by Ruth
Prologue: Sally Po's death in the Preventer's service was an accident; Wufei blamed Duo and the other three pilots had to throw themselves emotionally and physically between the two until a peace could be negotiated. Yasminda Winner gave Wufei a future with her genetic manipulations and a new saga began
September 3, AC 199 - Late Night at Emil's
"I'm still not sure how I ended up with twins." Wufei took another swallow of champagne as he tried once more to make sense of the phone call he had received from Quatre's sister, Yasminda.
"Bad lab technique," said Trowa, digging into his steak with relish. "Inserted the probe in the wrong place trying to sex the embryo and you've got identical twin boys. Congratulations."
"Have you thought of any names?" Quatre sorted through the greens of his salad.
"That's easy," Trowa shrugged. "Shenlong and Altron."
Quatre nearly choked on a shrimp. "He can't name them after Gundams!"
"Why not?"
"It would be ridiculous!"
Wufei chuckled. "I think I have one name already. Niudai, it means 'the bonds of friendship'." He raised his glass. "After all, it is what brought the children to me in the first place."
The three clinked glasses.
"Shenlong and Altron," Quatre sputtered. "I suppose you'd want to call our son Heavyarms."
Trowa stopped eating. He stared at Quatre. "You've done something," he accused.
"I haven't done anything," Quatre's face started turning pink.
"Then why are you blushing?"
"This isn't the best time to tell you this," Quatre sighed. "Yasminda made us a little present."
"She WHAT! Quatre, we agreed our schedules were too crazy to take care of a puppy, why didn't you stop her?"
"We are in a public restaurant," Wufei pitched his voice over the sudden explosion of Arabic that answered. "Refrain from wrecking their furniture."
There was no "taking back" Yasminda's present and the small brown haired bundle was delivered to his parents at the same time that two black-haired infants made an appearance at the Chang household. The three single fathers moved in together with the vague idea of sharing duties. All six eventually survived the experience.
There were some protests from idiots with a certain ideal of what a "normal" family was, but on the whole their lives were quiet or as, Duo Maxwell said, "about as quiet as a crazy bunch like us ever gets."
AC 201: July 11th
"We're out numbered," was Trowa's assessment.
"We've been that way for two years," Wufei grumbled, trying to get the tee shirt over the head of the squirming toddler in his arms. Dai-Fei squalled a frustrated protest that his twin echoed. Amin promptly took the chaos as a cue to try and wiggle out of his Papa's grasp and his overalls. Trowa kept a grip on Amin's cross straps and snagged half-naked Niudai with one hand until Wufei got Dai-Fei dressed.
The sudden aversion to clothing was a new development. Quatre insisted that the book he was reading said this was a normal stage of the children developing their own personalities. Wufei put it down to the week they'd spent at the Maxwells while all three had been on assignment. It was a known fact that Hilde had to pick up any special delivery mail at the post office because of the number of times Duo had flashed the mail carrier.
"What in the name of...?" Quatre's voice soared up from downstairs. "I don't believe it!"
Wufei and Trowa looked at each other. "So help me, if Duo's wrecked the surprise," Trowa growled threateningly. It was Quatre's birthday and there were party plans afoot. Tucking a whining Amin under one arm and an unhappily dressed and fussing Dai-Fei under the other, Trowa headed downstairs, avoiding the minor tantrum Niudai started throwing because he wasn't going with them.
Quatre was standing in the foyer with a car-seat in his hands. "Will you look at this?" he shouted. "It just came "special delivery."
"It's too small for the boys," Trowa began, then his jaw dropped when he saw what was inside the car-seat.
"Baby!" declared Amin.
"Quatre Raberba Barton-Winner, what the HELL have you done NOW?" Trowa roared.