Title: Colour the Air Blue

Author: Karina

Rating: PG

Pairing: Heero + Duo

Notes:  Challenge 222.  Baby Series 4  #124.  Takes place approximately three hours following Monster.

Spoilers: None

Warnings: Extended Length

Many thanks to ShenLong Deb for her work betaing this set of fics.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing or the Characters from the series but the baby is mine.

Title: Colour the Air Blue

Wide green eyes stare into his with fear and she backed away, her bottom lip quivering.  With a squeak she turned and ran, small feet scrambling for purchase on the uneven footing.

Heero cursed silently, tensing, ready to pursue her.

“Jessica!  Jess!  Wait up, its okay.  It’s okay, sweetheart!”

Duo leapt past him and scrambled up the rocky slope in hot pursuit, his braid whipping out behind him and slapping Heero in the face as he passed.  Growling Heero hesitated as a freckled face appeared out of the cliff side and a curse from the urchin followed Duo up the slope.  The red head erupted from the hole, bits of bush, dirt and loose stones showering down from the speed of his exit.  Heero watched the young boy take off in pursuit of Duo and sighed.

It was no wonder Duo had been unable to find them on his previous attempts.  The entrance was tiny, barely large enough for a child to access.  It would be more than a problem for an adult, even a slender one, and the small opening had been screened by brush and shaded by a rock overhang.  Taking a deep breath and silently complaining about the idiocy of running on the rough slope Heero set off in pursuit of the group, determined to recover the escapees with all speed.

It did not take him long to haul in the distance between himself and the boy and, incensed by the idiocy of it all, he was none too gentle about grabbing the child.  Hoisting him into the air Heero unceremoniously tossed the boy over his shoulder to ensure he did not try to take off again.  Screaming and cursing ensued and Heero marvelled at the child’s command of a less than savoury vocabulary.

He could well believe the boy had been taking on odd jobs in rather seedy places to come out with the range of curses that coloured the air blue.  With a firm hand holding the boy in place, Heero took to a more leisurely pace to scale the cliff side and wait for Duo to round up his escapee at the safety of the vehicles.

They did not have long to wait, for which he was thankful as he was getting a headache from the boy’s constantly screamed curses and fighting against his restraint.  He might have thought he was holding some wild animal and he was sure of it as the boy's teeth sank into the back of his arm.

Heero let loose a guttural growl. “Do that again, Freckles, and I will show you how to really bite and make it count.”

Duo, appearing with Jessica’s hand clasped gently in his, noted the boy freeze.  It was not so much what Heero said, he surmised, as from the coldly emotionless monotone with which he said it.   Heero could scare milk out of tea, Duo mused, without putting much effort into it.  He squeezed Jessica’s hand gently, grinning as he brought her to where Jamie could see her.

“Now, enough of that, we have a lot to do and little time in which to do it.  Jamie, the King has ordered everyone be recovered and assigned to a shelter.  There is a storm coming, a big one, and no one can stay out in it.”

He glared the defiant Jamie into silence, capturing the boy with the seriousness of his expression and the light caress to Jessica’s hair.  He felt no qualms at all about using the boy's feelings of protectiveness for Jessica to his advantage.

“No one, Jamie.  You wouldn’t want Jess caught up in what is coming, believe me.”

Huge green eyes stared up at Duo. “Mr. Duo?” 

“Yeah, baby?”  Duo knelt beside the little girl, lightly brushing her wild mane back from her face. “There’s no need to be frightened, sweetheart.  We’ll take you to a nice safe place to wait out the storm and Jamie will be with you too.  You’ll be okay.”

“Do you  know the King, Mr. Duo?”

“Of course he doesn’t Jess!  He would have heard it on the radio.  He’s just saying the King ordered everyone to take shelter.”

“He does know the King.”  Heero’s monotone interrupted Jamie. “Personally.”

Duo snickered at the staring contest that ensued, giving the boy a great deal of credit for lasting as long as he did against Heero’s indomitable glare.

He grinned at Jessica and winked. “Would you like to meet Milliardo?  He’s not scary at all once you get to know him.  The palace is a designated safe zone, so we may as well take you there.  What do you say?  Climb in Jess, and we’ll go meet the King.” 

End

Karina Robertson  2013