Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ For Eternity ❯ It Just Takes Some Time... ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply here. I do not own Gundam Wing; however, I DO own Alexandria, Adjani, Joshua, Glacia, Eve and anyone else who is unfamiliar to the show. If you should wish to borrow them, PLEASE let me know!

Series: Gundam Wing

For Eternity

Chapter Nine: It Just Takes Some Time

Written by: Tiasha

~

Hey, you know they're all the same.

You know you're doing better on your own, so don't buy in.

Live right now.

Yeah, just be yourself.

It doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else.

It just takes some time,

little girl you're in the middle of the ride.

Everything (everything) will be just fine,

everything (everything) will be alright (alright).

Jimmy Eat World, "Middle"

~

"Miss Daniels, if you would stay after class for a few minutes," she heard the professor say before dismissing the rest of the class for the day. Relena nodded and gathered her books, quickly shoving them into her book-bag. As she stood, she slung the bag over one shoulder and grabbed her purse, moving to stand in front of her Religions professor.

"Yes sir?" she asked politely, watching as he moved to close the door behind the last of his students.

"What type of household do you run?"

She blinked; "Excuse me? I don't understand…"

"You seem to be very knowledgeable on many of the religions we have studied; in fact, to the point where I must go and consult my books to see if what you say is true."

Relena swallowed in uncertainty, "I apologize, sir."

The older man nodded, though he held his head high…much like the aristocrats did, she noted with some disappoint. "That's all well and good, miss but I'm afraid that won't do."

Again Relena blinked as she said in confusion, "Excuse me?"

He gave her a disdainful look, "Miss Daniels, I would like for you to refrain from sharing your comments and stories during and outside of class."

She drew back her shoulders as she stared at the man in front of her. "You wish me to what?"

Again he gave her a disdainful look as he began to repeat himself, "Refrain from-"

"Oh I heard you the first time Professor Freeman. What I don't understand is why outside of class as well," she snapped, cutting the man off. His frown and glare only sparked her temper more.

"I am the one who holds the Ph.D., miss."

'Yeah, in being a complete asshole combined with dishonesty,' she thought to herself when she saw the malevolent gleam in her professor's eye. She knew he wanted her to take the bait and she would if only to make him underestimate her.

"All right, fine…but if I decided not to keep my comments to myself?"

"I fail you for the semester."

"Mmmhhhmmm……why am I not surprised by that threat?" she said more to herself than to him.

"Excuse me?! Threat?! I am merely trying to guide you into to doing what is right for the sake of the other students in-" the older man asked and Relena mentally smirked at the fact that his eye was now twitching from suppressed anger.

"Fine, I'll play by your rules…but you do realize that I also have my ways of getting what I want out of an education, correct?"

"Are you threatening me, Miss Daniels?"

"No, I'm, how did you say…ah yes, 'merely trying to guide you.' So, professor, I am not threatening you, merely guiding."

"I'm not afraid of that damned Preventer organization you so frequently hide behind."

Relena frowned, "Sir, I would hope that you would have enough sense not to speak ill of the organization in my presence. I would hate for an investigation to be called forth on your loyalties."

"Now who is threatening, Miss Daniels?"

"It is part of procedure, Mr. Freeman," she said steely. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go pick up my daughter. Have a good day professor."

She turned and brushed past the somewhat distressed looking professor to leave the classroom. The older man seemed to gather his wits as he turned after her and called out to her. She paused and looked over her shoulder at him, her face impassive and her stare bored.

"Remember Daniels…no stories."

She blinked once, twice and then shook her head, smiling as she left the classroom. If he was going to be an ass then there was nothing she could do about it. She left the building and squinted her eyes as she stepped out into the bright sun and chilly December air. Snow would be coming in a few days…and with that Christmas and following that would be New Year's…

"Len!" a voice called from somewhere up ahead. Looking towards the sound of the voice, Relena spotted one of her classmates waving at her. She waved back and maneuvered her way towards the younger woman. Stacie was a petite young woman, much like Hilde, with chin length black hair and a pale complexion. Next to her was a young man who was perhaps a good foot taller than Stacie and he was an art major; Stacie was studying to become a Defense Attorney.

"Hey! How are you two doing?" Relena asked once she reached them. The young man made a face to show that he had been better and Stacie grimaced.

"Ugh! Can you believe finals are coming up soon?" Stacie asked, resituating her messenger bag. Relena shrugged her shoulders, tightening the straps on her backpack as she did so.

"Say Stacie…can you do me a favor?"

"What is it Len?"

"Can you give me the whole legal thing about if a professor threatens one of his students?"

"What?!" the younger woman exclaimed in surprise.

"All right! Which bastard was it?" said the young man, cracking his knuckles. "I've been itching to ruff someone up."

"Oh quit it, Andrew! You know you'll get kicked out if you do," Stacie said, slapping the young man in the chest.

Relena just shrugged, having expected that kind of reaction, and answered, "Professor Freeman, Religions Department."

Andrew rolled his eyes; "Why am I not surprised? All I've heard are bad things about the guy. That and you've got enough knowledge on that subject to make anyone feel intimidated."

"Well, excuse me! It's not like I chose to have nearly twelve different religions in my household!" Relena defended, raising her head high.

"Now look what you've done," teased Stacie. "You've gone and put her on the defensive…again."

The young man shrugged and threw an arm around Relena's shoulder, "Aww, she knows I love her! Right?"

Relena crossed her arms and raised a brow at him; he gave her an unappreciative look as he released her and moved to stand next to Stacie. "Yes, I do know," she said, once he was next to the other young woman. He beamed at Stacie, saying "See?" in the 'I told you so' manner. Relena laughed as Stacie swung her messenger bag to hit him and he danced away. It was a common occurrence between the two of them.

"Listen you two," she began, catching their attention. "I need to go pick up Eve. I'll see you two in a couple of days, right? For study group?"

Andrew nodded as Stacie spoke, "Yup, and I'll get you that info asap, okay?"

"Thanks, Stacie! You're a lifesaver," Relena smiled and Stacie shrugged it off.

"I'm eager to learn anything that deals with the judicial system, you know that. Besides, I'll use it as an extra-credit project or something."

"Thanks!" Relena called as turned and jogged towards the parking lot and her car. Her steps slowed however, when she found someone leaning against it, waiting for her. "You know," she called to the person as he looked up at her. "I could be mean and press the panic button…or turn the car alarm on."

"But you won't," he said with a shrug. "You ready for lunch?"

"Why Joshua Anaya…I thought you knew how to tell time by now…"

The young man looked at his watch and frowned, "Damn, what day is it?"

"Tuesday, dear," she said in a tone that she often used with Eve. She then sighed, "It stopped again, didn't it?"

"Yeah," he grunted in annoyance. "I'm gonna have to ask Hilde to take a look at it again."

She watched him fiddle with the contraption for a moment before sighing. "Why don't you just get rid of it?"

"Same reason you keep that teddy bear Yuy gave you years ago…sentimental value…besides, it's the only heirloom I've got left of my family…" he grumbled at her, not bothering to look up at her as he continued to fiddle with the old antique watch in his hands. He growled in frustration a moment later and stuffed the watch into the pant's pocket of his Preventer uniform, looking up at her in question when she continued to remain quiet. She then patted his arm in a soothing gesture, still smiling.

"All right, I'm sorry…I didn't mean to upset you," she said, moving to unlock the car door. "Did you take the rest of the day off?"

He gave her his trademark grin, "Naturally."

"I'm not letting you get out of paying rent again next month. The last time I let you get out of it was because the Colonel had placed you off-duty for recovery of an injury."

"An injury, might I add, that you and your horse caused."

"Sunfire did no such thing. It was your own fault for scaring her and that you allowed yourself to be distracted during a mission because of a sore bum."

"All right, you win! Jeez, woman, you're vicious!"

"You should have seen me when I was a politician," she teased, getting in to the car.

"Dear gods," he muttered, "You must have been the demoness from Hell."

She raised her head high indignantly, "I was no such thing!"

"Chang thinks differently and Yuy seemed to have thought of you as reckless."

Relena was silent for a long while and did not say a word when she closed the door and started the engine. She then rolled down the window when Joshua continued to stand there. "Did you get a ride here?"

He nodded, "Had someone at work drop me off at the Metro and walked the rest of the way." He then moved to get in the passenger side door. Once he was in and his seat-belt was buckled, he looked at her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

She was silent for so long that he thought she was ignoring him, but finally she whispered her reply to him. "I'm scared…"

He gave her an odd look; "Of what? The battle? Of leaving Eve alone?"

She shook her head, "No, not any of that…"

"It's Yuy."

She didn't make any effort to refute it. It was Joshua's turn to sigh. By the Gods! Those two were going to continue dancing around each other for eternity! Granted Joshua loved Relena but love had different forms and he did not love Relena to the degree that Yuy had and still did. The man was very good at keeping his emotions to himself but Joshua had noticed little actions that had given the man away. The way Yuy would tense up slightly when he, Joshua, acted much too familiar with Relena or the way Yuy seemed to be at ease when Relena was in the room or interacting with her child. The man still cared for her…but she was too afraid to let anything happen.

Though Relena would never admit it, she was still so unsure of who she really was. Joshua, Midii, Adjani and Alex had been trying to help her all these years to find herself…so that she could finally be truly happy. She was so afraid to touch upon her past because of the icon she had been made out to be…and she still didn't realize that the characteristics of the icon she had been were not at all accurate.

And all he, Joshua, could do was guide her in the right direction. "It'll be fine. Concentrate on being happy, that's all," he reassured her. "You being happy is all that matters."

"Why? Why me?"

He blinked, "Huh?"

"Why is it so important that I am the one who is happy?"

"One: you've done all you could for this peace, so you no longer need to worry about anyone else but Eve and yourself…and two: because I said so."

She looked up at him then and he gave her a wide grin, "Yosh [1]?"

She nodded, grinning as well. "Yosh, Josh-kun [2]. Arigatou…[3]"

He shrugged and leaned back in his seat. "Let's go get the kid and go home. I'm starvin'!"

~~~

Alex took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she heard a car begin its approach towards the house. A few minutes later, the engine grew louder and finally was shut off. A few doors opened and slammed closed, followed by various footfalls and the door to the garage being thrown open.

"Tadaima [4]!" Eve called out happily and Alex grinned as the brat ran over to her, hopping from foot to foot. "Alex-nee-chan [5]! Guess what we did today!" She then grew timid, waiting for Alex's reaction.

"And what, pray tell, did you today?" she asked, humoring the child. This caused Eve to perk up and shrug off her small Disney backpack, opening it and rummaging around through it. The little girl finally pulled out a Ziploc bag filled with reddish-pink…goo.

"We made silly putty! But it doesn't really look like silly putty, but it's just like it! Feel!" Eve then opened the bag and held it open towards Alex so that the older woman could poke at it. And poke at it Alex did, grinning as she got an evil idea.

"You're sure it's just like silly putty? It reminds me of Gak. But, I'm sure that your Midii-baa-san [6] would love to see it. As would Adjani-nee-san [7]."

The girl's eyes went wide, "Really?"

Alex nodded, grinning as the child turned and ran out of the kitchen looking for the two said members of her family. Duo gave her an odd look and she shook her head. The braided young man would understand her reasoning soon enough.

Two shrieks were heard from the study and Alex smiled, noting the grin on Duo's face. However, one of those shrieks turned into a gleeful giggle while the other turned from fear to annoyance. Midii soon came limping out of the study, a frown on her face and she threw a glare at Alex as the Irish woman could not suppress her laughter any longer. Midii soon disappeared upstairs, not entering the kitchen for obvious reasons.

Alex had sensed tension between Barton and the French woman but had not known why until Relena kept the redhead from asking about it. Alex had demanded answers from her pack leader, a dangerous thing in and of itself at the time, but she had received them. The ex-pilot and former Alliance spy had not left on the best of terms when they were younger…much younger in fact.

"Eve! Put it away please and wash up for lunch!" Relena called gently as she set her purse and book-bag on the floor and placed her car keys on the key rack.

"Aww, mommy!" the little child whined with a pouting face, coming to the doorway of the study. Adjani stood behind the girl, a pout on her face as well.

"Now, please."

"But mommy!"

"Yeah, but mommy!" Adjani mimicked the childish whining tone that Eve had used. This received chuckles from Duo, Alex and even Joshua who was in the kitchen.

"Adjani-chan," Relena said in a reproachful manner. "You're not helping."

The young woman sighed, taking it upon herself to grab the silly putty from the child and place it back into the plastic baggie. "Come one, kiddo! You can show everyone else later," she explained, gently taking the little girl's hand and leading her upstairs to change and wash up.

Alex faintly grunted in disappointment and suspicion, her amusement now gone as she heard Hilde and Relena speaking in the kitchen. Joshua had yet to leave the kitchen area, which meant…

"Hey Twinkle Toes! Are you telling them about the info Adjani told us this mornin'?" she called, getting up off of the couch to make her way into the kitchen. She saw the guilty look on Hilde's face next to the grim one Relena wore and the amused grin on Joshua's face when she entered. Apparently the little pixie had.

"Oh this day just gets better and better…" Relena muttered, kicking off her shoes. "First I forget my paper, end up running late to class, get threatened by one of my professors and now I have to go and act like a skank all for the sake of a mission because Midii can't."

"Wait, one of your professors threatened you?"

At Relena's nod, Hilde frowned and asked, "How so?"

"Let's see…the main jist of it was 'you are too knowledgeable on world religions for your own good and I want to suppress you from learning anymore.' He threatened to fail me for the class if I didn't 'refrain from making comments in and out of class.' What, does he think I'm stupid and won't realize that he has no right to do that?" Relena ranted, making arm gestures and facial expressions when needed to convey her point.

Alex smirked at that comment; "Well…your blonde roots are starting to show again."

Relena paused, grabbed a handful of her own dark brown hair and frowned at it thoughtfully. "You know," she began, that thoughtful expression still on her face. "I was thinking of trying red this time. Or maybe I'll just chop it all off."

Hilde's eyes widened in surprise at Relena's comment and Alex laughed. "You can certainly bitch like an Irishman," Alex said, grinning at the young woman.

Relena stuck her tongue out at the natural redhead before releasing her dark tresses and sighing. "By the way, Hilde. Josh needs you to look at his watch again."

Hilde made a non-committable sound at that as she handed Relena a plate. "Okay, but later obviously. Go ahead and start making your sandwiches while I get everyone else," the petite young woman said, leaving the kitchen.

Hilde could be heard calling out 'Lunch!' every now and then throughout the house as Relena, Joshua and Alex started to make their sandwiches.

Relena glance over at Trowa, her sandwich now done, and handed the stoic young man a plate. "Help yourself," she said, smiling a genuine smile at him. The corners of his lips twitched upward as he took the plate from her and did just that. She then moved to sit on one of the unoccupied counters, sticking her tongue out at Joshua when she realized that she had beat the young Hispanic man to it.

He grabbed her ankle and gave her a warning look. Relena ignored it, not believing that he would do such a thing when she had her hands full. She apparently was correct because he released her ankle and moved to sit on a different unoccupied countertop. "We're not being very good role-models, you know," she heard him comment and she shrugged.

"And your point is?" she asked him, her tone light and playful. She watched him take a bite of his ham and turkey sandwich instead of responding to her question. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to her own sandwich as the other people in the house slowly trickled into the kitchen.

"Hey, Lena?" Adjani ventured as she entered the kitchen with Eve, the little girl now in 'play' clothes and with clean hands. "Did Hilde mention anything about the information I was gathering last night?"

"Yeah, she did. It'll be her, Alex and myself. You'll stay to look after Midii with Josh and Frank."

Midii 'humphed' at the informal orders Relena had just given. "I do not need a babysitter."

"Aw, come on Midii! We'll have lotsa fun!" Joshua teased while remaining somewhat serious, grinning at the irate French woman. "We'll watch a few movies, order out, make sure the brat goes to bed on time and that the other brat has his homework done!"

"My word, Joshua! It has always been my dream to spend such an eventful night in your company. How ever did you know?" Midii said sarcastically.

"I sense a bit of sarcasm. Do you not enjoy my company?" he teased, raising a brow at the blonde young woman.

"Majority of the time, yes. But not tonight."

With a sigh, Joshua finished his lunch as he feigned a wounded look. "Damn, bitch. Could you reject me any harsher than that?"

With a smirk on her face, Midii replied, "No doubt about it."

Relena shook her head at her two friends' antics. This was the familiarity of home, this was what she lived for nowadays. And as she looked at the expressions on the majority of the ex-gundam pilots faces, she could see that they were beginning to understand why she wanted to keep this life so badly. It was taking a little bit of time, but they were beginning to see the true beauty of this place.

Despite impending battles or missions, this place that the girls called home had a feel about it. It brought a sense of completeness, a feeling of stability, and a feeling of peace. This was home…and she was going to stay home, no matter what happened, she would always return to this place.

Relena glanced at Heero from the corner of her eye as he leaned against the counter next to her. She ignored him as best she could, forcing herself to keep a neutral expression. She had noticed that even Heero was slowly starting to ease up here; the dogs were taken to him and the others and he wasn't glaring at Joshua Anaya as often either.

For a fleeting moment, Relena wondered what it would be like to live like this, with the majority of the ex-gundam pilots staying with them. Quatre and Wufei wouldn't stay though…Quatre had his business to take care of and Wufei would be driven insane if he had to permanently live with them. She figured the only condolence the Chinese man received was the knowledge that once the mission was over he could leave.

With a sigh, Relena pushed those thoughts towards the back of her mind when Eve turned a bright smile to Heero, who in turn gave the child one of his small smirks that could almost constitute as a smile. Relena had thought it impossible for him to even consider accepting her new life and yet, he seemed to be taken towards her daughter. And aside from the argument they had had last night, she had an inkling that he was trying to accept this new life of hers. She didn't know how she knew though, she just had this feeling…

It would just take some time…

Unfortunately, she didn't know if there was enough time…

AN: This chapter is pretty much just a filler chapter. Sorry if that disappoints anyone. ^_^;

Terms:

1. Yosh/Yoshi = okay/good. (Japanese)

2. Josh-kun = Mr.; Ms.: used in addressing younger people or colleagues in place of -san or -sama. In this case, -kun is used to replace -chan since -kun is mainly used for boys. A girl who is good friends with a boy will no doubt use the suffix -kun and drop the last few letters of his name to create something equivalent to a nickname. (Japanese)

3. Arigatou = thank you. (Japanese)

4. Tadaima = I'm home! (Japanese)

5. Alex-nee-chan = big sister Alex. (Japanese)

6. Midii-baa-san = Aunt Midii. (Japanese)

7. Adjani-nee-san = big sister Adjani. (Japanese)