me or for Eleanor."

"How did you end up with Eleanor anyway?"

"Well, that's a long story," Heero said, then winced as he realized that he'd unconsciously repeated the social worker's words.

"Give me the abbreviated version," Duo prompted.

"Well, a social worker showed up on my doorstep wanting to know where you were, and I asked her why she wanted to find you. Then she told me about Eleanor. She said that Eleanor was going to go to a girl's home if you weren't found. I knew you wouldn't want that, so I adopted her."

"How did you know she was mine?"

"I didn't at first." Heero shifter uncomfortably. "The only proof I really had was the name on the birth certificate. I had my doubts at first, but then I saw Elly. She really does look a lot like you."

Duo sat in silence, so Heero kept talking. "She's a sweet child. She's a chatter box, like you, and she loves to make other people smile. She's active, and you can't keep her out of anything, but she's not a bad girl at all. I took her in for you, but then I started to think of her as mine. I think I did the right thing, but for the wrong reason."

Heero realized that he was babbling, and stopped. Silence settled once again over the room. Heero was afraid to ask the question that no buzzed around in his head. Afraid of the answer.

Oddly enough, it was Duo who finally asked the dreaded question. "So, what now?"

"I don't know," Heero admitted. "I guess when the reunion is over, I go home with Elly, and you..." he trailed off, since he really didn't know what Duo was going to do. He'd thought he'd know last night, but having Eleanor in the picture changed everything. In his chest, something was bouncing around frantically, fueled by the hope that Duo might stay and fear that he would leave. But that choice wasn't his to make. The ball was now in Duo's court.

Duo realized it. He sat quietly deliberating. Finally, he said, "The choice is mine, huh? Just like that. Don't you even want to know where I've been all this time?"

"I do, and I intend to grill you about that later, but Eleanor's future seems more important."

Duo nodded solemnly, but remained silent, and Heero started to get panicky. "Look, it's your decision, but you don't have to tell me right now. Think it over."

"Well," Duo said, "now that I've been found, no one's going to insist that I take custody of her, are they?"

"I don't know, but I doubt it. I adopted her, and I have the paperwork to prove it."

"Well," Duo said, looking thoughtful, "I should probably stick around just to make sure that no one tries to take her away from you."

"Oh," Heero said, not really knowing what else to say. It was a mixed blessing. Duo was staying, but out of a sense of obligation towards Eleanor.

"Heero," Duo said. "Look at me."

Heero, whose eyes had been fixed on the carpet, looked up to find Duo smirking at him. "Your chain is way too easy to yank, Heero," he said. "I was already hoping you would let me stay with you last night, before I even knew that Eleanor existed."

Before he even realized what he was doing, Heero was up and over by the by the bed, kissing Duo. When they broke for air, Heero sat down on the bed next to him leaned against his shoulder. "I love you," he murmured.

Duo squeezed his waist in response. "There's still the problem of Eleanor's reaction."

"Well, you've got a little less than a week to get to know her before we go home," Heero told him.

"We," Duo repeated, wide eyed. His breathing was coming a little faster than normal. "We. I've never been a father before. What if I do something wrong?"

Heero squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I'll help you. It's really not so bad, once you get used to the extra responsibility, and the rewards are great." He stood up and drew the now slightly panicky Duo along after him. Heero could sympathize with Duo and his new fear. The same panic had attacked him shortly after the adoption had finally gone through. The implications of what he had done had finally hit Heero the next day. Eleanor was his, completely under his care, and he'd been startled to realize that he didn't have a clue about child rearing.

"You learn as you go along," Heero said, in what he hoped was a soothing tone. "With Eleanor, prior experience is useless anyway, since she has the ingenuity to come up with all sorts of new trouble to get herself into. Case in point," he added, as Eleanor came running towards them. She looked like a small ghost, since she was completely covered in a fine, white powder.

"Hi Touchan," she said cheerfully, then, without a hint of her former uncertainty, she turned to Duo. "Your name's Duo. Relena told me you're cool. She told me that you got in a flour fight with Uncle Woofy, and to cheer me up, she let me have one! I got Uncle Woofy good!"

Duo looked down into her bright eyes and smiling, flour-covered face, and gave her an almost apologetic smile. "That's very nice, and I'm sure Woofy deserved what he got, but did Relena mention the part where I had to clean up everything afterwards?"

"Oh yeah," Eleanor said gloomily. "I forgot that part."

Duo laughed. "C'mon. I'll help you and Woofy clean up, since it was my idea in the first place."

From the kitchen, an enraged yell rose. "MAXWELL!!! Stop mispronouncing my name!"

Duo and Eleanor looked at each other and giggled.

Later that night, after Eleanor had gone to bed, Heero once more dragged Duo to his room, this time demanding that Duo explain to him exactly what had happened after they had parted. Duo hedged a bit, insisting that there wasn't really much to tell, but Heero insisted on hearing it anyway, so he began.

"Well, after the whole Mariemeia thing ended, I was planning on going back to L2 to work with Hilde. I was hoping that you would want to come with me, but then, before I even got a chance to ask you, you told me about your plan to accept Relena's job offer to become head of security. Of course, I could have gone with you two, but I thought that you guys were a couple, and that I would just be intruding and hurting myself as well."

"Oh Duo," Heero said. "It wasn't like that. She had all but given up on me by then. You would have been welcome with us"

Duo gave him a sad smile. "That wasn't what I thought," he said. "I didn't want to intrude, but I knew that you would feel guilty about driving me off and might try to follow me, so I decided not to go to L2 after all."

"Where did you go then?" Heero asked. "And why didn't you say anything to anyone else?"

"Because I figured that the only way you would learn to be with Relena without feeling bad about me was if I vanished completely. That way, you wouldn't have to be reminded of what had gone on during the war by the sight of me, or by hearing about me from any of the guys."

"But that sounds so lonely," Heero said sadly.

"It was," Duo said. "But I was already lonely, so I figured a little more solitude wouldn't matter. So I just started drifting around. I never stayed anywhere long enough to really get attached to the place or the people."

"Or the girlfriends," Heero added dryly, before he could stop himself.

"Or the boyfriends, such as they were," Duo admitted. "I took whatever happened to come my way. I'd tell myself that I didn't really need anyone, and that no one could really make me happy. I seemed to be right about the second part, but I just couldn't be by myself all the time. Nights were the worst, since I didn't have whatever job I did to distract me. It'd start, and I'd feel lonely, and I'd get this urge to just be around other people, especially if they were happy themselves. So I'd go to whatever nearby bar was open all night, and hang out, and next thing you know, someone would try to pick me up, and I'd be so desperate for human contact that I'd let them. I'd wake up in an unfamiliar bed the next morning.

"Some times I'd stick around and actually try to form a relationship, but it never seemed to work. I was too fixated on what I'd lost to really be a good partner, and in the end, I'd just leave and move to someplace new, and then the whole cycle would start again."

Heero nodded, trying not to let the idea of Duo sleeping with other people wound him. After all, Duo had just said that none of those relationships really lasted or meant much. "So Eleanor came out of one of those failed relationships."

Duo just looked sad. "I never fathered any children that I knew about. I was always careful, you know, using protection and all that. Of course, Eleanor is living proof that that doesn't always work. Looking back, I can guess which one Eleanor's mother was. I knew I shouldn't have believed her when she said she was on the pill."

"I have a copy of Elly's birth certificate, if you want to confirm your guess," Heero offered.

"Maybe later," Duo replied. "I would like to know who her mother was, not that it matters now. What matters now is what Eleanor thinks of me."

Duo soon found that he got on quite well with Eleanor. She happily accepted him as another one of her "uncles", and Duo didn't push for more. He dreaded her reaction when she found out that he would be living with her. The others tried to be helpful and supportive, although they didn't always succeed.

"It could be much worse," Sally told him. "Eleanor's still young enough to take this all in stride. Imagine if you'd come back ten years later and had to deal with a teenager."

She quickly dropped that line of inquiry, seeing that the thought of Eleanor as a teenager gave both Heero ad Duo the creeps.

Finally, when the end of the reunion was only two days away, they decided to broach the subject of Duo's staying with Eleanor. They found her sitting alone in the garden, adding to an enormous chain of clovers.

"Look!" she said happily. "I made jewelry." She held up her arms to show them the bracelets made of clovers on each wrist. Around her neck was a necklace of clovers.

"You aren't still trying to take over the world with clover chains, are you?" Heero asked. (1)

"What?!" Duo wasn't sure he had heard correctly.

"Some idea Hilde gave her," Heero explained hastily.

"Touchan, you forgot the part about wreaking havoc on all my enemies," Eleanor reminded him.

"Sweetheart, do you even know what that means?"

"Sort of," she said.

Heero sat down in the grass and drew Eleanor into his lap. "Your Aunt Hilde is a bad influence on you," he said.

"You always say that."

Heero smiled slightly. "And it's always true." A thought occurred to him. "Sweetheart, you know how your Aunt Hilde sometimes comes and stays at the apartment for a while?"

"Mm hm." Eleanor nodded, but she wasn't really paying attention; she had gone back to her clover chains.

"You don't mind when she does that, do you?"

"Nope! Aunt Hilde's cool!"

"And Uncle Duo's cool too, right?"

"Right!"

"Damn straight I am!" Duo said proudly.

Eleanor giggled while Heero just shook his head. Then, mentally crossing his fingers, he asked, "So you wouldn't mind if Uncle Duo came and stayed with us for a long time, would you?"

Eleanor looked up from her chain. "But where will Aunt Hilde sleep when she comes over?" she asked.

"Oh, she can still sleep on the couch," Heero reassured her.

"But then where will Uncle Duo sleep?"

"He'll sleep in the bedroom with me," he explained.

That confused her. "But you never let Aunt Hilde sleep in the bedroom."

Heero's face went crimson. He carefully phrased his next words, reminding himself that he was dealing with a five-year-old. "I like your Aunt Hilde very much, but not enough to let her sleep in my bed with me. But Duo..." he trailed off, and his face got (if possible) even redder than before.

"So Uncle Duo and me are special 'cause we get to sleep in your bed, right?" Eleanor asked helpfully.

"That's right," Heero said, mentally slapping himself with a reminder to get his mind out of the gutter. "You and Duo are very special to me." He shot a meaningful look at Duo, who was making odd strangling sounds in an attempt not to laugh. Clearly, his mind worked along the same lines as Heero's.

"So," Heero continued, "you wouldn't mind?"

"Nuh uh."

Smiling with relief, Heero pressed her into an embrace. She returned the hug for a moment, then went back to her flowers. Looking up over her head, he caught sight of Duo giving him a "come hither" look, and realized that Duo had gotten ideas from his little conversation with Eleanor.

"Uh, honey? I'm gonna leave you to your clover chaining now. I'll be upstairs if you need me," he told Eleanor rather hastily.

"Okay." She didn't sound particularly interested.

As the two men walked back to the house, Duo asked, "You don't mind leaving her alone?"

"Not here," Heero answered. "She'll be perfectly safe here."

"Good," Duo purred. "I don't want to think that having a child around would ruin our love life."

"That's what locks are for."

An hour later, after Heero had proved that a child wasn't necessarily a deterrent to a love life, Duo was surprised when there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"What is it?" Heero called, feeling too lazy to get up, much less prepare to open the door and greet a visitor.

"Um, Heero?" It was Relena. "Why is my garage covered in clover chains?"

After surreptitiously taking several pictures of Relena's newly decorated garage, Duo joined Heero in scolding Eleanor. Heero seemed more amused than angry, and it looked for a while like Eleanor was going to get off with a light sentence, until she admitted that she had used a ladder to climb up onto the garage roof to string up some of the chains. Relena almost made Wufei call the paramedics, since it looked for a moment like both Duo and Heero would have heart attacks.

"Climbed on the roof?! Elly, what if you had fallen?!" Heero finally managed to gasp.

"But I didn't." Eleanor couldn't understand what the big deal was.

Duo finally managed to find his voice, and said, "I think you had better go to your room, young lady, and stay there for a while." He was relieved when she didn't question his authority, but trudged off to her room looking sulky.

"That girl will be the death of me," Heero said, watching Eleanor's retreating back. "She has no fear of heights, and I've watched her pull stunts a spider monkey wouldn't attempt."

Also watching Eleanor's back, Duo nodded distractedly.

Eleanor looked up in surprise at the knock at her door. It opened, and Duo came inside, closing the door behind him.

"I thought I'm not supposed to have people in here," she said.

"Not necessarily," Duo said. "You're just supposed to stay in here."

"Touchan usually makes me stay alone. He says it's to make me think about what I've done."

"Well," Duo said, "I'll leave you alone to think in a minute, but first I want to ask you something. Do you know why your Touchan and I were so angry?"

"'Cause I clover chained the garage," she said as though it was obvious.

"Well, that's part of it. That wasn't very nice to Relena. But that's not the main reason. Do you know the main reason?"

Looking solemnly into his face, she shook her head slowly.

"It's because you scared us. Climbing on the roof like that was a dangerous thing to do by yourself. You might have fallen and hurt yourself."

"But if I'd asked for help, I would've got in trouble," she said reasonably.

"Couldn't you have found another way to get the chains up there without climbing on the roof?" Duo almost immediately wished he hadn't asked the question. He could practically see the wheels in Eleanor's head turning as she thought about it.

/Great going, Maxwell,/ he thought. /Encourage her to get into trouble, why don't you./

/What the heck,/ another part of his mind snapped. /What harm can she do with clover chains?/

"Anyway," he said aloud, "I just wanted you to know that your Touchan isn't being unfair. He makes rules 'cause he's trying to make sure you stay safe. Think about that." With that, he headed for the door.

"Uncle Duo?"

He turned to find her regarding him thoughtfully. "Yes, Elly?"

"Did I really scare you?"

"Yes," he said quietly. "You did."

She walked over to him, and he knelt down to put himself at a height closer to her own. Reaching up, she hugged him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Sorry," she said. "Tell Touchan sorry for me too, 'kay?"

"Okay."

Two days later

Duo squeezed Heero's hand as the door swung open to reveal the small but neat apartment. Eleanor bounced up and down next to them, practically singing, "We're home!"

"Home," Duo repeated. "I could get used to this."

1 year later

Quatre fidgeted as he sat next to Trowa, waiting for the plane to arrive. "They're late," he said again.

"They'll be here." Trowa didn't even look up from his book. "They wouldn't miss the second reunion."

"There they are!" Sally said. "Hi Elly! Duo, what happened to your shirt?"

"Heero warned me," Duo muttered. "But I didn't believe him. How can she get air sick and not car sick?"

"I warned you," Heero said, coming up behind him. "I'll keep an eye on Eleanor, you go get cleaned up."

"I'm sorry I barfed on you, Daddy," Eleanor said apologetically.

"Oh, that's okay," Duo said cheerfully. "I'll just go change my shirt." And so saying, he headed off towards the nearest men's room.

"She calls him Daddy now," Sally observed softly. "I'll bet Duo's thrilled."

Heero nodded. "He is. She started calling him that a couple months ago."

Once Duo returned wearing a new shirt and carrying the old one in a plastic bag, the group headed off to pick up the luggage. Eleanor ran a little ways ahead of them, then would circle back, urging them to keep up with her.

"We're not as fast as you, sweetheart," Duo told her. "Or as young."

"Ah, the boundless energy of a six-year-old," Sally marveled as Eleanor took off again.

"I don't envy you two your job," Wufei muttered ominously.

Sally smiled back at him sweetly. "Pretty soon, you won't have to envy them."

Wufei froze. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well," Sally said, looking very pleased with herself, "since everyone's here except Relena, and she already knows, I might as well break the good news now. I'm pregnant."

The party had to stop rather abruptly to deal with Wufei, who had fainted and was now out cold on the floor. Eleanor, sensing the disturbance, came loping back. "What's wrong with Uncle Woofy?" she asked.

"He just got a little surprised when I told him I'm gonna have a baby," Sally told her.

"How do you know that you're gonna have a baby?" Eleanor asked.

"Well," Sally began, "adults do certain things that can make babies..." That was as far as she got, because both Heero and Duo clamped their hands over her mouth, but Eleanor had heard enough.

"I knew all that stork stuff wasn't real," was all she said.

"Darn," Duo muttered. "Another good explanation gone down the drain."

"Oh, come on," Sally protested. "You can't keep her in the dark. You're going to have to tell her about menstrual cyc..." The hands clamped over her mouth again.

"Not to a six-year-old, we don't," Heero hissed in her ear.

"We were planning to have Hilde do that in a couple of years," Duo said.

Realizing that she wasn't going to hear any more slips on her Aunt Sally's part, Eleanor got bored and moved over to poke Wufei, who was still unconscious. "Uncle Woofy," she said, still poking him sharply. "Wake up."

Quatre started to scold her for poking, but Wufei stirred and sat up. He looked at Eleanor, who was still poking him, then up at the ceiling. "Please," he muttered. "Any and all listening deities. If you must give me a child, make it a boy."

"Wufei!" Sally was shocked, and rather pissed. "I thought you were getting over that sexist streak of yours!"

"It's not that!" Wufei insisted. "I just don't want..." He trailed off, looking at Eleanor, who was giving him a wide eyed stare, then at her fathers, who were glaring at him as if daring him to say anything bad about their daughter. Swallowing nervously, he said, "Never mind."

"For your information," Duo said rather pointedly, "I think having a daughter is great."

"I'll take your word for it," Wufei said as he got to his feet.

Quatre, seeing that a fight might break out, either between Wufei and Sally or Wufei and Heero and Duo, intervened. "Congratulations," he said. "I hope you have a happy, healthy child, be it a girl or a boy."

A round of suitable congratulations followed, and the party continued on its way, although Wufei still seemed rather dazed. He had a tendency to nearly walk into walls every time Sally mentioned the words "child" or "baby", which she did every sentence or so.

"You'd like a baby cousin, wouldn't you Eleanor?" Sally asked as they secured their luggage and headed out to the cars.

Eleanor nodded enthusiastically.

"Um, Sally?" Quatre said hesitantly. "Your husband is twitching."

"Don't worry, Wufei," Heero said. "You'll get used to fatherhood in no time."

Eventually, baggage got sorted out, people got into cars, and they made the trip to Relena's house. She was waiting for them when they arrived. Ignoring her parents, who were unpacking the luggage, Eleanor ran and caught Relena in a flying tackle of a hug.

"Hello, Elly," Relena greeted her cheerfully, returning the hug.

Eleanor looked up at her, and her smile turned into a slightly calculating look. "Relena," she said. "Can you tell me where babies come from?"

Relena, completely unprepared for the question, let her mouth drop open. She snapped it shut rather abruptly and caught Heero's eye. He shook his head and frantically mouthed "No!", having guessed what the question was. Looking back at Eleanor, Relena found herself face to face with two large, blue violet puppy eyes. Heero expected her to do the impossible and say no to that face.

"Ask your Aunt Hilde," Relena said.

"Relena!" Duo wailed. "Hilde'll tell her too!"

"Well, if I refused to say anything, she'd just ask Hilde anyway," Relena pointed out sensibly. "So, I gather Sally has given you all the good news?"

"She has," Heero said. "Wufei isn't taking it all that well, and Sally's picking on him for it."

"Oh, this is just the beginning," Sally said cheerfully. "Wait 'til Noin gets here, then we'll really start picking on him."

Everyone burst out laughing at the expression on Wufei's face as he contemplated the possibility of his wife ganging up with another woman against him. Finally, Relena took pity on him and changed the subject, chatting about room arrangements as they walked towards the house. Everyone laughed and chatted together and prepared for another reunion and another year of friends being together.

Yes! It ends! I swear, I had to beat the epilogue into submission. It just didn't want to end! It kept rambling on and on and on! That's why the cut-off might seem a little abrupt.

1) The idea of the clover chains was actually M.E.'s. In seventh grade, she and I would hang out together during PE and plot to take over the world with clover chains and wreck havoc on all our enemies. Unfortunately, every time they mowed the law, our clovers got torn to shreds. Sadness.

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