Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gone Round ❯ Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Seven

"Shh, people are sleeping," Trowa whispered, trying to move into the house with a girl under either arm, and one clinging to his waist. They were giggling at and chattering at him, and his chiding blew right over their heads.

"Oh, hey," Wufei greeted from where he was in the kitchen with his shirt off and a cup in hand. "I was starting to wonder if you'd come home."

Trowa laughed at that. "This is Tia, Mia, and Mary," he declared...which made them guffaw and protest that. He laughed it off as absentmindedness from so many pretty eyes, but it was more like a code. It was very simple, too. He wanted the one he'd called Mia, and making up fake names for all three meant that Wufei would understand him without issue.

Wufei made a disappointed hissing sort of noise, shaking his head as he drank from the cup. "I should have gone out with you...you got three beauties all to yourself, it's not fair..."

One of the girls turned to give him a considerate look, then looked back to Trowa, who was busy being kissed and didn't notice. She smiled, moving away from him to look Wufei's abs over with interest. "Why didn't you go out?"

"I had some things to finish up here—barely got them done in time to hear him coming in."

"Aww," she murmured, moving around the island, then spotted Jinli, who had a wife-beater on and was sitting on the couch. His expression was interested. She smiled brightly at him, then moved around to look Wufei over again. "It's...awfully crowded back there," she noted.

"Not very crowded right here," he agreed, grinning at her.

"You missed the good shit," Trowa murmured, moving to stand by the end of the island and look around. "Oh, hey, Jin..." he shifted so the other girl could see the man. The first had already moved up and was talking to Wufei quietly.

"You had stuff to do, too?" the woman asked, looking Jin over.

Jin nodded, rising to his feet and moving closer.

"I tell you what," she muttered, pulling away from Trowa. "I was more interested in her," she indicated the one with Wufei, "than her," she indicated the one with Trowa. "So if you're free..." she looked him up and down.

"Such an offer," he retorted, looking her over, then smirked slightly. "I am free, though, so..."

She laughed and turned to kiss Trowa. "Sorry, love, I know you'd be fun, but the mixed group needs to be balanced."

Trowa grinned, watching her follow Jin down the living room. Wufei started laughing as that girl backed him against the counter, and he looked down to his new friend. "Why don't we go to my room, huh?"

- -

Heero wasn't entirely sure what it was, but he started noticing a lot of little things about Trowa's relationship with Lifon. Matty had pointed out to him before, but Trowa seemed to know almost all the everyday details of Lifon's life. He texted with her daily, called her...and as the week before her birthday moved on, Matty was delving more into their relationship.

There seemed to be more between them than just friends, and Matty wasn't sure if he was okay with that or not.

"Hey," Sean, the one doorman muttered. "Mr. Tsuyo...I got a couple packages here for Rigel."

"Mr. Tsuyo?" Heero demanded, moving up to him. "What's that about?"

"New tenants," the man explained dryly. "I get back into the habit when I'm trying not to offend people. I still haven't figured out why I like this job," he set two boxes on the counter between them and shoved a clipboard to him.

"You get to work with hot guys?" Heero offered happily, signing his assumed name.

"That's not my quirk, Mr. Tsuyo," the man reminded him pointedly, though he was grinning.

Heero grinned back, taking the boxes. "I'd tip you but I'm out of cash right now."

"Double next time," the man retorted.

Heero laughed, moving into the elevator and scanning his pass.

The boxes...were sort of heavy. He frowned, wondering what the hell Trowa had ordered. Normally when he was expecting something, he was excited about it.

He shook his head.

No use worrying about it, Trowa'd show them as soon as he got home.

- -

"Trowa?"

"Hey, birthday girl," Trowa greeted Lifon. "What are you doing calling me? I am not going to come over and hang out with your little girlfriends who think I'm a pervert."

She laughed a little at that, then started to cry.

"Li?" Trowa protested, blinking at his laptop screen. "What's wrong? What's going on?"

"I was going to have everyone stay the night," she explained. "But a lot of my friends aren't even in town to come...and Eve is such a bitch!"

"What's wrong?" Trowa protested, shifting forward where he sat. "What did Eve do?"

"She and Ade are going to a movie," Li retorted bitterly. "And I don't have money right now, so I can't go."

"They're ditching your party for a movie?" Trowa asked in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

She started crying again. "They'll come over when it's done..."

Trowa groaned to himself, running his hand through his hair.

"The party doesn't start until five anyway," she added tiredly. "So it's not like they'll miss it..."

"Wonderful," Trowa sighed. "All right...so...why don't you come over here?"

"So you can lecture me about school again?" she pouted.

"Don't get all pissy with me," he retorted, rising to his feet. "I've got something to finish up here, alright? And then I'll come over and get you. It should be...ten minutes, max."

She sniffled again. "Alright..."

"Good," he muttered, moving into his room. "I'll be there soon."

"I'm calling Matty," she muttered. "Tell him when you leave?"

She hadn't called Matty yet?

"Alright," Trowa reassured her, pulling out the roll of lavender wrapping paper he'd picked up. Her favorite color was that shade, but she really liked the dusty pastels. He'd bought her a couple rolls of tape stuff, too, one in a pink color and one in grey. She'd decked her phone out in it, and she could use that to...he looked to the box the laptop was in as he closed the phone.

It was a good thing Heero'd brought the packages up when he had or Trowa would have had to carry them into the apartment with her there.

He made quick-work of wrapping the two boxes. It wasn't hard to wrap a box, and it hadn't been hard to buy a roll of iridescent ribbon that reflected in the shades she preferred. The colors seemed...ashy...to him. That sort of thing always caught his attention anymore because of her.

He sighed after a moment, pulling out his pen and scribbling "Lifon" into the tags that had come with the ribbon. He'd been planning to ask Matty if boots and a laptop were too much, but if her friends were really the assholes they seemed, she needed the booster—and he couldn't send the laptop back anyway.

It took him a moment to situate the things on the table behind his laptop, and he considered them a moment before turning for the door and hesitating. "Oi, Matty..."

Matty poked his head from his and Heero's room with his phone to his ear.

"I'm going," Trowa explained.

Matty gave him a look that suggested he thought that was weird, then nodded.

Trowa shook his head and moved from the apartment. Li probably hadn't gotten to the part where Trowa was getting her yet—she'd get to it, and probably before he showed up on her doorstep, too.

- -

Matty was almost seething as he closed his phone and stormed from his and Heero's room. He really hated that Lifon's best friends were rich snobs, he always had. It hadn't started to matter until they'd reached middle-school, though, and as high-school carried on, the girls were getting worse about always having money...and their own cars.

That was probably the kicker. He'd only barely managed to buy his piece of junk machine, and there was no way his father could afford another one yet. He and Matty had planned a whole year in advance to get that stupid thing...

"What's up?" Heero asked, moving from the old apartment.

"Lifon needs a rich boyfriend," Matty explained irritably. "Then she wouldn't have a care in the world."

Heero grinned, then tilted his head. "You look upset."

"Her two best friends took off to a movie before her party, and she can't go because she can't pay her own way."

"I can give her the cash," Heero protested, reaching for his wallet. "A movie is cheap, isn't it?"

"That's not the whole problem," Matty returned, digging into the fridge. "Her friends say it sucks that she doesn't have money, but they don't try to pool up to get her in or anything. Taili and Abel had barely any more money than my family, and they would pool it so I could go to things with them."

"I guess," Heero sighed. "I can give her pocket money...would that upset your dad?"

"I don't know," Matty sighed and moved into his arms. "She called me crying—it's her damn birthday and she called me crying. She called Trowa first," he added dryly. "He went to get her, they'll be back in ten or fifteen minutes...but..."

"Look," Heero pointed at the table in the sunken living room.

Matty turned to look as well, blinking at the packages piled on top of the little table.

"Those were for her?" Heero added, moving around to look at the things from other sides. "And this is a weird-ass color-scheme, isn't it?"

Matty stared.

"What?" Heero muttered. "What is that look?"

". . . I think. . . Trowa likes my sister," Matty returned blankly.

Heero looked at him in confusion. "What was your first clue? Them hanging out all the time?"

Matty pointed at the pile, ignoring the question. "Those are all of Li's favorite colors...and those sizes don't suggest small things."

"They're heavy," Heero agreed thoughtfully. "I wanted him to tell me what they were dammit."

"She called him before she called me...and she's heart-broken right now. I used to be the one she called first."

Heero blinked at him, realizing he hadn't meant ‘like' the way Heero'd thought.

"I'm calling my dad," Matty noted, turning away. "I think we should...leave them this moment..." he waved a hand at the pile. "Come on."

Heero shook his head again, closing their bedroom door.

He really wanted to hear this conversation with Taofa Williams. He felt it might be...interesting...to say the least.

- -

"...so I think he...really likes her, dad..."

"What was your first clue?" Taofa demanded dryly. "When they started hanging out all the time?"

Matty went quiet.

"Son," Taofa added, "sometimes, when a man really likes a girl, they spend time together..."

Matty guffawed at that. "No, Dad, I'm serious..."

"So am I," Taofa retorted. "So far you haven't had a girlfriend, so the basics may have escaped you."

Matty snickered slightly. "But..."

"I'm watching the situation," Taofa reassured him. "I've been watching it since it started. So far there hasn't been anything she won't tell me, so I'm not quite worried yet—though with him going to pick her up today I'm wondering if I should be."

"You...knew?" Matty asked blankly. "Since when?"

"Since he bought her that stupid phone," Taofa retorted. "When she started really talking to him she had his full and complete attention, and then they started playing together. Do you realize that there's not a day that goes by that I don't hear about Trowa in some fashion or another? It's almost as bad as when you first started seeing Max, just not focused on the sex."

Matty started laughing.

"Anyway," Taofa sighed, "I wasn't able to give her any money this week—I had to use it for her present and this party. Don't be too hard on Eve and Ade. Li didn't want to see that movie at all, and today is the last day it's at the theater. I told her last night that I could probably dig up the money for her to go with them and she said no...so...don't judge her friends too harshly."

Matty sighed. It was easy to forget that his sister could be a drama-queen. That didn't make her any less heartbroken to be left out on her birthday, but the situation would resolve by the time she got home—shit, probably in five minutes when she got into their apartment.

"So I'll talk to you later," Taofa added. "Don't worry too much about Trowa. I trust that he won't cross the line of propriety, and if he does...well...what's the age of consent in California?"

Matty guffawed.

"Don't even pretend you didn't use that tired old line on me, Mattox Ray."

The younger snickered.

"It wasn't all that long ago that you were seventeen screwing with boys from your school. At least I'm still sure she's a virgin."

That made Matty laugh.

"So," Taofa summed up, "I'll see you tonight at five."

"What? She's having her party at six..."

"Yes, but me, you, and your friends are having a little pre-party party for her that will be over by six, that way your friends aren't ogling the jailbait."

Matty started laughing again.

"I suppose I should text them, huh?" Taofa added happily. "They might want to know in advance."

- -

Trowa followed Lifon into the house, listening as she rambled on. He'd started her talking about a movie that she'd been waiting for, one that was still a month away. He'd promised to take her on opening night, and that had helped her calm down...now to see if he'd overstepped himself with gifts.

She moved onto the stairs, then stopped, blinking at the table. Trowa doubted there could be any doubt in her mind that the things were for her...no one else in his house cared much about colors at all, let alone feminine ones.

"These...are for me?" she asked blankly, turning to look at him.

He smiled slightly at her, then nodded his head at the things.

She gave him a look, moving down the stairs as well to pick up the top box. Trowa moved to the stereo as she opened it, turning it on, then moved back to his laptop to start her playlist.

"I wasn't sure I wanted to give you both things," he added, looking up to her as she lifted the lid on the shoe-box.

She smiled at the boots a moment, then looked up to him. "Is that why you said to just wear my flipflops?" she protested, then giggled and moved like she'd sit.

"Open the other one first," he chided. "You don't have socks anyway."

She gave him a look, but obeyed, setting the boots on the chair to start pulling at the paper of the other. Her expression was intrigued...until she uncovered the front.

She squeaked.

Trowa smiled a little, watching her face as she tore more at the box—and definitely noted the sticker mark "customized" on the bottom.

She squeaked again.

"What's wrong?" Matty demanded, spilling into the living-room area and stopping as she saw what was going on.

Lifon squeaked at him, pulling the paper off the box entirely before meeting her brother's eyes...and flew into Trowa's arms. He accepted the hug, and after a moment he could make out the words ‘thank you' in her noise.

"Open it," he chided, pushing her toward the box again as he smiled. "How do you know it's not just a rock?"

She gave him a look, then focused on the box.

"Sorry," Matty muttered, moving to stand beside Trowa with his lip between his teeth—it was just as cute when he did it as when she did... "I just heard her, and..."

"Its fine," Trowa reassured him, looking back to the girl as she pulled the slim purple thing out.

She gasped, setting it on top of the box...and stared at her name.

He'd written it in a way she'd liked—she liked his writing when it was fast, and had begged him to write her name just like that on one of her notebooks. She'd been trying to get him to do more, but he'd protested and she'd given over. The lettering, however, was the white iridescent that shimmered colors.

"Trowa..." Matty gasped, moving forward himself to stare at the thing, then opened the large screen...and iridescent letters on the keyboard.

Lifon stared at the thing with a hand over her mouth, then looked up to him.

He smiled slightly at her. "Happy birthday," he muttered, moving around to offer her his arms. She had tears in her eyes.

"This is...Trowa..." Matty sounded almost breathless.

For some reason, Trowa wasn't noticing what Matty was saying, though. He was studying Li, watching her reaction...her upturned lips...her...

The kiss was sweet and after the initial moment of impulse passed, very tenuous. Trowa sighed slightly, pulling away from that and pressing his forehead to hers. That had been beyond any intention he'd ever had...and if he kept at it, things would go in ways he'd never expected.

Matty cleared his throat, shifting where he stood a little uncomfortably.

"Thank you," Li whispered, studying his eyes as she buried her face into his neck. "Thank you..."

Trowa hugged her tightly, then raised his eyes to look at Matty.

Yeah, the laptop had been a bit over the top...but customizing it hadn't cost that much after the price of the machine itself—and since it was so extensively customized, Taofa couldn't prevail on him to return it.

How much alcohol had he had that night? Or had he ordered it on a night when Blake had come over? He couldn't recall.

"I...uh...I'm going in my room...uh...happy birthday, Li."

Lifon started giggling, turning to pull him into a hug and whisper something that included the word ‘tastes'. It made Matty grin wickedly at her and glance briefly at Trowa, then grin more and pull away.

"Say what now?" Trowa asked, burying his urge to be cocky. He wanted to know what she thought he tasted like—there had been no tongue in that kiss, so what tasted like what?

Li gave him one of her cute looks, then moved back into his arms, wrapping her own around his body as best she could a moment.

"I think I got a little carried away on the customization," he admitted. "I guess the keyboard was a little...but I was bored."

She laughed at that, squeezing him.

Trowa crushed her to his chest a moment, then kissed the top of her head and pulled away. "Turn it on...let's get it set up so you can be all kicked back on your couch when your friends show up...but, uh, I suggest you don't mention the kiss."

She started giggling wickedly, smacking at him, but then her focus changed to the machine.

It was almost too bad he hadn't taken a moment longer to enjoy that, but he had to remind himself that he was older than her, and his expectations were probably on a whole different level than hers.

He clicked next on the song that'd been playing, dropping into his chair as she bounced around to plug the machine in...and had the brilliant realization.

No one in his house would ever let him live that shit down...ever.

He grinned, pulling his eyes away from her...he was going to call Blake and beg his ass to come over, boyfriend or no...and he'd really just thought that. He'd really really just thought that.

...ah well. No use crying over spilled milk...just had to get the cat from the barn and make its day.

- -

"Oh, Daddy..." Lifon flew across the foyer and into her father's arms.

"Daddy?" he demanded. "What do you want now?"

She started giggling at that, hugging him again, then tugging at him. He followed after her, blinking a few times as he noticed her boots...down the steps.

The first thing he really noticed was how much Trowa was watching him.

Really, now?

"Look," Li whispered, indicating a second laptop.

"Uh-huh, nice," Taofa returned, looking back to the boots. He pointed at them.

Lifon started giggling her truly innocent giggle...and closed the top of the laptop.

. . .that was her name. Why did that laptop have her name...digitally...skinned...into the very make of the thing.

He stared at that in amazement a long moment, then looked around to Trowa...who jumped to his feet.

Ah, so he'd realized the gift was over the top, too. At least he'd gotten the damn colors right...but if he was jumping to his feet...that went beyond the outer customization.

"I...uh...customized it," Trowa indicated the case as if it weren't the most obvious thing in the room.

"...baby, down, open wide..."

Trowa laughed nervously, and very quickly tried to change the song that had been playing on the radio.

"...maybe just let me inside..."

"Shit," Trowa leaned down to look at his laptop better.

Lifon turned to the stereo and hit the power button, then looked back to her father.

"I can expect him to listen to that stupid shit," Taofa noted dryly, leaning over to open her laptop. "But you?"

As he'd suspected when Trowa freaked, the music was on her laptop.

Dear lord, the lunatic had bought her a laptop.

"Dear...lord..." he muttered, starting to laugh weakly as he dropped into the chair.

"Daddy?" Li asked in concern.

"Uh...Mr. Williams..."

"Mr. Williams?" Taofa asked the man levelly. "Did you have sex with my daughter?"

Lifon's face flushed as Trowa started, blinking down at him.

"You mother-fucker," Taofa started in mild disbelief...very mild. He couldn't even manage to be offended...that'd come later, he was sure, but...

"I...I didn't," Trowa said quickly, the nervous manner changing—not in a guilty way, though. He'd been acting very much like any one of Li's little boyfriends would there for a minute. "I..." he mouthed a few times, looking to the girl.

"It was just a kiss!" she squeaked, then clapped her hands to her mouth as she looked to him.

That worked? Really? Taofa looked back to Trowa with that same skeptical expression.

"I swear I'd never...I wouldn't...she...I..."

Matty started laughing, moving from the living-room.

Trowa made a frustrated noise, gesturing the boy to Taofa pointedly.

"Where have you been?" Taofa demanded of him—he hadn't decided if he still trusted Trowa or not. "Why would you let this lunatic..."

"Let?" Matty protested happily, bouncing over to hug him from behind. "It was the cutest damn thing in the world—and he didn't do it. She did."

Taofa looked up to his daughter.

She hung her head.

"And it was one cute little kiss before Trowa pulled away. I think this...lunatic," he grinned at Trowa, "is worried about you accepting the laptop more than the fact that your baby-girl coulda ended up in his bed."

"Matty," Trowa protested.

"I know you wouldn't," Matty retorted, giving him a look. "But you could, couldn't you?"

Trowa scowled at him.

Matty snickered, then looked back to his father. "She was overcome and hugged him...and kissed him. Can't we skin him, though? Would you look at this shit?" he happily opened the computer properties to show a disgustingly large harddrive with matching ram...and a processor that made his work computer look old.

Taofa looked up to Trowa.

"I won't buy a machine I don't feel is worth it," Trowa noted quietly. "I have minimum standards that tend to only be met when the other...stats...are higher end."

"You'll let me repay half it, I trust," Taofa muttered, feeling his stomach start to sink.

"No," Trowa returned. "Nor will you ever find out how much it cost. It can't be returned because of the customization, and much like our phones, we have our security set-up in the system. If you sell the machine, we'll deactivate it," he shrugged. "Or if it's stolen...or if she tells us to."

Taofa glared at him.

"I'd giggle and say that Heero had nothing to do with it," Matty informed the man happily, having pulled up the task-manager. "But that thing there? That process is registered under Mad-Max."

Taofa rubbed at his face.

"He should market his shit," Matty noted to Trowa. "Mad-Max with like...a mad-hatter with a Cheshire-cat grin."

Lifon giggled.

"It'd make his ass rich," Matty added to her, then, thought about it. "Er. Richer."

"And it would also compromise my security," Heero noted, moving into the room himself to consider Trowa a moment. He moved, then, and hovered over the laptop. While Matty and Taofa watched, Heero started doing things to the machine. Screens flicked open as he typed, then closed again. One after the other, screens flashed until it beeped at him in protest. He snorted, waiting a moment, then went back to whatever he was doing.

"What?" Trowa demanded, trying to look himself. He couldn't see around his friend though. "What are you doing?"

"Checking...the...integrity," Heero noted thoughtfully. "I didn't plan for this model, and if you recall, I made you alter the program yourself for your...ha."

Trowa sighed.

"Would you look at that?" Heero pulled away to glower at Trowa. "You did it again and didn't warn me—if you hadn't mentioned you bought her this thing, I might have destroyed it when I logged onto my laptop again..."

"I planned to tell you when you came out of your room," Trowa protested. "You've been in there all day..."

"Matty suggested we make ourselves scarce since Li'd had such a shitty morning and you got her this..."

Taofa looked to his son levelly.

"Tattle-tale," Matty muttered, smacking at Heero's leg.

"Oh, you hadn't told him?" Heero looked back to his friend blankly. "Why?"

"Because he thought they'd slept together, and if I hadn't come out because she squeaked I wouldn't have realized anything was going on."

Heero snorted at him.

"I would not..." Trowa started.

"I'm not saying you would," Matty cut him off before going on. "And you can't tell me it's beyond you because I saw those three girls you brought home for Wufei and Jin, and I saw them leave in the morning."

Trowa grinned at him.

"Pig," Li added happily, sitting down to kick her feet and study her boots. She thought, though, looking up to her father. "What are you doing here?"

"I said we were having a party for you at my house for them," he indicated Heero, who was still leaning over him to type on the machine. "And Quatre pointed out it'd be easier for me to come here since you were here already."

"Quatre's home?" Li asked blankly.

"And Duo," Heero agreed in amusement. "They came in through the old apartment."

Trowa shot him a venomous look.

Taofa studied Heero a long moment, then looked around to Matty.

Matty laughed nervously. "She...had...a bad day?"

"I love you," Li informed Matty happily. "Let that sustain you through it."

Matty cast her a dark look and hit her leg.

"Don't hit your sister," Tao ordered him irritably.

Matty hung his head.

"I need to get some stuff from my car," Tao added, rising to his feet and glowering at his son. "Trowa, why don't you come help me?"

"Because I don't want to die a horrible death," Trowa retorted, then sighed and stood. "Listen, Mr. Williams..."

"Mr. Williams my ass," Taofa retorted.

Trowa fell silent and cast another sour look to Heero.

"Oh, Tao is here?" Quatre appeared from his room. "Hi, Taofa."

"Hey, Quatre," the man returned without slowing, then moved into the hall.

Trowa shot Quatre a venomous look that got a confused return, then followed the man into the hall. He followed along obediently, then stopped as the man pulled the door to the stairs open and looked at him. There was nothing to do but go past him.

"So...Mr. Barton," the man muttered, following after him and stopping as he took the first step.

Trowa glanced back as he stepped again...and felt a foreboding shiver as the man's fingertips slid up the back of his neck and into his hair.

Well, there were a lot of traits that family held true.

He froze, waiting for whatever would happen next.

"I know I don't have to have this conversation with you."

"Yet you're still trying to turn me on," Trowa retorted.

The man's hand tightened.

Trowa laughed, situating himself better and leaning back. He'd lost some of his flexibility over the years, but not even half of it. At the angle he was at, Taofa didn't have the proper leverage to grab or pull. "Something you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked sweetly.

"If I even suspect you're overstepping yourself," the man returned evenly, "I will report you to the police and your superior."

Trowa blinked languidly up at him.

"I like you, Trowa," he added, tightening his hand and stepping down a step to get a better grip. "I don't want to hate you...and the one sure thing is to hurt my children."

"I assure you, Mr. Williams," Trowa hissed through clenched teeth, "I have no intentions of harming your daughter in any way."

"You can tell me what she's done every day this past week," the man noted. "You can tell me which of her friends made a stupid comment. You could probably tell me her favorite book."

Trowa frowned at him.

"What I'm getting at," the man said seriously, "is that over the past few months, you've been building a solid relationship with her, and if she's kissing you, then you've laid yourself a wonderful foundation for the rest of her fucking life."

"So what do you want me to do?" Trowa snapped. "Break up with her? That's funny...and fair."

The man's eyes flashed wickedly, and he yanked at Trowa's hair. Trowa started to topple, then caught it and decided to go with the motion. He used his hands to flip backwards, landing in a crouch on the top stair as Taofa backed down a few more stairs quickly.

"I have no intentions for your daughter," Trowa hissed at the man. "I do not plan to pursue a relationship with her. The fact of the matter is that her friends are arrogant asses, and she needed someone to talk to who wasn't going to judge her and leave her behind. It ended up being a damn good call, because I got myself a damn good friend—the fact that she's cute as hell doesn't hurt, and the naiveté is utterly adorable. If she were a few years older I'd be all over that shit, but since she's not, she's my friend. Sweet, attentative, and in need of a good friend herself. I'll stop buying her expensive things now...and if you want to get her a car you can look to me for a loan...but that kiss?" he studied the man's eyes. "Sweetest thing in the world, and utterly unexpected. I have no plans for your daughter."

Taofa glowered up at him, then turned and started down the stairs.

Trowa sighed, following after as he rubbed at his hair. "Matty grabbed me like that before."

"Did he?" the man asked tightly. "Was this before or after you decided he was hot?"

"After," Trowa returned dryly. "The morning after I first fucked Blake."

Taofa stopped, turning to look at him.

"Sometimes I wonder if I am a lunatic," Trowa noted dryly, moving beyond the man. "That shit's a turn-on."

"Every time I think I have you figured out," the man noted dryly, "you come up with some other weird-ass shit and blindside me again. Why in the hell did you buy her that laptop?"

"Because her old one died and there's no point to fixing it," Trowa retorted.

"And customizing it?"

"Two reasons. We may as well say that the second was to piss you off. The first is because she deserves to stand out."

"Why can't I hate you?" the man demanded petulantly. "My children say you've brought three women home on your own, my son says you're devil's spawn, and my daughter wouldn't be able to stop talking about you if her life depended on it...and I still like your ass."

"Sorry, my charisma is addicting," he flashed the man a wicked grin, then pulled the door open to the hallway. "Not that I don't want to walk all the way down to floor-level," he noted dryly, "but it'd be faster."

"Yeah, sure," Tao followed him toward the elevator.

"I didn't think she'd kiss me," Trowa noted quietly as they moved into the empty machine. "I expected the hug, but I didn't think she'd kiss me." He sighed. "I was going to give her the laptop alone, but she called me crying after work and I didn't have the time to run the boots by Matty."

"Her name on the back?"

"What about it?"

"I've seen that before," Taofa returned. "That writing, and..."

"I scrawled her name on a file-folder and she absolutely died. I don't know why, but she likes my handwriting. She had me write it on one of her notebooks."

The man gave him a level look.

"In my defense, I was pretty buzzed when I was ordering the machine. I don't regret it at all, but I went a little over the top on what I added...I got distracted from customizing the keyboard anymore than the shiny letters."

"The colors?" the man asked.

Trowa sighed and shrugged, leaning against the wall. "She's shown me her favorite colors a thousand times."

"You're just as bad as her mother," Taofa muttered, leaning against the back and running a hand down his face. "She'd have done the same thing...and...and..." he covered his eyes with his hand.

Trowa pursed his lips and studied his boots. He wanted the uncomfortable moment to pass, and he wasn't sure if it would.

"If something happens to me," Taofa whispered, "you'll take care of her?"

Trowa sighed heavily. "Nothing is going to happen to you...and you don't need to ask. You're a good father, Taofa."

"You never talk about your family," the man noted quietly.

"My family is up in that apartment," Trowa returned just as quietly. "I talk about them all the time."

"Do you have any siblings? Who are your parents?"

"Parents?" Trowa echoed, a dim memory flashing through his mind—it was more the impression of cold, though. "No...no parents. There's a woman on L-4 that may as well be my sister...and Tim. Everyone else is in that apartment."

"Is it...hard?" the man asked quietly.

"Not as hard as losing your wife with two children," Trowa returned. "I have lovely holes in what memories I have. The hard part is the sympathy," he studied the man's face. "It makes me sad sometimes, but it's just a fact. I don't...focus on it, I don't worry about it...I don't cry myself to sleep night after night. I don't remember my childhood, really. I lived with mercenaries, I fought in MS..." he looked across the elevator as it slowed.

He was going to fight in his gundam again...that left a hole in something, but he wasn't sure what or why.

"You really didn't mean anything?" Taofa asked quietly. "You're not trying to sweep my girl off her feet?"

"I'm trying to make her happy," Trowa returned truthfully, moving into the lobby. "Nothing more and nothing less."

Taofa sighed, and followed after.