---------------------
      Day Trip
~ A Moment of Haven ~
---------------------
	Lunch with the Suzuharas was wonderful when there were only the 
four of them.  Five people never fit around a square table very well, 
however, so with the addition of Relena, there were always at least two 
elbows bumping.  Luckily, Ami didn't take up as much space as the 
others, not that the three teens were very large themselves.  It gave 
Suzuhara-san plenty of opportunity for plumping and mothering.

	"This is only lunch, Suzuhara-san," Relena protested.  "Stuff me 
if you must for dinner, but if this continues, I won't be able to fit 
into any of my dresses anymore."

	"You know, your metabolism actually slows down at night, so 
you're more likely to gain weight with a heavy dinner than a heavy 
lunch.  And that's no way to get out of it, anyway.  It's a wonderful 
excuse for you to go shopping for new clothes.  I bet you don't have 
much time to go shopping, now do you?"

	"Almost none at all, actually," she admitted.  "A lot of it gets 
tailored...."

	"Oh, but that's really no fun at all!  We must go shopping 
sometime.  How about today?"

	She blinked.  "So soon?  But--"

	Suzuhara-san gave her a stern glance.  "It's just a shopping 
trip, Lena dear.  It doesn't have to be written into three different 
schedules and arranged four days in advance to work right.  You didn't 
have anything else planned for this afternoon, now did you?"

	Relena looked at the two young men she was staying with, and 
they shrugged back.  "I guess not."

	"Perfect.  Then why don't we leave as soon as-- No, better yet, 
we'll leave the clean-up to these fine gentlemen here and then we can go 
right about now."

	"Hey," was about all Duo had time to interject in mild protest.

	Relena smiled.  "Sounds like a plan to me.  Shall we?"

	The two boys exchanged a communicative glance.  "I'll go," Duo 
offered his partner.

	Heero quirked his eyebrow half a degree up at him.

	"Yeah, sure, no problem," Duo dismissed his question.  "Better 
me than you, right?"

	"What's this?" Suzuhara-san asked.

	"I hope you two weren't planning a girls-only event," he smiled 
brightly at them.

	"We're just going shopping," Relena pointed out, knowing that 
she wasn't going to win this argument.

	"No can do, Lena," Duo apologized with no particular regret.  "I 
know you're a big girl, but that doesn't mean we can let you go off 
shopping all by yourself, Suzuhara-san aside.  We have a job to do.  
Now, we're willing to let you off the hook with only one of us, but 
that's it."

	"Duo," Relena started, but Ms. Suzuhara touched her on the elbow 
and stopped her.  Their eyes met, and an understanding was reached.

	"That's fine, Duo," the older woman answered.  "It'll be 
wonderful having you with us.  You'll have to excuse us if we start to 
treat you like one of the girls, though."

	"Anou...."  Duo didn't like the sound of that.

	"How about you, Ami?" she asked.  "Would you like to come, or 
would you like to sit this one out?"

	The girl shrugged.  "I'll stay home and keep Heero-niichan 
company."

	Suzuhara-san looked inquiringly at Heero, and he shrugged 
minutely as well.  "I had a few small things to do.  It'll be fine."

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

	Duo shuddered as he turned into the parking lot.  "God, I'd 
forgotten how huge this mall was."

	"You're supposed to say that like you're impressed and about to 
have the time of your life," Suzuhara-san chided him.

	"No," he disagreed, opting to pull into a space a little farther 
away from the entrance rather than fight for parking.  "I'm a guy.  I'm 
supposed to fear places like this."

	"Oh, but it'll be so fun!" Lena said with a wink.  "Maybe we can 
get a little shopping done for you two, too."

	"Now that is a great idea," Suzuhara-san chimed in.  "It's 
almost as fun shopping for other people as it is shopping for yourself."

	Relena agreed with a wide smile.  "Certainly.  Maybe we can find 
them a little something to spice up their wardrobe.  Give them a new 
look.  With the right clothes, they could look three times as sexy."

	"Now, sexy is one thing, dear, but I won't be letting you make 
sluts out of my boys!"

	Duo groaned.  Heero owed him.

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

	With the others gone, it was left to Heero and Ami to do the 
cleanup.  He let the young girl gather the dishes up and bring them to 
the counter beside the sink, but elected to wash them himself.  "I told 
Father MacKenzie I'd be by today to help him out with something," he 
advised her as he carefully settled the last bowl on top of the plates 
on the rack.  "Is that all right with you?"

	Ami's answer was a careless shrug.

	"Does that mean yes or no?"  He liked concrete answers.

	"It's fine, I guess."

	"But...?"  He dried his hands and turned questioningly towards 
her.

	She sighed dramatically.  "Mom and Lena keep talking about all 
these 'grown-up' things.  Whenever I walk in, they change the subject."

	"Have they told you that they're talking about 'grown-up' 
things?"

	"They don't have to," she said, making a face that said 
simultaneously how obvious they were, and that Heero should have known 
better than to ask.  "I can hear them.  They'll be talking about dating 
boys and getting boys to notice things and stuff, and when I ask, they 
say they're talking about you guys, or things I won't have to worry 
about for a while."

	"Then why are you worrying about it now?" Heero asked quite 
practically.

	"I'm not worrying about *boys*."  Obviously boys were very low 
on her list of priorities.

	"Are you worried about Lena?"  He was quite the adept at 
guessing between the lines sometimes.  "She'll be gone soon enough.  
Then it'll just be back to the two of you.  Or if you're waiting to grow 
up, don't worry.  It'll take care of itself."  They went out of the 
house and started the walk over to the church.  It wasn't that far, it 
was a pleasant day, Suzuhara-san hadn't left her car key, and Duo had 
taken off in their jeep.  They had their bikes, of course, but Heero 
wasn't about to put Ami on one of those.  Besides, those were their, as 
Duo referred to them, "it's an emergency and we gotta get there really 
damn fast" vehicles.  The jeep had been a fixer-upper from the 
Preventers.  Duo had saved it after its mostly honorable discharge and 
tinkered with it to get it up to par.  The bikes, on the other hand, 
were quite shiny and fresh and tinkered with to get them far better than 
par.

	Ami stuck her tongue out at him.  Heero wondered whether she had 
been rubbing off on Duo, or whether Duo had been rubbing off on her.  
That was the braided one's "so you think you got all the answers?" 
reaction, especially when no snappy comeback was immediately available.

	Heero ignored it with ease.  "Being a grown-up really isn't much 
fun.  As you've noticed, there are far too many things to worry about 
that really just aren't worth the worry."

	"Maybe Mom and Lena are planning something about you guys," she 
mused, jumping a few steps ahead of Heero and turning around to wait for 
him.  "Maybe they want you to notice something.  Like her.  I mean, 
she's a girl, right?  And you're guys.  And grown-ups are always 
thinking about girl-guy things, right?"

	"I'm not always thinking about girl-guy things," he felt obliged 
to point out.

	"Well, you're different," she conceded magnanimously, turning 
around again when he caught up to her and continuing down the sidewalk.  
"You're cool.  You don't mind talking about grown-up stuff with me."

	"Lena doesn't think of us that way."

	"What does 'that way' mean?" Ami demanded.  "Like, kissy stuff?"

	"That works," he agreed amiably.

	"I saw Heather kissing Bill in the schoolyard yesterday.  It 
didn't look very fun.  And afterwards, Bill turned all red and was 
looking all grossed out and stuff."

	Ah, how far he had fallen, reduced to elementary schoolyard 
gossip.  Nevertheless, he didn't think Ami would appreciate it if he 
didn't continue the conversation.  "I'm sure it's not always like that.  
Did Heather ask first?"

	"I don't think so."

	"You should probably ask first."  What the hell was he doing?  
He had no idea what he was talking about.  Well, technically, anyways.  
There were a good number of inferences he could draw from the given 
material, enough for him to form a good working theory on a reasonable 
way of doing things, if not the common or socially correct way.  But 
hell, anything non-academic he knew about sexual matters probably came 
from sorting his way through porn advertisements.  "And you probably 
shouldn't go around kissing just anybody."

	"Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

	This was just getting more and more unreal.  Duo would find this 
situation completely amusing, no doubt.  Perhaps Heero would refrain 
from telling him.  Or maybe just save it for a rainy day, when Duo was 
in one of his darker moods and needed a unexpected surprise to pick him 
up.  "No.  Can't say that I have."

	"Would you ask first?"

	"Well, maybe not outright.  I'd probably want to find out first 
if my target seemed willing to accept a kiss.  There are ways of 
figuring that out without having to ask, I'm sure.  That would be 
terribly inefficient otherwise.  I don't know why any intelligent person 
would ever just do it without being reasonably sure of the outcome, 
though, unless the possible benefits outweighed the possible 
consequences.  Unfortunately, there is no exact science for predicting 
human response.  Nevertheless, I've found that there are some decent 
heuristics that one can use.  Of course, they need to be tuned to the 
individual for maximum accuracy."

	Ami listened to his answer blankly.  "Okay.  Not *that* much of 
a grown-up, niichan."

	Heero blinked.  "Oh.  Sorry."  Normally he was fairly good about 
editing his vocabulary and diction to a sharp nine-year-old's level.  
This was Duo's fault.  He was the one that told Heero to say what was in 
his mind.  That method of conversation worked fairly well with Duo, but 
not with very many others.  Heero was usually pretty good about not 
talking so much with others, too.  No point in alienating them with his 
legacy from being raised around engineers and scientists, after all.  
"Don't worry.  I have problems, even with grown-ups."

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

	Duo was strangely glad whenever they walked into a store.  It 
meant that they weren't out in the open, surrounded by dozens of 
strangers anymore.  On the other hand, it also meant more shopping.

	And why on earth were they in the men's department, anyway?

	"This," Relena declared, thrusting a deep plum polo shirt 
against his chest, "would bring out the color of your eyes 
magnificently!  Oh, but we can't have you walking around in purple polo 
shirts.  Not good."  She tsked and put the shirt back on the rack before 
flitting over to the next display.

	"Lena," Duo started patiently.  "Why don't you shop for your own 
things?"  It was only a mild suggestion.

	"Don't be silly, Duo," she said, lifting her eyes briefly from 
the array before her to meet his gaze.  "You wouldn't deny me the 
pleasure and honor of repaying my hosts for their fine generosity and 
hospitality of these last weeks, now would you?  That would be rude, 
very rude, indeed.  I absolutely must be allowed to show my gratitude 
towards you, or else I shall be forced to denounce your name in social 
circles everywhere."

	"Wouldn't a...," he cast about helplessly.  "A box of chocolates 
do or something?"

	"Men," Suzuhara-san huffed from her side of the display, rolling 
her eyes.  "No style at all."

	"And that is what we're here to correct, now isn't it?" Relena 
chirped.  Suzuhara-san agreed sagely.

	Duo sighed.  One of them he could probably handle, but now he 
was being double-teamed by the both of them.  There was no way he'd be 
able to fight them both off.  While he was dealing with one, the other 
would get him while his back was turned.  This was what a partner was 
for.

	Suzuhara-san plucked another shirt off a rack for their 
examination.  "Heero?"

	"No," Duo answered surprisingly.  If he couldn't stop them 
altogether, then at least he could stop them from making bad decisions.  
"Heero wouldn't like that color."

	The two women paused to share a significant glance that went not 
understood by the male in their midst.  "Oh?" the older woman asked 
innocently.  "What colors does Heero prefer?"

	"Natural tones," he replied absently, dismissing the contents of 
a nearby shelf with a grimace.  What the hell was happening to style 
these days?  "Solid, inconspicuous colors.  Nothing eye-catching."  
Speaking of eye-catching, what was that lemon yellow monstrosity over 
there?  Spring was in the air and in the season's color schemes, but 
Heero was really more of an autumn colored person.  Duo was, too.  But 
winter, now, what colors were a winter?

	"Well, then, how about this?"  Suzuhara-san offered up a pair of 
navy pants.

	Duo eyed the nylon-looking material doubtfully.  It was probably 
some sort of supposedly advanced microfiber weave or something.  He 
reached out and touched it before shaking his head.  "No.  Makes too 
much noise when it moves against itself.  It... swishes."

	"Hmmm, inconspicuous in sight as well as sound, eh?" Relena 
spoke to herself.  "Heero's about the same size as you are, right?"

	"About," he agreed, poking again at the swishy fabric.  It was 
soft and easy to move in, but really much too loud.  Wasn't it strange 
to hear yourself walking?  "I'm a little wider across the shoulders, a 
little taller.  He's got more muscle mass than I do, so he's probably a 
little wider in the waist.  Probably all over, actually."

	"Is that so?" she asked archly.  "So if you tried on his 
clothes, you would know how they should fit, right?"

	"Yeah, probably."  He paused.  "Wait a minute.  Does that mean 
that I'm going to be trying on twice as many clothes for you ladies?"

	Relena smiled at him.  It was that smile again.  The one that 
said that it would be wider and toothier, if it weren't unladylike.

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

	Before they entered the church, they heard the sound of someone 
plunking away at the piano that was resting near the wall in the front 
of the main room.  Heero knocked once just as warning, even though the 
church was a public place, and opened the door, eyes automatically 
scanning over the interior of the building to identify people and exits 
before he let Ami inside.

	Father MacKenzie glanced up from his place in front of the 
instrument and greeted them brightly.  "Heero.  And you've brought Ami 
with you today!"

	He nodded in return.  "I'm watching her for the day."

	Ami made a face.  "I don't need watching.  I'm not a little kid, 
you know."

	Heero raised an eyebrow at her and amended his statement.  
"She's watching me for the day."

	Father MacKenzie laughed in that friendly, inviting way of his, 
the one that somehow managed to earn him even Duo's good graces.  "Would 
you like to watch him fix my piano for me?" he asked the girl.

	She looked at him funny.  "Heero doesn't fix pianos."

	"Well, not for a living perhaps, but Heero is a man of many 
talents, I'm told."

	"Have you fixed a piano before?" Ami demanded from Heero.

	"No," Heero admitted easily.  "But I'm sure I can figure it 
out."

	"He's got perfect pitch, too," the father stage-whispered to the 
child.  "Maybe I can fool him into tuning it while he's there."

	"Alright," Heero agreed, adding it to his mental checklist as he 
pushed up his sleeves and headed towards the piano.

	Father MacKenzie laughed again.  "Well.  That wasn't very hard 
at all, now was it, Ami?"  He winked at her, and she giggled back.  "I 
mentioned before that the damper pedal wasn't working very well.  Well, 
more accurately, I suppose, it's working all too well, since it's 
damping things that aren't even supposed to be damped."

	Heero flipped open the lid of the piano and took a look inside.  
"As I understand it, the damper pedal isn't for damping the sound, but 
undamping it."

	"Well, see there, Ami?  The man knows what he's doing."  He sat 
her down on the front pew and seated himself beside her.  "If you need 
any help, Heero, just let me know.  I've got a few tools over there."  
He gestured to the floor beside the piano.  "Otherwise I'll just leave 
this to your capable hands."

	"Aa."  He pushed the piano bench out of the way and stood in 
front of it, trying to press a few keys and the pedal at the same time 
as looking in the top of it.  Since he seemed to be handling that well 
enough, Father MacKenzie left him to it and turned back to Ami, who was 
idly swinging her legs back and forth.

	"So you're babysitting Heero today, eh?"

	"Yup," she replied cheerfully.  "Mom and Duo and Lena are all 
off shopping."

	"And they left you behind?"

	"Nah.  I decided to stay behind to keep Heero company.  He's fun 
to talk to."

	"Oh?  And what have you been talking about today?"

	"Kissing."

	Father MacKenzie blinked.  "Oh."

	Heero felt the priest's gaze on him and unburied his head from 
the depths of the piano to return the look, borrowing one of Duo's 
phrases as an answer.  "She started it."

	He blinked again.  "Oh.  Alright then."

	Ami stuck her tongue out at the priest.  "See.  I can tell you 
wouldn't want to talk about it either, but Heero always talks to me 
about anything."

	"Not anything, Ami," Heero said in his defense, the sound 
muffled as it was directed towards the piano strings.  There were a lot 
of things he wouldn't want to discuss with anyone, except maybe one of 
his fellow pilots.  And there were probably quite a few things that 
would get him in trouble with Suzuhara-san.  He thought kissing was 
probably alright, so long as they stayed away from any sort of sordid 
details.

	Ami continued to confide in the priest.  "He said he's never 
kissed a girl before because he's never thought of a girl *that way* 
before."

	Father MacKenzie just paused, and decided to nod his head sagely 
as if he were entirely in control here.

	Ami cocked her head to one side as something struck her.  
"Heero?  Have you ever thought of a boy *that way* before?"

	Father MacKenzie coughed.

	Because the teen's head was still buried within the innards of 
the piano, they didn't see his reaction, but when the answer came, it 
floated calmly out to them.  "No."

	"So you've never thought of *anybody* in *that way* before?"

	"I had other things on my mind," he said dryly, although the 
tone was perhaps lost on his audience.

	"Do you now?"

	Heero stopped to consider that one, withdrawing his head and 
flipping off his flashlight.  His hair all fell back neatly into place 
with a single shake of his head.  "I always have something on my mind, 
Ami, if nothing quite so pressing as before."

	"So.... does that mean you're not going to start doing kissy 
stuff now?" she asked somewhat hopefully.

	He raised an eyebrow at her.  "Probably not.  Why?"

	"Well," she started hesitantly, before she finished off the 
thought in one rush.  "You and Duo are like my two favorite people in 
the whole wide world, besides Mom, I guess, and if you went and started 
doing all that stuff, then you probably wouldn't be around so much, 
right?  Or if you brought someone new and strange home with you, then 
that would just mess everything up!"

	This is really Duo's area of expertise, Heero thought, but he 
settled down to deal with it as best he could in his partner's absence.  
Relying on Father MacKenzie to help him out was not the optimal solution 
since it was Heero that she had been talking to.  He took the time to 
consider his words carefully before speaking.  "That wouldn't happen."

	"Are you sure?  Are you absolutely positively sure?"

	He looked her straight in the eye and said it again with all of 
the earnestness that could convince Duo of things -- and Duo was one 
hard nut to crack -- and by the smile he got in response, he knew he got 
it right.

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

	"So you're sure you don't like any girls that way?" Relena asked 
him for what must have been the hundredth time that afternoon.  The 
ladies had been grilling him on the status of his relationships for 
quite a while, and up to now, he had been fielding their questions with 
a calm neutrality that was finally wearing thin.  No, he did not have a 
girlfriend.  No, he didn't want a girlfriend.  No, he didn't have anyone 
he would like to have as a girlfriend.  Just where was the 
misunderstanding here?  Boy, did Heero ever owe him.

	"Yes, dammit!" Duo almost shouted in frustration.  He was 
thinking that it would have been nice if he hadn't cut his hair, because 
then he could have wrapped it several times around her neck and 
squeezed.  Then again, it was their mission to protect her, and it would 
generally be considered a bad thing if he killed her himself.  On the 
other hand, maybe it was a good thing he had cut it, especially since he 
probably would have been tugging on it rather painfully.  He took a deep 
breath and moderated his tone, if not his vehemence, for the rest of the 
statement.  "I don't like any girls that way."

	"So do you like any boys that way?"

	"What?!"  Over the racks of clothing, he saw a stranger's head 
turn in their direction, and he hastily lowered his volume again.  
"Excuse me, Relena?"

	"You heard me," she answered, unruffled.  "How seriously have 
you been considering your sexuality?"

	All he could do was blink at her for a long moment.  "Uh, not at 
all?"  He said it like he should have been pointing out the obvious.  He 
looked to Suzuhara-san to help him knock some sense into Relena, but the 
women were unfortunately on the same side.

	"Well," Suzuhara-san said, nodding wisely.  "That could 
certainly be it.  Maybe you're gay, Duo."

	He stared incredulously at the two placid women again.  "Just 
because I don't have a girlfriend, doesn't make me gay."

	"Just asking," she placated, backing off.  "I was just saying, 
though, have you ever considered the possibility?"

	"Maybe I just don't want a girlfriend right now, you consider 
that?  Maybe I've just never met a girl I was really attracted to.  But 
maybe she's out there."

	Relena picked up the ball.  "Maybe you've just never met a guy 
you were really attracted to, you ever consider that?  But maybe he's 
out there.  Maybe he's right under your nose."

	"I've never had a boyfriend, either," he pointed out.  "Why 
doesn't that make me straight?"

	"Well, you could always be bi," she suggested, picking something 
off a rack for a moment before putting it back.  "Unless you have a 
problem with homosexuality or bisexuality?"

	He shook his head impatiently.  "No, of course not.  Who you 
fall in love with is who you fall in love with.  But-- God, I refuse to 
discuss this in a shopping mall!"

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

	The piano tuning became something of a mini piano lesson when 
Heero let Ami help him.  When he was all finished up and wanted to test 
out the piano as a whole, however, Ami's directed plinking was 
insufficient, so he nudged her over and took the bench himself.  "Do you 
have any sheet music, Father?"

	"Hmm?"  He looked up from where he was scribbling notes by the 
lectern.  "Oh, yes, of course.  Inside the bench.  Done already?"

	"Aa," Heero answered absently, shooing Ami off the seat so he 
could open it up and pull out a stack of music.  Duo had taught him the 
value of answering, or at least acknowledging, questions, even if the 
answers seemed completely obvious to him.  Such was the burden of 
carrying on casual conversation.  Looking through the songs, he flipped 
through it looking for something somewhat simple, but not too simple, 
involving the pedaling and dynamics he wanted to test out, when 
something caught his eye.  He stared at the piece for a few seconds 
before setting it down in front of him and starting to play the opening 
chords.

	Father MacKenzie came up to stand beside him.  "Ah, one of my 
favorites.  You sight-read well."

	Heero's answer came with something of a tone of wonder as he 
continued with the song.  "I've played this before."

	"Oh?"

	"Yes.  It was... the piece I was taught, when I learnt how to 
play."

	Something about that statement seemed slightly off.  "You only 
know one song?"

	"That's all I needed."  He paused, before adding in a quiet, 
nostalgic murmur, "It was his favorite, too."  He went on to finish up 
half the piece before speaking again.  "I never did learn what song this 
was.  I was just told that it was something special."

	"'Imagine' is what it's called," MacKenzie supplied for him.  
"You can see from the lyrics there what it's about.  It is something 
special.  I'm surprised anyone else besides me would have dredged it up, 
though.  The Beatles are quite a ways beyond oldies."

	"'Beatles'?"

	He shrugged.  "That's what they called themselves.  I only know 
about them because an old friend of mine pointed out to me that I shared 
a name with a fellow in one of the songs, and how could I not look them 
up after that?"

	The song finished up with Heero's lips moving slightly as he put 
words to the melody and completed the song in his memory.  "I like it," 
he admitted with an understated smile.

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

	It was Duo's duty to keep an eye on them, but there were some 
places even he didn't follow.  One of these places was the ladies' 
dressing room, and Ms. Suzuhara and Relena took full advantage of that.

	"He's cracking," Suzuhara-san decided cheerfully.

	"Yes," Lena agreed.  "But in a good way, or a bad way?"

	"How ever do you mean?"

	"We have to be careful, here.  If Duo feels like he's being 
pushed too much, he's going to be stubborn and completely uncooperative.  
Heero may be able to get through to him when he's like that, but we 
probably won't."

	Suzuhara-san considered the matter.  "Hmmm.  This may take 
longer than you'll be around, then."

	Relena smiled encouragingly, even though she was on the other 
side of a dressing room door and the woman couldn't see her.  "We're in 
no hurry.  We don't want to botch this up, after all.  I have the utmost 
confidence in you that you'll be able to carry on when I'm gone."

	"Oh, dear.  Well, I'll still be able to consult with you, I 
hope?  You know them so much better than I do."

	"We know them both well," Relena corrected.  "Simply in 
different arenas.  But of course, I'll expect you to keep me apprised of 
the situation.  I wouldn't miss out on this for the world."

	Suzuhara-san laughed.  "You already have the world, dear."

	Relena joined her in laughter shortly, then continued with the 
long-term mission planning.  "I think Duo's going to be tougher than 
Heero is.  This sort of approach would just roll right off of Heero.  I 
don't think it'd be necessary anyway.  So long as we present a 
well-organized and well-prepared argument to Heero, he'll likely be 
willing to consider it.  ...Hmmm, these pants don't fit."

	"Do you need a different size?"

	"No, the cutting's just bad.  Anyway, I think Duo's going to 
carry on as he has today, and come up with objections just because it's 
easier than actually considering it, so we'll have to be prepared for 
those as well.  He probably won't take our word for it, but if we can 
get Heero on our side in the end, it'll be as good as done.  
Nevertheless, we might consider getting a third opinion on this matter, 
just in case.  Someone neutral.  We obviously have a vested interest in 
this matter."

	Ms. Suzuhara laughed again.  "I think you've been spending too 
much time with the boys.  You have this whole thing planned out quite 
seriously, don't you?"

	"It's a serious matter," she replied with a smile.  "And yes, 
perhaps I have spent too much time thinking about it.  But you try 
spending an entire multi-colonial trip with the two of them completely 
unaware of what they've got going for them, and see how you can stand 
it.  Besides, it's a welcome change from bureaucracy."

	"You've got me there.  So, what else have you come up with?"

	"Well, Duo's religion seems to be a matter of convenience to 
him, in many senses, not to be offensive at all.  I don't claim to 
understand him, especially when it comes to his faith.  But if he thinks 
he might be able to get out of this on a religious basis, we should be 
prepared to cut him off there, as well."

	"Hmm, I can probably get a priest on our side.  I know a nice, 
open-minded one."

	"Perfect.  For the rest of this trip, however, I think we can 
just continue as we've been doing.  They already anticipate us keeping 
it up, so we might as well milk that for all it's worth.  Remember that 
we've managed to work boys into the equations as well as girls, now, so 
don't forget that you can alter your statements accordingly."

	"I'm beginning to see what makes you an excellent politician, 
dear."

	Relena opened the door and took a bow.  "If only politics were 
this much fun."

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

	There was a message waiting for them on both their answering 
machines that the shopping trip was still continuing, but they would be 
back in time for supper.  Heero acknowledged the message and decided 
along with Ami that they should start the dinner preparations.  Digging 
through the Suzuhara refrigerator, he took critical note of the 
contents, combined them in his head with what was in their refrigerator, 
referenced the clock for a time frame, and planned a meal for five.  He 
ran the plan by Ami, who offered a single change before okaying it, and 
then they got down to business.

	In the process of stripping some tomatoes of their skin, Heero 
was hit by the beginning of yet another surprising turn of conversation.  
"Thanks for hanging out with me today, Heero."

	He raised an amused eyebrow at her.  "You were the one hanging 
out with me today, remember?"

	"Oh.  Yeah."  She grinned.  "Well, in that case...."  Her little 
face frowned in concentration for a brief moment as she worked out the 
honorific and humble forms she needed in Japanese.  "I am deeply 
grateful to humbly receive the favor of your allowing me to be in your 
presence," she said proudly in the foreign tongue, showing off her 
skills with the language her mother had insisted she learn.  She grinned 
again when Heero nodded his approval of her formal sentence's structure, 
and then went back to her first language.  "Thanks for answering my 
questions seriously and stuff."

	"Of course, Ami," he replied without thinking, having turned his 
attention back to the tomatoes.  That was only natural, after all.  Duo 
thought he took too many things too seriously too often.  "Any time."

	"Good."  A warning bell went off in Heero's head at her 
satisfied tone, and he braced himself to reap the results of what he had 
just unwittingly sown.  "So you can answer my questions about sex, 
right?"

	"...Depends what you want to know," he answered cautiously, 
weighing in his head what sorts of things would cause him to lose his 
head to a mother's wrath.  One thought that came up rather immediately 
was that Duo owed him.

	"I don't get it."

	Blink.  "...Could you be more specific?"  Did he really want her 
to get more specific?

	"It's just that Mom and Lena have been talking about boys and 
stuff, and I just don't get what's so great about them.  I figure sex 
has to have something do with it since it's something grown-ups never 
talk about to kids.  We kinda sorta learned about it in school, but we 
didn't learn anything, 'cuz they were trying to explain where babies 
come from without really telling us, and that was just really lame, and 
I was thinking, if they're only going to tell us just a little 
something, it'd be better if they didn't tell us anything, because then 
Heather wouldn't be kissing Billy in the schoolyard and those stupid 
boys wouldn't be laughing at their stupid jokes and they wouldn't be 
trying to pretend that they're all grown-up by using grown-up words 
which you just know aren't really grown-up, because grown-ups never use 
words that sound *that* stupid, they always use big words that don't 
sound like they should mean anything at all, let alone what they mean."

	Blink blink.  "...What are they teaching children in the 
classrooms these days?"

	"Nothing," she said exasperatedly.  "That's what I just said.  
That's what you're here for.  Then I could be a real grown-up instead of 
just a pretend one."

	"You are only nine, Ami," he reminded her, although he did 
consider the girl to be rather astute.  The tomato attempted to flee 
from his clutches, but his deft fingers swiftly recaptured it and 
crushed its rebellion.  Then again, what did he know about how nine year 
olds were supposed to act?  When he was nine, he was... well, different.

	"Is there anything wrong with being old for my age?"

	Didn't they already discuss this point?  Way back in Heero's 
day, being old meant guns, not sex.  He wasn't sure which he thought was 
better.  Either way, though, he always believed in the power of 
knowledge, so he managed to scrape together a decent, factual 
presentation on the mechanics of sex while preparing the dough for the 
Suzuharas' pasta machine.

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

	"All in all, I'd call this day a success, wouldn't-- my God, 
what is that heavenly scent?"

	Ami bounced out of the kitchen and towards the front door and 
her mother's voice.  "Dinner!" she declared brightly.

	Duo gave Relena a little push in her back to get her to clear 
the doorway and he managed to hustle himself inside and shut the door 
behind him.  "Heero strikes again, eh?" he said amusedly to himself.

	"Huh?"  Relena turned to ask him to elaborate, but was 
distracted by Heero as he exited the kitchen himself, dodging to one 
side as Ami dragged her mother into the kitchen to show off.

	"And there's the master chef himself," Duo greeted.  "Smells 
Italian."

	Heero shrugged self-depreciatingly.

	Relena smiled in wonder.  "Smells divine.  You two never cease 
to amaze me.  I've been treated to both of your cooking since I arrived, 
but somehow I think this is going to top it all, whatever it is."

	"Homemade tortellini!" Suzuhara-san's voice called from the 
kitchen in surprise.  "Heero, spaghetti, lasagna, that's one thing, but 
tortellini!  Now I know I never taught you this!"

	"Ami's idea," he answered.

	"Oooh," Duo whistled in appreciation.  "Getting fancy, aren't 
we?  And all when I'm not here to share in the credit.  How could you?  
And how long did that take you?"

	Heero shrugged.  "Ami helped.  That's a lot of bags."

	"Oh, don't be such a man," Relena chided him.  "They don't all 
belong to the ladies.  These," she gestured to the ones that Duo was 
carrying, "are yours."

	Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo.  "That's a lot of bags."

	"Hey, don't look at me," he said, raising his hands defensively, 
then glancing down in surprise that they were filled with bags.  He 
hastily set them down on the floor beside the front door.  "I didn't buy 
them."

	"Of course you didn't," Relena responded haughtily.  "I've been 
a guest in your home, and now I simply must shower you with my 
gratitude."

	The voice came sailing through the kitchen door again.  "I 
thought my pasta machine was broken."

	"I fixed it," Heero called back simply.  "You didn't need to buy 
us clothes, Relena."

	"Oh, just chalk it up to my feminine ways, if you must.  I 
wanted to.  I enjoyed it.  You're going to accept it."

	"A circular saw would have been nice."

	That won a startled laugh from Relena.  "Sorry, boys, but you're 
on your own for that one."

	"And homemade sauce, too!" was the next exclamation of surprise.

	"You didn't just hit the mall," Heero noted, eyeing the names on 
the bags.

	It was Duo's turn to shrug.  "Mall ain't the only place to 
shop."

	"I rarely see the inside of a mall," Relena said.  "But I would 
never have seen the inside of a secondhand and thrift store had Duo not 
brought me there."

	He shrugged again.  "Hey, if you're going slum with the likes of 
us, you better slum it up good.  Can't wear nice stuff all the time."

	"But we found some rather nice things in the store, too."

	A timer went off in the kitchen.  "My rolls are done," Heero 
excused himself before returning to the kitchen to finish up dinner.

	"Rolls?" Duo said incredulously.  "You made fresh rolls, too?  
Man, how am I ever going to match that?"  He marched into the kitchen 
after him, but was sent back out shortly to set the table.

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

	Towards the end of dinner, Ami was telling her mother about her 
day, thankfully leaving out their conversational topics, when the matter 
of music was brought up.  "I want to learn how to play something."

	"Like what?" her mother asked.

	"I don't know yet.  But Heero said he'd help me figure it out."

	"Did he, now?"  She turned to face the young man in question.

	"Father MacKenzie has some old instruments besides the piano.  
He mentioned a violin, cello, clarinet.  Some he brought with him, some 
he salvaged from the old church and the community center."

	"I didn't know he was a musical man."

	Heero shrugged.  He was good at that.  "He said he'd lend them 
to Ami so she could test them out."

	"Well, that's all very well and good, but I can't send her out 
for lessons on four different instruments and just wait for her to 
decide which she likes the most."

	"I can teach her.  The basics, at least, so she can get a feel 
for them first and hopefully decide."

	"I didn't know you were a musical man," Ms. Suzuhara commented, 
her brow raised in question.

	Heero shrugged again.

	"What can you play?" Relena asked.  She hadn't known either.

	"A lot of things."

	Duo smirked.  He'd been through this conversation before, and 
felt some small smug satisfaction that he had known of it first, mostly 
because then he could sit through this conversation and be cool and 
collected.

	"I didn't think you would have devoted time to learning 
something like music."

	"It didn't take that much time."

	She frowned, then remembered that she was talking to Heero.  
"Well, why would you have, then?"

	Uh-oh.  Let's hope he's got a discreet answer for this one, Duo 
thought.

	Heero shrugged again.  "I learnt a lot of things."

	Duo stifled his amusement at Relena's sigh of exasperation at 
Heero's perfectly uninformative answers.

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

	Heero was walking back in the door of their temporarily shared 
quarters, having just finished up his nightly shower, when he was 
greeted by Duo's, "You owe me, Heero.  Big time."

	Heero closed the door behind him and threw an inquiring look at 
him, asking him to elaborate.

	"You," Duo said, then repeated once more for emphasis.  "Yes, 
*you* left me to the hounds today.  Lena and Ms. S pounced on me like I 
was a bunny, all fluffy and cute and trussed up at the altar and ready 
to bleed."

	Heero's blank look said, "...Huh?"

	The boy with the braid dismissed the look with a scornful sound.  
"You know what I mean.  Do you have any idea what I had to put up with 
today?"

	"You volunteered," Heero managed to say, his mind still trying 
to process the bunny statement.  He filed the sentence away somewhere in 
his brain and saved it for later contemplation, and instead turned to 
their bedtime preparation.

	"So Lena's out for revenge now, did you know that?"  When Heero 
arrived by the bed with an expectant look, Duo didn't miss a beat in his 
grousing to remove himself from his position on top of the blankets and 
help Heero straighten out the covers.  "She's turned the tables and now 
it's our turn to get hooked up.  And even worse, she's got Suzuhara-san 
on her side.  They were grilling me on *everything* today.  Everything 
from my likes and dislikes, to what I look for in others, to what I find 
beautiful, to what sort of stability do I want in my future, to my 
philosophical views on love, to everyone I've ever met!  They found ways 
to insinuate it into everything!  Like a couple of puppies with their 
favorite chew toy."  He heaved a put-upon sigh.  "God, they were even 
questioning my sexuality today!  Can you believe that?  In a shopping 
mall, of all places.  I finally said, you know, I am just not going to 
discuss this here, and they let it drop, and now they've got me all 
nervous, because I'm sorta waiting for them to start it up again now 
that we're not in a shopping mall, but they haven't sprung it on me yet, 
and I know it's just going to come up again when I least expect it."

	Heero's only response was a calm snort.

	"Yeah, laugh it up, babe, 'cuz you're next.  You think I was the 
only one they were talking about?  Oh no, if that wasn't bad enough, 
they were grilling me on *you*, everything you liked and didn't like, 
blah blah blah, and it was like it was just *so* great that I could get 
into your head for them and save them the trouble of going directly to 
the source, and then they started getting all trippy on me and doing 
comparisons between us, I don't even know why, it was like a lame 
English homework assignment and thank God the day finally ended."  He 
paused and took a deep breath, in and out, and plopped himself back on 
the bed.  "So you see, Heero, you owe me.  Big."

	Heero cocked his head to one side, a calculating look in his 
eye.  Finally, he shook his head.  "No.  I'd call us just about even."  
He reached into the bottom shelf of the bedside table, pulled out the 
bottle of lotion, and began applying some to those places that were 
prone to dryness.  He believed in proper maintenance in all things, up 
to and including skin care.

	"Yeah, okay, maybe they got information on you, too, but trust 
me, that don't even out nothing.  You know, they think they've got it 
all figured out.  They went all analytical on my answers and decided 
that I needed someone like you in my life."  He snorted.  "That's 
ridiculous.  Why would I need a you?  I've already got a you.  I need 
something different.  I need... God, I don't even know what's left, but 
there's gotta be something, or else I don't need nothing."

	"I am manfully not making any comments about your continuing use 
of double negatives," Heero murmured calmly, striving to break Duo's 
stride.  Duo wouldn't be using such phrasing if he weren't in a good and 
fired-up rant mode that wasn't too serious.

	A dark chuckle was heard from Duo's side of the bed.  "Heero, 
you must be the only guy in the sector who thinks proper grammar is 
manly.  You, buddy, are truly one of a kind.  I should be glad I'm not 
in need of another you.  I wouldn't be able to find one.  So tell me, 
Heero," he said mock-seriously.  "How seriously have you been 
considering your sexuality?"

	Heero blinked blandly at him.  "Not at all.  I don't need to 
consider my sexuality."

	"Now, that's what I said."  Duo took a moment to get off the 
bed, throw back the covers on his side, and crawl back in beneath them.  
Lying on his side, he propped his head up with one hand, his elbow 
resting on his pillow, and took up a purposely gossiping tone.  "So tell 
me.  Gay, straight, or bi?"

	Heero deliberated while inspecting his hands, making sure there 
wasn't any lotion left under his fingernails or the like.  "None of the 
above," he decided.

	"Asexual, huh?"  Duo chuckled.  "Shoulda known."

	Heero shrugged and tucked the bottle away in its place.  "I 
figure my sexuality will be determined by the gender of whom I fall in 
love with."

	Duo chuckled again.  "Damn, you are such a romantic, I swear you 
are.  I think whoever ends up having their name screamed out by you is 
gonna be one lucky... person," he concluded, substituting an 
appropriately gender-neutral pronoun.

	"I never understood that."  Heero joined him beneath the 
blankets.  "That whole screaming out of names bit.  It seems to me that 
if you were doing your job properly, your lover wouldn't be able to form 
any coherent thoughts at all, let alone your name."

	Blink.  "Wooooowee!  Now I *know* your lover is gonna be damn 
lucky.  We definitely should have switched places today.  You could have 
put up with the ladies, no problem.  You got answers for everything."

	Heero switched off the only light on in the room, the one on the 
bedside table, and allowed himself a small smile in the darkness.  
"Great.  Then you could have been the one to give Ami a lecture on the 
birds and the bees."

	Duo said nothing at first, but then a loud bark of laughter 
forced its way through his compressed lips, so perhaps the whole thing 
would have been called a chortle.  "You're kidding!  Tell me you're 
kidding, Heero."

	"Hn."  He settled himself calmly on his back for sleep.

	Duo opened his mouth to comment, but another laugh came out 
instead, and he rolled onto his back and tried to stifle it with the 
hand that had been holding his head up.  "Damn," he managed to get out.

	"You think being grilled by Lena and Suzuhara-san is difficult, 
try by a nine-year-old."

	"So you didn't just have a nice and domestic afternoon of music 
and cooking, eh?"

	"Hn."

	"You play all of those, huh?  So which one's your favorite?"  He 
only gave Heero a few moments to think before cutting him off.  "No, 
wait, lemme guess.  Hmmmmmmm.  Cello."

	"Perhaps."  He rarely had favorite anythings, but the cello had 
a nice sound.  "Why?"

	"Well, it's perfect.  A deep and moody instrument for a deep and 
moody guy."

	"Hm."  Not exactly the way he would have phrased it, but 
reasonably accurate.  He thought the cello rather soothing, seeing as 
how it wasn't breathy or squealing, and wasn't used to symbolize spring 
or bumblebees.  "Perhaps."

	Something occurred to Duo.  "You know, a violin I understand.  
But a cello?  Why would you guys have been carting around a cello case?"  
Silence.  "What the hell were you guys packing that big?  Anti-tank 
hardware?"

	"Hn."  And this time Duo could hear the amused smirk behind it.

	"Geez."  He turned over on his side to face Heero again and 
curled up slightly with the action, comfortably close enough for a quiet 
conversation.  He was done with ranting for the night.  "I want to hear 
you play the cello someday."

	"...Perhaps.  I don't think Ami will go for it, though."

	"Are you kidding me?  If it's your favorite, she'll go for it."

	"What makes you say that?"

	"She adores you.  You're her favorite, after all."

	"Duo--"

	"No buts about it.  Yeah, she loves me, too, but I'm just like 
the big brother that's fun to play with.  You're the one she looks up to 
as father figure material.  You're the one she asked about the birds and 
the bees, after all.  You're the solid, reliable, responsible one.  And 
I definitely agree with her there, so don't you argue with me."

	"Hn."  He didn't argue.

	Duo sighed softly.  "You know, I'm glad Lena took your bed, and 
you didn't take the sofa."

	"Hm?"

	"'Cuz then who would I have to talk to and rant and rave at at 
night?"

	"...I could always have sent Blackie up here."

	"A little softer and doesn't take up as much room in the bed, 
true.  Good for a cuddle, too."

	"He doesn't cuddle back."

	"You don't cuddle back."

	"You don't cuddle with me, so there's nothing to 'back' with."

	"Irrelevant."

	"I could cuddle back."

	"You could."

	"I talk back, too."

	"So does Blackie."

	"...Go to sleep, Duo."

	"Ha!  You're just saying that because you can't think up a witty 
reply to that."

	"...Go to sleep, Duo."

	A short silence.  A rustling of sheets.  Then a soft murmur.  "I 
win."

	"Go to sleep, Duo."

-----
oh, don't look at me like that.  it'll be over soon.  don't worry.

normally, i dislike bringing up pop culture, even for nostalgia 
purposes, but they needed a conversational piece, and heck, i think 
heero would like 'imagine'.  besides, the good father's name really does 
derive from the father mackenzie from 'eleanor rigby'.  and yes, i know 
that 'imagine' isn't really a real beatles song, but it's close enough.  
and i suppose i should mention that 'imagine' is about imagining a world 
without war, without borders, etc.

i've forgotten the verb i think i might have known for spending time 
with someone in a not particularly because you want to way but because 
it's an obligation or something.  but i think the rest of the sentence 
would go '... -sasete itadaite arigatou gozaimasu.'

_________________________________________
This piece of fiction is the intellectual 
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The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
of someone else.  The author can be con-
tacted at jchew@myrealbox.com.  This has 
been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 6/23/2002 14:25:52 PST