Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ In a Child's Eyes ❯ A Silver Crayon ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. Things have been really crazy right now. I'll try to update sooner next time.

 

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Relena set the phone down as the door to the reception area opened and Heero Yuy walked in with a young child in tow. The boy, who looked about seven or eight years of age, was looking in every direction as if overwhelmed by all the new sights.

 

“Ms. Darlian I have meetings until two this afternoon. I'm going to leave the kid in here. Please keep him out of my office.” Relena's boss said briskly as he poured himself a cup of coffee then left.

 

Relena opened her mouth, as if to remind the Japanese man that she was a secretary, not a babysitter, but closed it as Mr. Yuy left, going who knew where. Sighing, she looked back to the boy who was now looking like a lost puppy. He was a cute child with large violet eyes and an unusually long brunette braid.

 

The European woman smiled at the boy. “So what's your name?”

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Around two-thirty Heero opened the door expecting chaos, destruction and a frazzled secretary. Instead he found everything as it normally should be except for the small boy sitting on one of the couches reading a book and munching on a bagel.

 

As he made his way fully into the room, Duo looked up from the book and grinned. “Hi Mr. Yuy.” The boy said cheerfully.

 

“Hn.”

 

Relena looked up, scowled and looked as if she were going to give him a piece of her mind. Instead she nodded toward the laptop case he was holding. “I see you got it back. Did they find out what was wrong with it?”

 

Heero sighed in exasperation as he made his way to the coffee pot. “They said it's just old. They recommended getting a newer model.”

 

Relena smiled a small smile in amusement. Her boss had once mentioned having that particular laptop since he was a kid. He had upgraded the laptop many times instead of buying a new one. The laptop obviously meant something special to him, but what that was Relena couldn't guess.

 

“Do you think you'll buy a new one?” She asked.

 

“Maybe…” He said hesitantly then changed the subject. “Have a good day?”

 

The brunette woman smiled. “Absolutely. Duo and I had a fabulous day together, didn't we Duo?”

 

Duo nodded without looking up from the book. Heero eyed his secretary as if to see if she was being sincere. Relena's smile only grew larger at the look on her boss' face. “Really. Duo is a delightful boy, I'm sure he'll fit in well when you put him in school.”

 

School? Heero thought. The thought of having to put the boy in school hadn't crossed his mind.

 

Relena continued to smile as if she knew exactly what was going on through Heero's head. “I'm sure you've already been thinking about what private school you're going to put him in, but my daughter goes to the public school on fifty-Fourth Street and she loves it there. School starts the week after next for all the schools, so you might want to get him registered.”

 

Heero nodded. “Sounds good. Why don't you…”

 

“I can't. Sorry but since you're the guardian you'll have to do it.”

 

Growling, the young business man pulled out the PDA and added it to his list.

 

“I'm done!” Duo exclaimed and hurried back to Relena. The boy gave the book back to the secretary then turned to Heero. “Are we going to go now Mr. Yuy?”

 

Heero looked from the young boy to his secretary with hooded eyes. Something was going on. There was no way Relena could have had a wonderful day with the kid around? Relena, for her part, only smiled pleasantly at him… as if she had some hidden well of knowledge that she drew on for keeping noisy brats under control. The Japanese man opened his mouth to ask how she did it, but closed it again. If she could manage, then so could he. After all… he dealt with some of the toughest business men in the world on a regular basis…

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

By the time they got around to grocery shopping it was already seven in the evening and Heero Yuy thought he had never been so exhausted in his life. They had picked out a bed, dresser and desk for Duo's room with no problems and arranged for them to be delivered around eight that evening.

 

Shopping for clothing had been a harrowing experience. It seemed to Heero that Duo had tried on every piece of clothing in the boys department before they settled on four pairs of pants, ten shirts, three packages of socks, six boxers, two pair of shoes and a pair of slippers.

 

After a half hour of, “Can we get that? Can we get this?” from Duo and the repetitive response of, “It's not on our list.” from Heero, the business man finally snapped at the boy to “shut the fuck up.” This, he found, was a mistake. Every woman in the children's department glared at him for the rest of the time they were there, and one woman actually walked up to him and started lecturing him on not swearing and the proper way to raise children.

 

As they made their way to the lower section of the department store, Heero realized the boy's bathroom would need a shower curtain and some towels. When he explained this to Duo, the braided boy said, “But it's not on our list.”

 

Heero had glared at the boy and then said, “You're right. You don't need that kind of stuff” and turned away from the bathroom department. It was only seconds later that Duo was pulling on Heero's suit jacket telling the man he was just kidding as he begged for another chance.

 

The toy department was no less stressful. Heero ended up buying a whole slew of board games, art supplies and pokemon cards after Duo had run through the store pointing out things he wanted.

 

After letting Duo pick out his bedding, which was plastered with bright colors and different pokemon, and paying for all the merchandise, Heero vowed never to set foot in a department store again. It was only as the two were nearing Heero's residence that Duo's complaints about being hungry reminded the Japanese man that they still needed to shop for food and they only had an hour before the furniture store was going to drop off what they had bought earlier.

 

So that's how they ended up in the check out line of the closest supermarket with a basket full of food Heero would have never touched with a ten foot pole arguing with an eight year old boy about whether or not cow's milk was good for the body.

 

“Father Winner says milk helps your bones grow strong.”

 

“Cow milk is meant for baby cows to develop cow brains. Do you know how small cow brains are? Cow milk is not meant for people. Soy milk is much better for you.”

 

“Oh yeah? Well soy nuts don't have any brains at all so how is soy milk good for people?” Duo countered.

 

Heero looked at the clerk who had scanned everything and was waiting expectantly. When she had the Japanese man's attention she asked, “Do you have a store card?”

 

“A what?”

 

“A store card. You get all kinds of savings…”

 

But Heero didn't let her finish. “No I don't have one, no I don't want one. I just want to pay and get out of here.” He said as he swiped his bank card in the card reader.

 

“If cows should drink cow milk then maybe people should drink people milk. How come they don't sell people milk at the store?” Duo asked innocently.

 

The store attendant did an excellent job at keeping her face neutral, this could not be said for the teenage boy who was bagging the groceries and snickering openly.

 

“Mr. Yuy is there people milk? If there is maybe we should get some?”

 

“Let's talk about this when we get out of the store okay?” Heero replied in frustration.

 

“Why?”

 

Snatching his receipt from the casher, Heero shortly told the bagger he definitely did not need help taking the groceries to the car, as he exited the store as quickly and humanly as possible, with Duo running after him.

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Heero dumped the last of the things he had bought for Duo in the middle of the boy's floor after the furniture people left.

 

“Make sure you get all this put away before you go to bed.” Heero said with a growl before leaving the boy's room. He started towards the kitchen with the intention of making a pot of coffee, but decided against it and headed to his office. Heero was already so tired that the coffee probably wouldn't do much for him anyway.

 

Heero sat down, turned on his computer, then absentmindedly reached for a cup of coffee that wasn't there. He grunted and drummed his fingers on the desk as the Windows logo showed up on the screen. His eyes wandered from the screen to the small liquor cabinet that he kept around mostly incase his father showed up. Odin Lowe downed liquor in the same quantities that Heero consumed coffee.

 

Absentmindedly, Heero got up, walked to the cabinet and opened the small wooden door. He picked up one of the bottles that he knew contained scotch and poured himself a glass. Alcohol wasn't his addiction for several reasons, one of which had to do with his father's love of the stuff, the other had to do with the fact that Heero Yuy hated going to sleep.

 

In sleep, memories were no longer memories, but the real thing… In sleep, carefully hidden emotions came out to play and haunted his dreams.

 

But tonight he was going to sleep whether he wanted to or not. The only difference the liquor gave was that he might possibly avoid dreaming. A fifty-fifty chance, but still worth it.

 

Heero resisted the urge to just gulp down the beverage and be done with it. He didn't carry his alcohol well, so one glass was all Heero needed for the desired effect. But instead, he sipped from the glass thinking about the day's events. Who could have imagined having a kid would be so expensive? It was like getting a pet. There's a large expense up front but then it's smooth sailing after that. At least, that was Heero's conclusion at the moment.

 

He worked until ten before deciding to go to bed. Turning off the computer, the blue eyed man began loosening his tie as he walked toward his bedroom. When he noticed the kid's light was still on, Heero walked to the room and looked inside. The art supplies were scattered all over the desk, the bedding was piled on top of the bed in a lump and the clothes and bathroom supplies were still lying in the middle of the floor. The pokemon cards, however, were placed neatly on top of the dresser.

 

But there was no Duo in the room.

 

Heero walked into the room and looked around. Indeed there was no Duo in there. Heero checked in the boy's bathroom.

 

No Duo.

 

Thinking the boy was probably getting something to eat, Heero walked to the kitchen. It was then that he noticed the door to the garage was slightly open. The twenty one year old opened the door and found Duo…

 

… with a crayon…

 

…kneeling by his car…

 

“What… the… fuck are you doing?” Heero seethed.

 

The boy looked up at Heero with large nervous eyes. “I'm fixing the scratches.”

 

“You're…what?”

 

Duo held up the crayon. “See it's silver just like your car. I'm fixing the scratches.”

 

Heero walked to where the boy was kneeling and looked at the car door. The color of the crayon definitely did not match the paint on the BMW. Too angry to say anything, Heero whipped his arm out and pointed toward the door. When Duo didn't move, Heero growled, “now.”

 

The braided boy scrambled to his feet and walked toward the door. When he got there Duo turned around and looked at Mr. Yuy.

 

“Are you mad?” Duo asked in a small voice.

 

It was then that Duo had his first encounter with the `death glare', as the braided boy later dubbed it. He felt confused. Why was Mr. Yuy so mad? He just wanted to make everything better, he just wanted Mr. Yuy to like him… The boy's eyes filled with tears. “I'm sorry. I was just trying to help…”

 

Heero put a hand to his head trying to block out the memory of another little boy, a half Japanese one with dark hair and blue eyes, saying the same thing.

 

`I was just trying to help...' Came the child's plea.

 

The only answer to this was, `You're no help at all. Until you can act like an adult I can't be bothered with you. Now get out!'

 

Heero rubbed at his eyes and told himself the wetness there had nothing to do with the memories, but with the fact that he had been drinking. The young man looked up at the sniffling boy who was standing by the door, looking sad and pitiful. It was just too much. He needed to get away from the situation before he did or said something he knew, deep in his subconscious, he would regret later.

 

When Heero started walking toward the door, Duo scrambled into the house, sprinted to his room and shut the door. The American boy decided he definitely didn't want to deal with an angry Mr. Yuy at the moment. Turning off his light, Duo crawled on the mattress and under the pile of bedding. Sniffling, the boy decided he would do something extra nice for Mr. Yuy tomorrow so that he wouldn't be mad anymore… then promptly fell asleep.