Kindergarten Heero Part 6
"Uncle Duo, can I have garlic bread with my spaghetti?" Helen asked.
"Hmm, I don't know whether you can... but I suppose that you may... as long as you brush your teeth before I have to kiss you goodnight!" Duo teased, flicking Helen's nose with the tip of his braid.
She giggled and rolled her eyes. "I have to brush my teeth anyway, silly!"
Duo smiled and tousled her hair gently. It was nice to see her smiling again. Her mother's death less than two months ago had hit her pretty hard. His smile faded slightly. Leia's death had hit him hard too. They might not have been blood relations but they were siblings in every way that mattered. He had been the one she'd turned to when she'd discovered that not only was her husband having an affair with another man but that he was a drug dealer as well.
They'd just been lucky that he'd been away getting his degree when she'd met and married Khushrenada. Then Quatre Winner, one of the friends he'd made at college, had gotten him the chance to travel as personal tutor for his sister Iria's children and he hadn't had the chance to go back to L.A. and visit Leia and her new husband. Her letters to him had all been sent to a mail forwarding service since the family he'd been with had travelled so much. He'd loved that job but he hadn't hesitated to quit when Leia wrote him that last desperate letter. She'd told him everything about Khushrenada and the mess she was in. Including the fact that after running away from him, she'd been having horrific headaches and had finally gone to a doctor only to discover that she had an inoperable brain tumour. Leia had been flat broke, desperately ill, terrified, and worried sick about her daughter's future.
Leia had known enough about Khushrenada to put her in danger - but not enough to buy her safety if she'd gone to the police. She had no actual evidence to offer and with her very young daughter's future at stake she wasn't about to take the chance. So she and Duo had taken matters into their own hands.
First Duo had turned to a few rather shady contacts that he recalled from his time on the streets before he'd ended up at the orphanage with Leia. They'd been a bit tough to locate after so many years and it had been expensive - he'd been damn glad that Iria had paid him so well - but they'd fabricated a whole new identity for her, turning Leia Barton-Khushrenada and her daughter Mariemaia into Elisa Maxwell and her daughter Helen, named for the nun that had raised Leia and himself.
Once Leia and Mariemaia's new identities were established, Duo had turned to his college friends for help, telling them only that his sister and her daughter had become his responsibility. That his sister was dying and the child's father was out of the picture. Trowa's sister had gotten him a job at the school she taught at and Quatre had kindly provided him with a place for them to live, a Winner vacation home that sat empty most of the year. Aggressive and experimental medical treatment had bought Leia more time than she'd expected to have but they'd finally lost her.
And now, he had even more reason to keep Helen's true identity hidden. As long as Leia was alive, there had been a chance that they might have managed to fight Khushrenada in court and keep custody of her daughter. Now though, Khushrenada would have no problem taking her away from a man who wasn't even related to her by blood. Duo couldn't let that happen. He'd promised Leia that he would look after Helen; that he wouldn't let her criminal father get his hands on her. And he loved Helen himself; he wasn't just taking care of her for her mother's sake.
"Uncle Duo, look!" Helen hissed, tugging at his sleeve. Duo's gaze obediently followed her pointing finger. "It's my teacher, Mr. Yuy!"
Duo's heart raced. He'd been hoping that he'd get to meet the man outside of school when they might have a chance to actually talk. Yuy was very attractive - and the glances he'd given Duo gave him hope that perhaps the man thought that he was as well. 'And Helen likes him. A lot. Which says a lot for his character; kids are usually pretty damn good judges of that. He seems to be a little over his head with her class but the first time that I faced a full classroom I hit some pretty rough spots too. Neither college nor private tutoring really prepared me for that experience. And kindergarten is a whole different experience than teaching any other grade. He could be a perfectly competent, experienced teacher with older kids.'
"Mr. Yuy! Mr. Yuy!" Helen waved excitedly.
Duo's welcoming smile faltered slightly as a woman approached alongside of the man he'd been looking forward to meeting. 'Oh crap, he's with a date. A female date...' he moaned silently. 'Of all the rotten luck. I finally find a guy I'm interested in and he's straight.' Though the appreciative look Yuy was giving him right now sure didn't seem that way. 'Maybe he's bi?' Duo thought a bit more hopefully. Of course, that didn't change the fact that Yuy was with a date...
"Hello Helen," Heero said, his lips twitching into a faint smile at her enthusiastic greeting. He shifted his gaze to the man standing beside the girl. His smile grew slightly. So the handsome young teacher he'd been admiring must be the teacher-uncle that Helen apparently adored. He wondered where Helen's mother was tonight since the two of them appeared to be here on their own. "Hello, I don't believe we've actually been introduced. I'm Helen's teacher. Heero Yuy." He held out his hand.
"I'm Helen's uncle. Duo. Duo Maxwell."
Heero was impressed with the firm but not excessive handshake. Not a limp handshake nor a bonecrushing one intended to show off. Just a nice, firm handshake. He let his fingers linger a bit as their hands separated, hoping for some indication of whether the slightly-longer-than-appropriate contact was welcome. The hesitant smile in return wasn't a particularly negative response but it wasn't quite what he'd hoped for. But a moment later, he realized the probable cause of the hesitancy.
"Who's that?" Helen demanded a bit belligerently, pointing to the dark-haired woman. She had plans for her teacher and him having a girlfriend was not part of them. Her mom had tried and tried to match Uncle Duo up with a nice man without any luck. Before she died, she'd told Helen that it was up to her to find somebody to make Uncle Duo happy. Mr. Yuy wasn't perfect by a long shot but he was the best possibility she'd found so far. And Uncle Duo had asked her lots of questions about him, so she was pretty sure that he was already interested.
Hastily, Heero said, "She's my sister, Hilde."
Duo gave him a disbelieving look. "Hilde? Isn't that a German name?"
"Our mother's parents were German and our father is Japanese," Hilde adlibbed, giving Heero an odd look. Despite her kidding this morning about meeting single parents, the last she'd heard they were supposed to be married, not siblings. She didn't remember Heero mentioning that he was changing their cover... But then, she'd been so totally miserable the past couple of days that she might have missed that detail. She'd have to make sure to ask him whether there was anything else that she might have missed after they went back to the house tonight.
"Ah," Duo said, his smile broadening in relief. 'She's not his date, she's his sister!' Seeing the waitress approaching to seat them, he offered hopefully, "Why don't you join us for dinner?"
Helen grinned in delight. This was going even better than she'd hoped. Uncle Duo was taking matters into his own hands!
"Thank you, but..." Hilde began only to have Heero elbow her sharply in the ribs.
"We'd be delighted," Heero said firmly, drowning out Hilde's refusal. Discussing the case could wait. He wasn't going to lose this chance to get to know the man he'd been drawn to so strongly since he first saw him.
"Great," Duo beamed happily. A faint pang of regret that Leia couldn't be there with them shot through him. She would have been delighted to see him showing so much interest in someone. She'd tried to set him up repeatedly without any success. He hadn't encouraged her matchmaking but he hadn't resisted it either; he simply hadn't clicked with any of the men she'd tried to hook him up with.
Hilde wasted no time in starting to order once they were seated. Heero fought the urge to kick her under the table. The ridiculous amount of food that she was ordering was damn embarrassing considering she was supposed to be his sister. Someone so small should not be able to pack away so much food. He had to smirk slightly however as Helen's eyes grew wider and wider as she listened to Hilde place her order.
"Uncle Duo, she eats more than you 'n' Mommy put together!" Helen whispered in a voice that wasn't quite quiet enough. Heero smothered another smirk as Helen's uncle flushed in embarrassment at his niece's remark.
"Helen, it isn't polite to comment on other people's eating habits," Duo scolded gently. 'Even if I was thinking the same thing, I can't let her get away with that kind of remark! She has to learn to be a bit more tactful... More careful of other people's feelings...'
Helen was one very headstrong little girl. He and L... He, Duo corrected painfully, had to walk a fine line between providing enough discipline to keep her from riding roughshod over everyone else's feelings and being too strict. One of Leia's greatest fears had been that her daughter would take after her father's self-centred attitude. Duo didn't think that would happen though he had to admit that if she were in her father's custody it would be highly likely. He figured that as long as he treated Helen the way that Father and Sister Helen had treated Leia and himself, he wouldn't go too far wrong. Lots of love and firm boundaries had worked pretty well for them, after all. "Now apologize to Ms. Yuy," he ordered firmly.
Fighting off a grin, Hilde gravely accepted the girl's obedient apology. She really hadn't minded the comment; it was true after all. She did eat more than the average person her size. But she understood and appreciated the girl's uncle's point. Cute as those remarks might be from a kindergarten kid, they wouldn't be nearly as amusing when the kid got older and continued to make tactless comments.
Heero listened in amazement as Duo smoothly handled the awkward moment by actually dealing with the incident rather than pretending that it didn't happen. He wished the parents of some of his other students were as careful to teach their children how to behave politely. Some of them obviously expected laughter in response to their tactless or inappropriate comments and clearly made the remarks in the first place just to get that response. If Helen's uncle was this experienced at handling her, he wondered what her mother was like.
"So what do you think of Astoria?" Duo asked curiously. "Think you'll stay once Ms. Bloom comes back from her trip?" He'd been very surprised when Cathy had left unexpectedly. Trowa had been equally surprised when Duo called him to find out whether he knew when she'd be back and was in fact a bit perturbed that his sister hadn't been in touch to let him know what was going on.
"I haven't planned that far ahead yet," Heero said carefully. He didn't want to destroy any chance of getting to know Duo by saying that he'd be leaving as soon as she returned. If it turned out that there was a possibility of a relationship between them they would have to work something out when the time came for him to leave but he was afraid that the other man wouldn't even be willing to explore that possibility if he knew now that Heero would be leaving. "And I really haven't seen much of Astoria other than the school." Seeing an opportunity to fish for information, he added, "But I have noticed that some of my students' parents seem rather reluctant to meet me. I always thought that small towns were supposed to be friendly..."
"Yes and no," Duo said. "Astoria can be very friendly but some of its residents take a while to warm up to new people. They're cautious that way. Don't want to share all their secrets with strangers, I guess." He shrugged slightly and hoped that the subject would be dropped. He had his own secrets to keep; he just had different ways of keeping them. Acting withdrawn and mysterious only drew more attention and left you alone if and when trouble came looking. Better to be open and friendly and make plenty of friends to stand by you if you needed help.
"Secrets?" Heero inquired curiously.
Cautiously choosing his words, Duo explained, "I think lots of people move to small towns to get away from things. From people or experiences or - well, whatever." He forced a grin and chuckled, "Not necessarily anything dark and mysterious though. Maybe something as simple as losing out on a promotion or breaking up with a lover. A small town's just a chance to start fresh in a new environment."
Heero nodded thoughtfully. For a moment there, he'd almost thought Duo was speaking from experience... And he still wasn't entirely certain that he wasn't...
Not too happy with the direction that the conversation had been taking, Duo turned things around and put the conversational ball back in Heero's court. "So what about you? What deep dark secret drove you to a kindergarten class in Astoria, Oregon?"
"Me?" Heero said, startled. "Uh - there was an opening for a kindergarten teacher. That's all."
"So have you been a kindergarten teacher for long?" Duo asked. He was pretty sure that the answer to this one was no. Helen's class was walking all over the poor guy. He'd encouraged Helen to run a little interference on her teacher's behalf and she'd been perfectly willing to do so - she loved an excuse to be bossy - but even in full-out "dictator mode" as Leia had dubbed her bossy behaviour, Helen couldn't keep an entire class of kids her age under control. Not when they were having so much fun tormenting their teacher.
"Yes," Heero said automatically. The look of sheer disbelief on Duo's face had him hastily continuing, "The longest two days of my life." Duo's amused chuckle assured him that his hasty save had worked. Remembering that he'd implied to Principal Une that he had experience teaching, Heero added, "I taught older children prior to this; kindergarten seemed like it would make a nice change of pace." Normally he would have no problem with lying in an undercover situation but he didn't like lying to Duo; it made him feel awful. But it wasn't entirely a lie; he had taught a few classes at the police academy and cadets really were just kids as far as he was concerned. Not that he was all that much older than them really, their inexperience just made them seem very young.
Hilde watched and listened in bemused silence as the two men virtually forgot the existence of both her and the little girl. Duo did occasionally speak to Helen, drawing her into the conversation briefly, but Helen would quickly fade back out, sitting back in her chair and observing with a look that Hilde could only describe as one of smug pleasure on her face. 'The little imp's matchmaking!' she realized in amusement. And she had to admit, it seemed to be working. Her cool, serious, quiet partner was talking and laughing and showing every sign of actually enjoying himself. 'At least there's no chance of him falling for the woman we're looking for!' she thought wryly. 'Oh well, if you can't beat'em - join'em!'
"So - Helen - tell me a little bit about your uncle," Hilde said with a conspiratorial grin. "He and my - brother - really seem to be hitting it off..."
Helen gave the dark-haired woman a startled look, a bit suspicious of her sudden interest. But seeing a kindred spirit in her conspiratorial wink and grin, she grinned back. "What do you want to know?"
TBC...
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