Disclaimer: The usual junk, I don’t own GW. I own the people that I made up, but that’s a different. And I’m not making any moey off of this and that stinks, but oh, well.

Author Notes: READ THE PROLOGUE FIRST!!!!! I know I’m writing this thing fast, but the idea has been in my head for months, so I know where I’m going with it. ^_^

In the Nic of Time-Chapter Three

Having someone stare wide-eyed at you was not a pleasant experiance. It makes you very self conscious. Relena had thought this girl was strange when she announced everyone’s names. Now, Relena knew she was strange. From the moment the soft spoken blond murmured that it was all her fault up until Dorothy shouted out Relena’s name, Kitty had been composed. She had the whole strange situtation under control, and if she didn’t, she was making the rest of them think she did. But now, she stared at Relena, and Relena didn’t like it. Though she was very glad her brother was not currently on the planet, he would have liked less than she.

“You shouldn’t stare at people,” Quatre said softly.

Kitty almost jumped. She probably would have, had she been in less pain and had better control over her body. As it was, she was walking on eggshells.

“Oh! Ahh, um, sorry,” she forced a small smile. “I’m just a little, ah, I’m afraid I longer know what to say. I mean, Relena Peacecraft, former Queen of the world, wow.”

Please, Kitty thought, let them fall for that.

“I wasn’t Queen for very long,” Relena said, modestly, “I’m just a politicain now.”

“If you’re so in awe of Miss. Relena,” Dorothy said suspissously, “why didn’t you recognize her?”

“Well,” Kitty began nervously, “I thought it might be her, but I said to myself, ‘there’s no way Relena Peacecraft would be a rinky dinky place like this.’”

Please fall for that, Mom, please.

Dorothy had no response for Kitty, so they all took it to mean that she was satisfied. Silently, Kitty breathed a sigh of relief.

**********************

“Hmm, who’d of guess?”

“What?”

“Kitty-chan, she’s talking to the Chibis.”

“Wing, what in Deathscythe Hell are you talking about?”

“Look,” Wing said pointing, “Kitty’s talking to Chibi Maxwell-san, Chibi Winner-san, Chibi Barton-san, his neesan, and all their mirai no okusan. And another onna that I don’t recongize.”

“Wing,” Vingt said slowly, “English. Now. Please.”

“Oops, gomen. Kitty is talking to lil Mr. Maxwell, lil Mr. Winner, lil Mr. Barton, his sister and all their future wives. And another woman that I don’t recongize.”

“You saw the calendar, too, huh?” Vingt asked.

“How could I have missed it?”

Vingt grinned. “I don’t know how, but we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

“Huh? What’s Kansas?”

“Tell you what, you stop the casual Japanese and I’ll stop the American culture references.”

“Hontou ni?”

“I take it there’s no deal.”

“Iie.”

Vingt sighed. “You just want me to learn Japanese, huh?”

“Hai.” Wing said with a slight nod.

“By the way,” Vingt said as he and Wing approached Kitty and her new friends, “what does ‘hontou ni’ mean?”

“It’s like saying ‘Really?’ or ‘You mean it?’”

“Ah.”

**********************

“Ossu Kitty-chan!”

“Hey, Kitty!”

Katrina turned around, secretly releived to have an excuse not to have to look at her rescuers anymore. Until she noticed something--

“That’s just like you two!! We all wake up in a hospital and you go look for each other before you report in!!! You didn’t even bother to get Nuef, you just wander around together! I swear, isn’t speading twenty-two hours a day together enough?!?!”

“Let me guess,” Duo interjected, “these are two of the others you found?”

“Yeah,” Catherine said, “there’s one more, though, a boy, I think he’s a little older than those three.”

“Who are your friends, Kitty?” Hilde asked,

“Well,” Kitty said stalling “This is--”

“Watashi wa Lowe Wing,” Wing introuced herself, using her real last name, rather Yuy, which her parents had continued using after the war because everyone was more familiar with ‘Heero Yuy’ than ‘Odin Lowe, Jr.’ Wing gambled that only Heero would recognize ‘Lowe’ and he wasn’t with them, but they all would recognize ‘Yuy.’

She was answered with a lot of blank looks.

“I’m Wing Lowe,” she corrected herself. “And that’s my friend Vinnie-kun.” She continued, pointing to Vingt.

Kitty and Vingt turned to face Wing and raised their eyebrows, questioning Wing’s introductions.

‘Lowe?’ Kitty mouthed.

“Heheh, can I have a word with you two?” Wing grabbed Kitty and Vingt by theit shoulders and pulled them away from their ‘saviors.’

“Ooooowwwwwww!!” Kitty and Vingt protested.

“Guys,” Wing whispered, “If we introduced ourselves as Kitty Winner, Vingt Maxwell, Nuef Peacecraft and Wing Yuy, they’ll be suspicius. Only my Future dad will recognize the name Lowe, so I can use that. And they’ll think that Vingt’s name is Vinnie Kun, so he’s okay. Kitty, what did you tell them your name was?”

“Kitty,” she answered.

“Good,” Wing said, “now they won’t think of you when Winner-san and Dorothy-san name their daughter ‘Katrina.’ Maxwell-san and Hilde-san also won’t think of teenaged Vingt when their son is born because they think his name is Vinnie. As for me, I was named after a Gundam anyway, so this will just make my parents think ‘Wing’ really is a girls’ name, so they will just be more willing to name me that. As for Nuef, I don’t know what we’ll tell them his name is.”

“Why don’t we just make something up?” Vingt asked.

“It’s better to kept the names close to what we’re used to saying and answering to, in case we slip up and say what we’re used to saying or forget to answer to something.” Kitty said, following Wing’s line of thought.

“This is even especially bad for Nuef,” Wing pionted out.

“Why?” Kitty asked.

“It’s March, 197. My cousin was born in November, 197.”

**********************

“I don’t trust them,” Trowa stated simply.

“I don’t either,” Dorothy agreed. “They know too much that they shouldn’t.”

“Do you think we should keep an eye on them?” Quatre asked.

“Absolutely,” Trowa said.

“How? Stalk them?” Hilde asked.

Six pairs of eyes looked at Relena.

“What?”

“Nevermind,” Hilde sighed. The group was silent as the three myserious teens returned.

“You know,” Wing began in a thoughtful voice, “this is the first time I’ve ever been on Earth.”

“Really?” Dorothy asked in as casual a voice as she could. “It’s a lovely planet. Where are you staying?”

“Kuso!” Wing exclaimed, “I don’t have any money with me, I can’t get a hotel room!!”

“I’m sure Miss Relena could find somewhere for you to stay,” Dorothy suggested. She caught Quatre’s eye for a moment and winked. This is how we keep an eye on them, she thought.

“I have plenty of room for all four of you, if you like,” Relena said.

Wing looked at Kitty and Vingt. All three grinned.

“Thanks so much, Miss Relena,” Kitty said.

“Thank you!”

“Domo arigoto!” Wing said with a slight bow.

Relena smiled. Between bodygaurds and Gundam pilots, there wouldn’t be any danger from her new visitors.

“Eep! I gotta get my cousin!” Wing shouted. “Be right back.” She ran off to fetch Nuef.

“How come she can run like this and I can barely walk?” Kitty asked pouting.

“Wing-chan is used to pain,” Vingt whispered.

**********************

The three of the four newcomers stared wide-eyed at the mansion, their new ‘home.’ Nuef’s family had just as much wealth as Relena, so he managed to stay composed. His younger cousin had yet to catch on that Relena was her future mother, and Wing was all but frozen in place as she stared up at the large house.

Kitty, likewise, was wealthy, but colony mansions where little more than shacks compared to Earth mansions. Kitty half expected their to be a shrub maze and gargoyles. There were both.

Vingt lived in an apartment and had never seen a house that big in his life, and now he would live in one?!?! Not for long, he had to remind himself, only until Dr. J figured out how to bring them home. He was beginning to hope that it would take a while.

Since their clothes were no longer wearable, Relena had had uniforms from the academy she attended delived. It had been the fastest way to get clothes for the new comers.

“Hey, snap out it!” Duo shouted. “You guys still need to take the tour! It’s really easy to get lost in there.” Duo took Kitty and Wing by the hand and Vingt and Nuef followed as he pulled them into the mansion and explained to them where the chef cooked, where the kitchen was, where the dining area was. And then he pulled them to where the TV was and where his collection of video games where, and he explained that everyone was allowed to play them, except ‘Wu-man’ because Duo didn’t trust him with the system.

“Hey, cool! You have Final Fanstay 77!” Vingt exclaimed, with a note of awe.

Duo continued his ‘tour’ throughtout the mansion, much to Vingt’s amusament. His dad sure seemed to like the high life, it was something Vingt never would have guessed, seeing they had lived in not-quite-shabby apartments his whole life.

**********************

Relena quietly walked through the large formally empty building adjacent to her mansion. She figured Heero would be there with his Gundam, and she finally had a really good reason to talk to him.

Sure enough, Heero heard Relena’s footsteps and peered his head over his Gundam’s shoulder where he had been sitting to get a better view of who it was. Relena, he thought with visual identification, like anyone else would bother me. He snorted, inadvertantly drawing Relena’s attention to where he was. Deciding it was best to stop pitying himself, (normally, he wasn’t one to feel sorry for himself, but lately he just didn’t have anything else to do) he jumped and landed hard on feet in front of Relena.

“What?” he asked, doing his best to sound irratated so that she wouldn’t think something was wrong with him.

“It’s about those people Trowa and Catherine found,” Relena answered.

Heero raised an eyebrow.

“They’ve got everyone kind of suspicous, really. One of them, she said to call her Kitty, just started rattling off names. She knew Trowa, Duo, even Dorothy and Hilde. Basically everyone but me, and no one knows why she would know them. Everything she or the other three say sounds like they are doing their best to vague about where they are from or why they wound up in the hospital. It’s just really weird. And then Trowa said that you all should keep an eye on them, and Dorothy kind of manipulated me into inviting them here, you know, I think that impressed Quatre, anyway, so now we’ve got people we know absolutely nothing about here, so I figured you ought to know.”

Heero blinked. “None of that made any sense, why would they know who Hilde is? Or Dorothy, but not you? You are the one who ran the planet for a while. Trowa’s right though, we should watch out and be ready to go on the offensive if they try anything.” Heero turned and began walking towards the door

“Heero, where are you going?” Relena called after him unable to hide the disappointment in her voice.

“Outside,” he answered, “I’m just going to go for a walk.” Disturbed at his own feelings when Relena’s face fell, he offered his arm. Relena’s whole face lit up as she glomped on to him, and Heero allowed himself a small smile. And began to remember what happiness felt like.