"Thank you for bringing me here." A youthful female voice precedes the slamming of the car door.
"You knew you only had to ask," the driver says, retrieving his keys from the ignition.
"I missed you. This last mission took an awfully long time." The girl, barely in her teens, waits with her arms full of blood red roses for the man to retrieve the blanket and basket from the boot of the car. "You're the only person in the whole of Earthsphere who doesn't think I should pretend to be my age." Long, ginger locks are tied neatly with a royal blue ribbon at the base of her neck. Her bulky winter coat is of the same brilliant shade of blue.
"We had to be certain," the older man explains. His long black hair is drawn back tightly into a ponytail. The hairtie is the same color blue as the girl's ribbon, as is his jacket.
"But three years flitting around the colonies?" Pretty lips pout as they trudge through the dying grass stalks. "Surely some time off to visit for my birthday could have been arranged, or for Christmas or Chinese New Year or any of the special occasions you missed."
"I called you every other day, Marie," the girl's companion reminds her, "and got you a present for every special occasion listed in that book you sent me. My partner thinks I'm a sentimental fool."
"Your partner is scary and plain weird, Dragon." They stop before two graves, marble headstones standing side by side. "AND I didn't get you that book so you would send me presents for every day listed. I was hoping that you could make it back to earth to share a few with me."
Wu Fei sighs, putting down the picnic basket. "I know, and I tried a few times, but something always came up and my trips were never realized."
"You tried?" Marie looks to the older man, her blue eyes wide as her smile. "You never told me that you were trying."
"I didn't want to disappoint you when whatever it was that was going to keep me away eventually materialized." Spreading the thick blanket on the ground, Wu Fei busies himself to avoid looking at his charge.
Eyes of periwinkle blue narrow as Marie says, "You think Aunt Une had you chasing a ghost in space for three years just to keep you away from me?"
"I didn't say that." Wu Fei kneels on the blanket and reaches for the basket.
"You think it," Marie insists.
Containers of sandwiches and a flask are retrieved from the basket. "You want to know, as much as Une does, if that ghost I'm chasing is a ghost."
Marie kneels to place the roses on the grave. "You're changing the subject."
"Hn." Wu Fei folds his feet under himself to sit cross-legged on the blanket.
Marie rolls her eyes heavenward. "That won't work either, Dragon." Delicate fingers trail lovingly over the name on the headstone. "This is me you're talking to, your favouritest person in the whole world. You don't get upset over not spending time with Baby Dragon."
"Baby Dragon has two mothers and my conscripted partner for a father-figure," is the counter argument from the older man. "Une is just a single woman with a full time position as head of the Preventer Organization. I don't like the idea of you being neglected. I'd be remiss in my duties if I wasn't upset about being kept from you," he mumbles, frowning.
The little redhead plops herself down on the blanket. "I'm not. Aunt Dori is always visiting us. She loves taking me shopping and she shops in the most interesting places." Stretching her legs, her leather ankle boots almost reach his knees. "So, how did you manage to get back to Earth this time?"
"Zechs is expected to make an appearance this year for Christmas," Wu Fei states, studying his companion's expression. "He's on all the official lists."
"I knew you were looking for the wrong man," Marie crows in triumph. "Aunt Dori thinks that if anyone might know if Papa is still alive or not, it would be him. The one and only time she mentioned it to Aunt Une, they had such a row. I didn't see her for weeks afterwards." She shifts closer to him and says conspiratorially, "Now, she only talks about him when we're alone. They used to play together as children, you know. She used to call him her Prince Charming and he certainly looked the part; although he was always Papa's Milliard. He's the handsomest, most dashing Prince in the whole of Earthsphere."
Dark eyes narrow, unimpressed. "Your Aunt Dori should know better than to encourage you."
Missing the look entirely, Marie plunges ahead. "Aunt Dori says that if Papa had lived, I'd be calling him Daddy by now."
Shaking his head slightly, Wu Fei sighs. "Your Aunt Dori's opinions are slightly eccentric; you shouldn't take them to heart," he warns. "Your Papa went to space in an attempt to stop him from destroying the Earth."
"Aunt Dori thinks that it might have been part of Papa's grand scheme to teach humanity to hate war and turn to peace," Marie pipes up.
"Some say he went insane when they parted ways," Wu Fei reminds the girl, passing her a sandwich.
"Well, they're wrong." Marie bites into her sandwich and chews quickly before continuing. "Papa called Earth Ambassador Milliardo Peacecraft his friend when he first appeared as such. Aunt Une told me so and her opinions aren't eccentric," she insists.
The Asian man snorts his disbelief. "Where those two are concerned, they are,"
"That's why I want to meet him so badly." Marie turns earnest blue eyes to the man sitting beside her. "To see for myself what he's like. To find out for myself what it is about him that Papa loved. Aunt Dori says that Papa loved him very much from when they were younger than I am now." Placing her hand on his knee, she squeezes slightly. "He is possibly the only person alive who can tell me what Papa was like as a man. Not the heroic General to be worshipped for his brilliance and bravery or the villain General who wanted to rule the earth and the colonies, but Papa the person. The man he loved. There's no one else who can share that with me."
Wu Fei's stoic expression softens as he asks, "Is that why we're picnicking out here in the freezing cold?" At her mute nod, he says gently, "He's not due to arrive in Cinq until closer to Christmas."
"He might try to sneak in early to see Papa," Marie suggests, reaching for another sandwich. "Then we can meet him entirely by accident, which would probably be best, considering... Why has he never wanted anything to do with me?"
Wu Fei pours the hot chocolate from the flask into mugs. "It might not be his choice to stay away from you. I believe the authorities..." He rolls his eyes heavenward and leaves his sentence unfinished.
"Oh, they would be wary of us getting together." The girl twirls a ginger lock of hair around her finger thoughtfully. "Don't you think he might have tried to find a way? He did manage to disappear from public life, after all."
"I wouldn't know. I don't know the man," Wu Fei says, handing her a steaming mug. "You've never met him and you know more about him than most people care to. It's not healthy, Marie."
"It's not so different from my school friends mooning over their favorite singers or movie stars. It's perfectly normal for a girl my age." The teenager sips her chocolate. "At least I don't have posters of him plastered all over my room."
Choking on his drink, Wu Fei manages to swallow before spraying.
"Don't you think that it might be relevant that he disappears on his sister's wedding night?" Marie says, her gaze on the headstone beside her father's. "The exact moment he hands over responsibility for her to someone else, he's gone. Am I the only person to notice the significance of the timing of it all?"
After some thought, Wu Fei clears his throat to express his views on the matter. "That Peacecraft woman probably knows exactly where he is, who he's with and what he's having for lunch. Everybody knows how she feels about your Papa and if she thought there was any possibility of contact, she will be watching her brother like a hawk. Her information network was formidable by the time she was fifteen. These days, I doubt if there is much that happens within Earthsphere that, she can't find out about. Besides, all the rumors circulating about your Papa were in space. Heero and I must have tracked every single one of them to their source. Three years it took us, and nothing substantiated. You're going to have to accept that he didn't somehow miraculously survive."
"He did," Marie states motioning her head in the direction of her gaze. "He didn't only survive, he stayed hidden until my conquesting efforts forced him out of hiding. Isn't it possible that Papa might have, too?"
"Don't you think that your Papa would have been forced out of hiding by your conquesting efforts as well, had he survived?" Wu Fei asks instead, not too sure of the answer himself.
"Papa mightn't have been well enough," Marie points out to her friend. "Zechs obviously wasn't."
Wu Fei blinks. "How did you come to that conclusion? Someone who wasn't in top form couldn't have..."
"But he had a relapse afterward," the redhead cuts in with utter conviction.
"Relapse?" Wu Fei gapes in disbelief.
"Uh-huh." Marie nods vigorously, turning around to face him. "When I asked Aunt Lucy about the time she spent with him on Mars, she got this sad look in her eyes and said that he was sick the whole time he was there. He was there for over a year and didn't manage to get out of bed. He must have been very ill."
"Did you ask Noin for details?"
"I tried, but she almost never speaks of what he's like after the war, and when she does slip, she quickly changes the subject and it's really hard to bring it up again without making her suspicious." Scooting across the blanket to lean against her co-conspirator, Marie nudges him in the ribs with her elbow. "No one else knows about my special project. I missed you so much. There wasn't anyone I could talk to about him and you know how much I like to rant and rave about him."
"Don't I know it," Wu Fei mutters under his breath.
"Aunt Lucy's the best for background information, though," Marie continues, warming to her subject. "Get her alone, ask the right questions and she'll rave on about the time she spent with him in the Academy and how he's the fastest, most skillful and bravest pilot to ever exist. She calls him Zechs, mostly. Do you know that he had silk underwear the color of Papa's favorite roses? She did his laundry once, and accidentally stained all his whites pink because she missed a pair of boxers." She giggles at the memory of the anecdote.
"You do realize," Wu Fei gives the giggling girl beside him a brief hug, "that your Aunt Lucy's slightly biased where he's concerned."
"In the same way that Aunt Une is biased about Papa? I know." Marie struggles to her knees and begins repacking their picnic basket. "You should hear her extolling Papa's virtues. Aunt Dori's stories are much more amusing. Why don't you ever tell me any Papa tales, Dragon?"
"Your Papa and I were enemies during the war." Rising to his feet in a single fluid motion, Wu Fei strolls to Treize Khushrenada's headstone. "Our meetings consisted mostly of duels in the dark, the last of which resulted in his death. Those aren't the kinds of tales to tell one's most honored enemy's daughter."
Marie's eyes narrow as she folds the blanket. Choosing her words carefully, she says, "But they must have meant a great deal to you, considering your devotion to me."
The Chinese man glances over his shoulder at the ginger haired girl in her bright blue jacket. "There's a lot of your father in you," he says softly, holding out his hand for her burdens as he turns to face her.
Handing over the basket and blanket, Marie slips her hand into the crook of his elbow. Together they walk back to the car in companionable silence.
The End