Categories > Anime/Manga > Gundam Wing > Christmas Dreams and New Year's Wishes
Chapter 2 Cleaning and Seeing
Duo surprised himself by waking early the next day. It was almost 10 am when he rolled sleepily out of bed and blearily looked at the clock. Snow was falling softly outside onto the street, and Duo looked around wondering what had awoken him. It was then that his mind cleared and he remembered his phone conversation last night. The frenzy that followed was a true testament of how happy Duo was that day. He immediately got up and, ignoring his usual feelings of laziness, cleaned his apartment top to bottom. It only took him a couple hours because there were only three rooms.
While cleaning the refrigerator, Duo had to plug his nose. Man! What died in here? He pulled out containers faintly resembling food items, but nothing he could put a name to. On one side of the fridge a steady growth of green mold crawled its way over the wall. Holding his breath and stretching his arm as far as it would go, Duo managed to clean the mold and clear the containers. Well, I definitely have to restock, at least so it looks like I eat here. Shit like this makes me appreciate everything Hilde did. I should call her too and wish her a Merry Christmas. With that, Duo grabbed his jacket and walked to the corner market.
Duo came back with his arms loaded down with groceries. Leave it to a neighborhood like this to actually have an open market on Christmas. Quickly Duo put the groceries away. He felt a small pang of guilt for dipping into his adoption fund, but it would be worth it. Getting a rather stupid thinking expression on his face, he tried to remember whether he had said they were going out to get something to eat. He had gotten pots, pans, silverware, and stuff for dinner just in case, but he wished he could remember. Oh well, I’ll make dinner anyway. Bet he doesn’t know I can cook. With a grin, Duo checked the time. He remembered very well the time Heero would be showing up and he only had an hour and a half left. Duo still needed to wrap the gift he had picked up, take a shower, start dinner, and put the new decorations he had bought up. Thanking his luck at knowing a quick and easy recipe for roast duck, Duo started dinner and hopped into his shower.
An hour later, Duo had decorated his apartment, re-decorated his tree though he left his cap as the topper for laughs, and had Heero’s gift sitting nicely underneath it sporting an oversized bow. There was a wreath on his door, a Santa candy dish on his TV, and a candy striped couch cover on his couch. Duo’s windows were sprayed on the inside with fake snow and he had bought a Christmas toiletry set for the bathroom. Even his bedroom was decorated with Christmas candles instead of the usual black ones. All in all, Duo’s spending spree had only cost a couple of hundred which he could easily replace in a few weeks. His guilt about dipping into his adoption fund completely vanquished, Duo checked his watch. Heero would be there in fifteen minutes, dinner would only be another five, and Duo was getting dressed in the special clothes he had gotten.
The buzzer for the door rang at five sharp. Duo nearly yelled and jumped in his excitement, but he curbed it. Walking over to his speaker, Duo pressed the button to open the door. He hurriedly surveyed himself one last time in the mirror. I’m acting worse than Hilde when she went out on dates. Duo smiled to himself as he looked at his image. He was in a dark green turtleneck that had HO HO HO knitted in red across his chest and it was a size too small just to show off his muscles slightly. His pants were black, but unlike his regular ones they were khakis. All in all, Duo thought he had gone over the edge, but they were fun clothes and he felt funny.
A knock on his door signaled that Heero had arrived. Duo walked out and checked the dinner before opening the door. The same Heero as old greeted him with a slight glare, a Preventer coat, green muscle shirt, and blue jeans. There was a small package under his arm that looked suspiciously like a present, but Duo chose to ignore it. If he picked on Heero about something like that, Heero was likely to just take it away.
“Hey, Heero buddy! What’s happening? Glad you could make it, come on in and I’ll give ya a tour.” Duo pulled the door open and swung his arm in the general direction of the living room.
Heero stared at Duo for a minute before stepping inside. He went straight to the living room and looked around while Duo took the duck from the oven. He saw Heero looking from him to the duck. Duo had to hide a grin when Heero’s monotone came out to him.
“You cook.” It was a statement as though Heero were surprised, but his voice betrayed nothing of what the man might be feeling. It never did.
“Yeah, with the way I eat I had to learn sometime.” Duo laughed.
Heero simply grunted and went back to looking around Duo’s small living room. Duo started to set the table and put the finishing touches on the dinner. He got out some wine that would go perfect with the dinner and sat it in the sink where there was a pot of ice waiting.
“While this chills why don’t I give you that tour?” Duo said and walked over to Heero. “I’m sure that after five minutes of staring at the living room you know it’s the living room.”
Duo excitedly took Heero down the small hallway to have a peek in the bedroom and a look at the bathroom. Heero remained silent through everything, but it was not as though Duo expected him to be very articulate. Duo had come down slightly from the giddy happiness he had felt at first seeing Heero after nearly six months. That did not mean he was any less happy. It was definitely nice to see him and not be drooling over how hot he looked or thinking about how much more wild Heero’s chocolate brown hair would look splayed across Duo’s pillow. Duo felt the familiar thoughts start fueling a familiar fire in his groin and quickly stifled it. This could be the last time he saw Heero for another six months and Duo intended to make it count.
“So, you still working as Relena’s personal bodyguard?” Duo asked. It was a normal thing Duo always did around Heero, attempt small talk only to have a one-sided conversation with the occasional grunt to let him know he was not talking to himself.
“Yes.” Heero said in between a bite of the dinner they had sat down to eat. Duo could not tell if he liked it or not. Curse that damn mask he’s always wearing. I bet he’s double yummy when he smiles.
“Is she still annoying as she was during the war?” Duo attempted again.
“Hn.” (Translation for those of you who aren’t Duo: sometimes.)
“Ok, enough about frost queen, have you seen the guys lately?”
The conversation continued through dinner in the same manner. They talked, more like Duo talked, about stupid things like how the world was today and how the other former pilots were. To his own ears, Duo sounded like he was nervous and hoped that to Heero he sounded the same as always. Somehow the conversation turned to what Duo’s life had become after he left Hilde to live on his own.
“Yeah, so that’s how I ended up here. It’s not a bad place or a bad way to live. I do my work like any normal Joe, get a paycheck, and stay low. I hated those first two months when every reporter for miles flocked to see the ‘Gundam Pilots: Saviors of Man’…” Duo held up his hands and made an odd face to show exactly what he had thought of it. “Too bad there are still orphans running around though. I help when I can, but there isn’t much I can do. I’d just hate to see more kids end up like us, fighting in some awful war. Knock on wood. Anyway, it feels good to be normal and not remembered for the millions of soldiers you might have killed, ya know?”
Duo paused and waited for Heero to nod. In this pause, Duo noticed they had both finished dinner. He had not made anything for desert, but there was something special he had picked up during one of his more depressed periods.
“Well, since we are done with dinner, I guess its manly hang-out-in-the-living-room-and-drink time.” As Duo said this he pulled a bottle of Wild Turkey from the refrigerator and two shot glasses from the cupboard. “Just let me clear a bit of this away so it won’t be such a bitch to clean.”
Duo picked up a bit of meaningless things from the table and started putting them away and to soak when he noticed Heero has begun to help him.
“You don’t have to…” Duo began but Heero cut him off.
“I want to.” Heero said lower than usual and began to wash.
Duo was really happy. Not only had Heero actually managed a sentence, but he was being unusually helpful. Duo could have said something like the wise-ass he was except he did not want to ruin the moment. He simply got a towel and began drying and putting away the dishes Heero had washed. Duo could not stop himself from humming “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” under his breath and was surprised Heero did not glare at him like he usually would have. It surprised Duo more when Heero began an off key hum that sounded suspiciously familiar to the one Duo was humming. The only thing that stopped Duo from dropping his jaw was the assumption that if he stopped humming then Heero might stop too. Duo did NOT want that.
It was really nice to be in that situation with Heero, almost like they were together. Duo found it very easy to pretend that it was true with Heero standing there washing beside him, the lights of Duo’s tree reflecting prettily in Heero’s deep Prussian eyes. Gah! He’s a god! At least he’s with me for Christmas night.
With the both of them cleaning up it did not take long. Duo was almost sad for it to end, but afterwords Heero picked up the Wild Turkey and headed into the living room. If Duo did not know better, he could believe it was Heero’s apartment by the way he was acting. Duo just smiled and followed Heero into the living room, blessing the fact that all he had was a couch so even if Heero had wanted to sit away from Duo he could not. Setting the glasses on the table, Heero let Duo pour the first round while he browsed Duo’s movie selection. Picking out an old action movie, Heero popped it in. Duo was pleased with the movie and sat quietly on the couch throwing back shots of good liquor. Once in a while he would make a comment on the movie, but for the whole Duo stayed quiet. Much to his surprise Heero stayed long into the night.
Duo surprised himself by waking early the next day. It was almost 10 am when he rolled sleepily out of bed and blearily looked at the clock. Snow was falling softly outside onto the street, and Duo looked around wondering what had awoken him. It was then that his mind cleared and he remembered his phone conversation last night. The frenzy that followed was a true testament of how happy Duo was that day. He immediately got up and, ignoring his usual feelings of laziness, cleaned his apartment top to bottom. It only took him a couple hours because there were only three rooms.
While cleaning the refrigerator, Duo had to plug his nose. Man! What died in here? He pulled out containers faintly resembling food items, but nothing he could put a name to. On one side of the fridge a steady growth of green mold crawled its way over the wall. Holding his breath and stretching his arm as far as it would go, Duo managed to clean the mold and clear the containers. Well, I definitely have to restock, at least so it looks like I eat here. Shit like this makes me appreciate everything Hilde did. I should call her too and wish her a Merry Christmas. With that, Duo grabbed his jacket and walked to the corner market.
Duo came back with his arms loaded down with groceries. Leave it to a neighborhood like this to actually have an open market on Christmas. Quickly Duo put the groceries away. He felt a small pang of guilt for dipping into his adoption fund, but it would be worth it. Getting a rather stupid thinking expression on his face, he tried to remember whether he had said they were going out to get something to eat. He had gotten pots, pans, silverware, and stuff for dinner just in case, but he wished he could remember. Oh well, I’ll make dinner anyway. Bet he doesn’t know I can cook. With a grin, Duo checked the time. He remembered very well the time Heero would be showing up and he only had an hour and a half left. Duo still needed to wrap the gift he had picked up, take a shower, start dinner, and put the new decorations he had bought up. Thanking his luck at knowing a quick and easy recipe for roast duck, Duo started dinner and hopped into his shower.
An hour later, Duo had decorated his apartment, re-decorated his tree though he left his cap as the topper for laughs, and had Heero’s gift sitting nicely underneath it sporting an oversized bow. There was a wreath on his door, a Santa candy dish on his TV, and a candy striped couch cover on his couch. Duo’s windows were sprayed on the inside with fake snow and he had bought a Christmas toiletry set for the bathroom. Even his bedroom was decorated with Christmas candles instead of the usual black ones. All in all, Duo’s spending spree had only cost a couple of hundred which he could easily replace in a few weeks. His guilt about dipping into his adoption fund completely vanquished, Duo checked his watch. Heero would be there in fifteen minutes, dinner would only be another five, and Duo was getting dressed in the special clothes he had gotten.
The buzzer for the door rang at five sharp. Duo nearly yelled and jumped in his excitement, but he curbed it. Walking over to his speaker, Duo pressed the button to open the door. He hurriedly surveyed himself one last time in the mirror. I’m acting worse than Hilde when she went out on dates. Duo smiled to himself as he looked at his image. He was in a dark green turtleneck that had HO HO HO knitted in red across his chest and it was a size too small just to show off his muscles slightly. His pants were black, but unlike his regular ones they were khakis. All in all, Duo thought he had gone over the edge, but they were fun clothes and he felt funny.
A knock on his door signaled that Heero had arrived. Duo walked out and checked the dinner before opening the door. The same Heero as old greeted him with a slight glare, a Preventer coat, green muscle shirt, and blue jeans. There was a small package under his arm that looked suspiciously like a present, but Duo chose to ignore it. If he picked on Heero about something like that, Heero was likely to just take it away.
“Hey, Heero buddy! What’s happening? Glad you could make it, come on in and I’ll give ya a tour.” Duo pulled the door open and swung his arm in the general direction of the living room.
Heero stared at Duo for a minute before stepping inside. He went straight to the living room and looked around while Duo took the duck from the oven. He saw Heero looking from him to the duck. Duo had to hide a grin when Heero’s monotone came out to him.
“You cook.” It was a statement as though Heero were surprised, but his voice betrayed nothing of what the man might be feeling. It never did.
“Yeah, with the way I eat I had to learn sometime.” Duo laughed.
Heero simply grunted and went back to looking around Duo’s small living room. Duo started to set the table and put the finishing touches on the dinner. He got out some wine that would go perfect with the dinner and sat it in the sink where there was a pot of ice waiting.
“While this chills why don’t I give you that tour?” Duo said and walked over to Heero. “I’m sure that after five minutes of staring at the living room you know it’s the living room.”
Duo excitedly took Heero down the small hallway to have a peek in the bedroom and a look at the bathroom. Heero remained silent through everything, but it was not as though Duo expected him to be very articulate. Duo had come down slightly from the giddy happiness he had felt at first seeing Heero after nearly six months. That did not mean he was any less happy. It was definitely nice to see him and not be drooling over how hot he looked or thinking about how much more wild Heero’s chocolate brown hair would look splayed across Duo’s pillow. Duo felt the familiar thoughts start fueling a familiar fire in his groin and quickly stifled it. This could be the last time he saw Heero for another six months and Duo intended to make it count.
“So, you still working as Relena’s personal bodyguard?” Duo asked. It was a normal thing Duo always did around Heero, attempt small talk only to have a one-sided conversation with the occasional grunt to let him know he was not talking to himself.
“Yes.” Heero said in between a bite of the dinner they had sat down to eat. Duo could not tell if he liked it or not. Curse that damn mask he’s always wearing. I bet he’s double yummy when he smiles.
“Is she still annoying as she was during the war?” Duo attempted again.
“Hn.” (Translation for those of you who aren’t Duo: sometimes.)
“Ok, enough about frost queen, have you seen the guys lately?”
The conversation continued through dinner in the same manner. They talked, more like Duo talked, about stupid things like how the world was today and how the other former pilots were. To his own ears, Duo sounded like he was nervous and hoped that to Heero he sounded the same as always. Somehow the conversation turned to what Duo’s life had become after he left Hilde to live on his own.
“Yeah, so that’s how I ended up here. It’s not a bad place or a bad way to live. I do my work like any normal Joe, get a paycheck, and stay low. I hated those first two months when every reporter for miles flocked to see the ‘Gundam Pilots: Saviors of Man’…” Duo held up his hands and made an odd face to show exactly what he had thought of it. “Too bad there are still orphans running around though. I help when I can, but there isn’t much I can do. I’d just hate to see more kids end up like us, fighting in some awful war. Knock on wood. Anyway, it feels good to be normal and not remembered for the millions of soldiers you might have killed, ya know?”
Duo paused and waited for Heero to nod. In this pause, Duo noticed they had both finished dinner. He had not made anything for desert, but there was something special he had picked up during one of his more depressed periods.
“Well, since we are done with dinner, I guess its manly hang-out-in-the-living-room-and-drink time.” As Duo said this he pulled a bottle of Wild Turkey from the refrigerator and two shot glasses from the cupboard. “Just let me clear a bit of this away so it won’t be such a bitch to clean.”
Duo picked up a bit of meaningless things from the table and started putting them away and to soak when he noticed Heero has begun to help him.
“You don’t have to…” Duo began but Heero cut him off.
“I want to.” Heero said lower than usual and began to wash.
Duo was really happy. Not only had Heero actually managed a sentence, but he was being unusually helpful. Duo could have said something like the wise-ass he was except he did not want to ruin the moment. He simply got a towel and began drying and putting away the dishes Heero had washed. Duo could not stop himself from humming “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” under his breath and was surprised Heero did not glare at him like he usually would have. It surprised Duo more when Heero began an off key hum that sounded suspiciously familiar to the one Duo was humming. The only thing that stopped Duo from dropping his jaw was the assumption that if he stopped humming then Heero might stop too. Duo did NOT want that.
It was really nice to be in that situation with Heero, almost like they were together. Duo found it very easy to pretend that it was true with Heero standing there washing beside him, the lights of Duo’s tree reflecting prettily in Heero’s deep Prussian eyes. Gah! He’s a god! At least he’s with me for Christmas night.
With the both of them cleaning up it did not take long. Duo was almost sad for it to end, but afterwords Heero picked up the Wild Turkey and headed into the living room. If Duo did not know better, he could believe it was Heero’s apartment by the way he was acting. Duo just smiled and followed Heero into the living room, blessing the fact that all he had was a couch so even if Heero had wanted to sit away from Duo he could not. Setting the glasses on the table, Heero let Duo pour the first round while he browsed Duo’s movie selection. Picking out an old action movie, Heero popped it in. Duo was pleased with the movie and sat quietly on the couch throwing back shots of good liquor. Once in a while he would make a comment on the movie, but for the whole Duo stayed quiet. Much to his surprise Heero stayed long into the night.
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