New Haven

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Guess what
Wufei was muttering as he pulled into his spot in the parking garage. He listened to the chatter going on between his wraith and little flower. They weren’t listening to him so he felt free to mutter the expletives he favored under his breath with out them hearing him. He stilled ignored the black shadow that was sitting behind him in the back seat.
“We have to see what Deathscythe thinks of his new home.” Sakura informed them with a grin as Wufei helped her out of the booster seat.
“Yeah maybe Brussels is here already too.” Duo told her. “Wait till Baba sees him. What do you think he will say about him?” Duo asked her. Curious what she would say about the huge beast. Duo wasn’t short by any standards. The beasts head came to the middle of his chest.
“Brussels is very big.” Sakura told her father confidentially. She trundled up the stairs ignoring the van pulling into the spot beside her father’s car. Deathscythe was on the side of the stairs that didn’t have a rail.
“We have to get a rail for these stairs.” Wufei muttered. “Careful Sakura. Good boy Deathscythe.” Assuming the black german shepherd was the animal of that name.
Deathscythe growled at Wufei but kept up his diligence with keeping Sakura from the edge of the stairs.
Wufei growled back at the dog. He kept moving Duo up the stairs and got tired of the slowness and scooped the man in question into his arms.
Duo protested the action but chortled as they swung through the door behind Sakura.
Wufei almost dropped Duo at the sight of the huge dog that was sniffing over his daughter who was giggling like a maniac. “Duo,” He looked down quickly to look at his fiancé. “That isn’t Brussels, is it?”
“‘Russels stop it.” Sakura chortled as the animal purposely nudged her. “That tickles.”
Wufei groaned and sat down in the nearest available seat. Duo wiggled till he was in a more comfortable position on Wufei’s lap. Wufei blinked as a white german shepherd settled on his feet with a proprietary air. “Duo what is going on here?”
“Well I met this fella,” Duo set a hand on Deathscythe’s head. “And with a name like Deathscythe I just couldn’t leave him. Then I saw this beauty,” Duo moved a foot to nudge the white german shepherd. “And with the name of Nataku…” Duo let his voice hang in the air.
Wufei blinked and looked at him wryly. “Okay I get the point.” He growled in frustration. “But what is that doing here?”
“Ahhh,” Duo looked at Wufei ruefully. “About that…” He looked back to where Sakura leaned against Brussels running her hand over his fur as she rubbed her face against his ears. “She took one look and wouldn’t look at anything else. Katey choose a big german shepherd called Jerry Lee and Damian chose a siberian husky named Mindy. They all have a disobedience problem and an attitude problem. Even these wonders.” Duo motioned to the animals at their feet. “But they loved us on sight. They are over protective of us and we kinda fell in love with them on sight.” He muttered the last as Sakura lay down on Brussels back and fell asleep.
Wufei stared at the sight of the huge animal letting his daughter use him as a cushion. He sighed and rubbed his face with a free hand. The other hand held Duo close. He looked down at the head of his wraith settled on his shoulder. He watched as droopy eyelids drifted shut over the violet eyes. He shook his head and settled more comfortably on the couch to ease the position that they sat in.
He looked up when the door to the stairs opened. Damian with Katey and Angel right behind him entered the living area. Three dogs came thundering into the room. Wufei stared at the dogs. He now had a house full of dogs. ‘How are we going to live with this?’
Quatre entered the living area and grunted at the sight of the two sleeping bodies.
“Shhh,” Wufei hissed. “Let my fiancé and daughter sleep.”
All movement but the movement of animals stopped. Heero and Trowa entering the room blinked as they stood in the doorway.
Wufei ignored the sudden silence as he watched another three dogs thundered into the room. ‘And we will probably end up with another one when Alex comes home.’ He scowled. ‘I agreed to it. I have to learn to put up with it.’ He thought as he ignored the people staring at him.
“Uhmm, Wufei did you just say your fiancé?” Quatre asked hesitantly. “I did hear that correctly, right?”
Wufei looked up with a scowl. “Yes I said fiancé.” He looked down and the scowl on his face softened to a slight smile. “While Sally fixed the wound in his side I asked him if he would marry me. He said yes and promptly threw himself into my arms while Sally was in the middle of a stitch. I don’t think she was impressed with my timing. Though she did think it was a good idea. I know I have only been with Duo for a bout two weeks. But I don’t think that I could ever live without him in my life. It wouldn’t feel right. Him and Sakura have filled a void that I didn’t know that I have. They brought a wonderful sister and soon to be a very real brother-in-law with them. Along with a few rugs.” He muttered eyeing the dogs as they frisked around the room. “It’s a good thing that this place is so big. I don’t think we could all live together if it wasn’t.”
“You asked Duo to marry you?” Heero repeated softly. “And he said yes?”
“Yes Heero.” The Preventer lawyer reiterated. “I asked Duo to marry me and he said yes. Is there a problem with this?”
“No not that I can think of.” Heero answered quickly at the tone of Wufei’s voice. It said not to make a problem of he would make a big problem.
“When do you think you should get married?” Trowa asked as he wrestled the alaskan husky back to the floor. He frowned down at the animal warningly.
“I don’t know yet. I guess it depends on how well the work of New Haven goes.” Wufei answered calmly. “I have a feeling that the dog is only going to listen to you if it wants too.” He added as Heero and Trowa glared/frowned at the dogs at their feet.
“Yes I know.” Trowa observed blandly.
“Ahhh, Wufei are you really going to marry Duo?” Katey asked as she moved to a chair close to where Wufei curled up with Duo.
“Yes Katey and I am sure that he would like for you to be an attendant with Sakura. Since I asked it means that he plays the Bridal Role.” Wufei looked past her to where Damian and Angel stood. “Damian will you be one of my attendants? I can’t ask you to be the best man because you are underage. But I can ask you to be apart of the wedding entourage.”
Damian frowned and looked at the floor. “I have to wait and see. Duo might want me to be apart of his attendant party.” He looked up at Wufei anxiously. The hope in his eyes telling Wufei that he didn’t want him to think any less of him.
“Not a problem Damian. I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Wufei looked at him quietly. “In fact if you had answered yes immediately I would have thought less of you. He is your brother now and you have to take that into consideration. I have to have all males on my line. But Duo can do a combination. So ask him what he thinks and then you can decided what you want to do. In fact I plan on letting him choose his Best Man first so that he has the best for him. I somehow think I will end up with the best for me anyway.”
Damian grinned and hugged Mindy to him as he listened to the conversation going on around him. He had gotten praise for his choice. Things were definitely different in this home.
“Wufei guess what?” Katey asked anxiously.
Wufei turned to Katey turned to Katey with a frown at the anxiousness in the female teens voice. “What is it Katey?” He asked with soothing tones.
“Angel and I were talking about what we felt about living here.” Katey continued anxiety covering her face. “We figured out that we liked living here with all you grown guys because you see us as people not slaves, cattle or objects. You see us. You really see us. You are trying to help us figure out who we really are. You care about us. You care about how we feel and how we behave. You want us to have real lives.” Katey cast an anxious look to the other teenage female who silently watched. The other men had grown silent at the redhead’s words. “We think if we had gone with anyone else they would never see us the way that you do. We were the ones that were worst off at that…that…” Katey paused looking for a word to describe their place of enslavement. She shrugged when none came to mind. “We were the favorites. We were always being called to a room. Angel wasn’t that night because they didn’t like to have sex with us during our period.” She told the asian candidly. “You’re doing everything you can to get us on the path to a future we thought we would never have. We also know that you could never do what those men do. The way you look at each other is like something we only dreamed of ever happening or finding. But you are giving us a chance to.” Katey faltered and looked at Angel and Damian.
“What Katey is saying is that we trust you. Everything that you have done so far has been to help us in some way.” Angel continued softly. “We never dreamed of it because we knew that for us it would be the wildest thing in our imagination. To us death seemed the best thing we had ever dreamed of in our lives. This is heaven to us. We figured out the reason we have nightmares is partly because of memories and the fear that we will wake up and all of this will be gone. That we will be back at that awful place again and never see what the real world is really like. Never see what it is like to be treated like we are real.” Angel looked over at Quatre, Heero, and Trowa. “We don’t want to lose this but we don’t know if you will still want us when we wake you up in the middle of the night or interrupt you in the middle…” Angel broke of with a little grin. “When we heard what Sakura had done we knew that we had nothing to worry about. And when Katey was able to take a nap with you guys awhile back it helped as well. We just don’t want to break any rules.” She finished feeling a little lame for what she said.
Damian nodded and looked over to where Duo lay on Wufei and blinked as violet eyes watched him. “Could you possibly lay down some ground rules as to what we can and can’t do? That way we know where we stand.” He rushed to add.
Wufei blinked as water gathered in his eyes. These young teens who had never seen the good of the world only the worst were trusting them to help them with their lives. He turned and noticed the looks flabbergastedness on the other three faces. (The ones that he knew were awake.) “Why don’t you give us sometime to think of what you have told us.” Wufei told them noticing the slight nods of his fellow friends. “We will come up with some ground rules and set up a safe system for all of us.” Wufei looked at the three individuals carefully. “Let me say that I am honored that you were so comfortable to say what you have said. I don’t think that any other teen would have been able to say what you have said so soon after coming to live with anyone. Especially after the horrors that have been visited upon you.
The three teens gave them their ascent with grateful looks and gathered their dogs and herded each other up the stairs to their rooms and common area leaving the adults and child to talk amongst themselves.
“I am honored to have them in this house.” Wufei murmured.
“We all are.” Duo’s voice said softly. He looked up at Wufei and caught looks of surprise on everyone’s face. “What? I was just resting.”