---------------------
  Playing with Fire
~ A Moment of Haven ~
---------------------
	He glanced over his shoulder at the clock.  "Damn, it feels so 
early, still."  He turned back in the forward direction, looking out the 
window above their kitchen sink.  "Well, not 'early' early, but geez, it 
just gets dark so early these days, it seems.  Feels like it should be 
later than it is."

	Heero hummed agreeably.  "It feels like there are fewer hours in 
the day.  The entire day, that is.  Obviously not just the daylight 
hours."

	He suppressed a smile.  Heero was sometimes meticulous in making 
sure he was properly understood.  And sometimes, the guy couldn't care 
less.  "It's getting cold, too."  The steam from the sink had fogged the 
window, though it was fading now that Duo was waiting for more dishes to 
rinse.

	"I guess we'll put off doing anything on the outside of the 
house until next year, when spring rolls around again."

	"Mmmm.  Next year."  He leaned comfortably against Heero's arm.  
There was something nice and cozy about that thought.  Maybe it was just 
the ease with which it came these days.  And maybe it was the 'outside' 
part that reassured as well.  They had vague plans of a garden of some 
sort, and wouldn't that be nifty.  They didn't know the first thing 
about gardening, but that had never stopped them before.

	Heero nudged him lightly with his elbow, easing his way into 
enough room to set the scrubbed pan down on Duo's side of the sink.  It 
was the last one, and he tipped the tub of water out to drain.  Once Duo 
was engaged with stacking the pan on the drying rack, Heero claimed the 
use of the water to wash first his rubber gloves, and then the suds 
away.

	When Duo removed his gloves, he expected Heero to do the same, 
but Heero remained by the sink as Duo retreated, and once the path was 
clear, he opened the cabinet beneath their kitchen sink and retrieved 
their all-purpose cleaner.

	Duo glanced reflexively at the stove top and muffled an eyeroll.  
"You're on one of your cleaning binges again, aren't you?"

	Heero tore a paper towel off the roll with a crisp, haughty 
sound.  "I am not a binge cleaner.  I am in full control of my cleaning 
habits.  It's just easier--"

	"--to keep things clean a little at a time, rather than letting 
it pile up and then have to scrub like mad.  Yeah, yeah, I know."  
They'd had this discussion more than once in the past.  "That doesn't 
make you any less obsessive about cleaning."

	"I am not obsessive about cleaning."  He sprayed a corner of the 
cooktop defiantly.  "There is nothing out of the ordinary about liking 
things neat and orderly."

	Duo kissed him tolerantly on the cheek.  "I'm going to go clean 
up in the living room."  As he left the kitchen, Heero hmpfed in a 
graceful 'i told you so' sort of way, and continued to attack the slight 
accumulation of oil splatter on the range.

	The coffee table in the living room had been the site of some 
rewiring that afternoon.  The new ventilation fan for their upstairs 
bathroom promised less noise with greater airflow and more efficient 
heating, but said nothing about its compatibility with the existing 
circuit.  They patched and rearranged a thing or two to make things 
work, and though their work was professional-grade, they thought maybe 
they'd go back and fix things up for real when they did the rest of 
their bathroom.  But first, the ventilation fan.  The noise of the old 
one had started to get on Duo's nerves, and Heero was displeased by the 
scent of burning dust that accompanied its every usage.

	He gathered the pieces of their work together, sweeping through 
the plush carpet -- a bit indulgently, he admitted -- searching for 
stray bits of wire and that one clump of electrical tape he remembered 
peeling off.  He'd left it on the table top, but when he'd gone to stack 
it with the rest of their junk, it hadn't been where he'd left it, and 
he was sure Heero hadn't disposed of it first, and ah there it was, 
hiding behind the table leg.  It was plucked up and deposited into the 
plastic bag that had once contained the small pieces of their new fan.

	In the act of coiling the solder back precisely in its roll, he 
paused, then laughed quietly to himself.  Maybe he was no less eager for 
order and neatness than his partner was.  But then, he'd had enough of 
chaos.  Neatness was a luxury he could now afford.  He comforted himself 
with that thought, whose equally comforting companion was that Heero had 
no such excuse.  Well, alright, perhaps Heero had an alternative excuse.  
He was raised that way, and it was just as much a matter of personal 
safety as anything Duo might have done in his past, so maybe their ways 
were not so dissimilar after all.

	The joints that shrank to fit when heated were especially 
spiffy, and Duo tucked all the scraps he thought might still be usable 
back into its bag.  Maybe for him, neatness was also a matter of 
conservation of precious resources.

	One thing did not have a place with the others.  He depressed 
the trigger, and a satisfying scraping sound preceded the bloom of flame 
on the end of the lighter.  That belonged in the kitchen, but he was in 
no hurry to return it.  He played with it for a few seconds, watching 
the flame appear and disappear like magic.  It was remarkable creature.

	His contemplation of fire led his eyes up to the paint chips 
taped to their living room walls.  The last time they'd gone to the 
hardware store, they'd been so determined to choose a color that they'd 
had quite a sneaky production 'accidentally' picking up more than one of 
the swatches in a set, coming through separately and each acquiring a 
set, hitting different stores, until they had enough of the sample 
stripes to cover all the strategic locations on the walls.

	They'd been told to consider the color at all times of day, in 
all lighting situations, and they were slowly narrowing down the 
choices.  They'd discarded the darker colors.  They weren't brave enough 
to go bold quite yet.  Derry Coast Sunrise was too strangely 
flesh-toned.  Apple Crunch just seemed so blah.  Honeysuckle White felt 
too cold.  Frosted Lemon looked good in the afternoon, but not in the 
morning.  Cornsilk looked good in the morning, but not in the afternoon.  
Princess Ivory was a decent color, but they had to stand against the 
name on principle.  But Serengeti Sand was a possibility, and they kept 
going back and forth on the Opal Cream and the Orange Glow.

	Duo looked at the colors.  He looked at the fire in his hand.  
And then he got the smart idea of looking at the colors while they were 
next to the fire, and suddenly there was only one right answer to this 
question.

	He swept back into the kitchen as Heero was finishing up.  
"Frosted Lemon."

	Heero tugged his gloves off and set them down to dry next to 
Duo's.  "Frosted Lemon?"

	His bag of trash landed in the kitchen's garbage can with a 
decisive thump.  "Frosted Lemon."

	"It's not too light?"

	Duo shrugged carelessly.  "Seems like the color we'd least 
regret, don't you think?  B'sides... it looks a lot stronger than it 
seems like it should, when it's under the proper light.  And let's face 
it: you like the proper light."

	Well, that was undeniably true.  And this kitchen light 
certainly didn't qualify.  He moved to Duo's side in front of their 
rightmost kitchen drawer, where Duo had chosen to delay the 
disappearance of the lighter with a few more snap-bursts of fire.  
Though it was the kind of warm light Heero liked, he laid a hand upon 
Duo's and pushed it down gently.  "Enough already."

	There was a pout, but the lighting stopped.  Instead, Duo 
started juggling the lighter through fingers.  "Say..."

	"Uh-oh."

	Duo elbowed him in the side before continuing.  "You said you 
and Odin went out camping a few times, right?"

	"Yes," he answered cautiously, not certain where this was going.

	"So did you actually learn how to camp, or was it just somewhere 
to do some target practice, or lay low, or something?"

	"What do you mean by 'how to camp'?"

	Duo turned and pressed himself against Heero's front, provoking 
the automatic response of Heero bracing himself, lifting his arms to 
rest around his partner.  "You mostly did colony work, didn't you?  I 
can't imagine that forest survival skills came in handy in the urban 
colonial environment."

	"While it's true that we never went on any job that involved 
fishing or pitching a tent, that doesn't mean that camping skills are 
only camping skills, and that urban skills are only urban skills."

	"So, being the good boy scout that you are... do you know how to 
start a fire without the benefit of a lighter of some sort?"

	"Hm.  Yes, I've done that before."

	"Teach me."

	Heero blinked.  "How to start a fire?"

	"Yup."

	"...Why?"

	"Why not?"

	Clearly that line of questioning would get him nowhere.  Whether 
Duo really was just feeling whimsical, or he had some reason he didn't 
feel like sharing, if he was set on answering vaguely, then Heero would 
get no answer.  He chose another direction.  "It's... been years."

	Duo grinned confidently.  "I'm sure you'll pick it up again in 
no time."

	It wasn't exactly the sort of thing that got baked into muscle 
memory.  "Well, the way that would probably be the most natural for us 
would be to take a bullet, empty--"

	"No bullets," he interrupted, swatting him on the butt in 
reprimand.  "That's cheating."

	"There's no such thing as cheating when it comes to survival, 
Duo."

	"But we're not 'surviving' right now.  I know how to 'survive'.  
Right now, though, I just want to learn some nifty way of starting a 
fire.  Some stranded in the woods with nothing but a chocolate bar and a 
condom technique."

	Well, Duo must have known something about outdoors survival if 
he chose those two items as his inventory.  As much as Heero wanted to 
round out Duo's survival techniques, there wasn't much he could do in 
this environment.  "I doubt there is any appropriate tinder in the 
backyard.  Not enough for a good fire.  Not to mention, I'm sure we 
don't have the appropriate types of wood that would be required for the 
most rudimentary of friction techniques.  And that's not even 
considering the fact that it probably wouldn't be dry enough, even if we 
had it."

	"I know," Duo answered with an exaggerated patience.  "Just 
pretend.  I'm sure you know the theory of it at least, even if you can't 
do it in practice right now."

	"Yes, probably..."  As if Heero would ever cheerfully admit to 
ineptitude.  "But fire?  Did you want to go camping sometime?"

	Ooh, now there was a thought.  He pondered it thoughtfully.  
"Hmm.  Well, while that might be interesting, that's neither here nor 
there."

	Heero filed that away for a later time.  "Then what is 'here'?"

	"I just wanna learn how to start a fire."  He used their close 
contact to wriggle playfully against Heero.  "Humor me."

	"I..." had absolutely no reason not to.  He sighed in fond 
surrender.  "Okay.  Let's go out and... pretend to start a fire."

	"Yay!"  Duo kissed Heero's nose before disengaging and headed 
toward their back door.

	"Hey."  He snagged Duo's sleeve and pulled him back.  "I doubt 
we'll get one going in the first few minutes of being out there, no 
matter how good your imagination is.  Put your coat on."

	Duo laughed, taking advantage of their renewed proximity to wrap 
an arm around Heero's waist and reel him close for a good kiss.  Then he 
patted Heero's cheek as he stepped back.  "You amuse me, Yuy."

	"That won't keep you warm out there," Heero observed dryly.

	He snagged a belt loop and tugged Heero forward.  "Aren't you 
supposed to keep me warm out there?"

	"I can't keep you warm and start a fire at the same time."

	Wow, were there limits to Heero's brilliance?  "Aren't they sort 
of the same thing?"

	"If you want -that- kind of fire, Duo, I'd suggest we stay 
indoors."

	Ah, so much fire, so little time.  He tugged Heero closer.  
"Right now, I want outdoorsy fire.  But think of it this way: if you 
can't give me fire outside, you can make it up to me by giving me fire 
inside afterwards, yeah?"

	Heero made a show of giving the suggestion some thought.  "So if 
I do make a fire outside, that means I don't have to make one inside 
afterwards?"

	"Hey, that's not the logical implication at all!"

	"Suddenly you're being logical?"  He started shepherding Duo 
toward the living room, where their coats were hanging on the coatrack 
in the corner.

	"Only when you aren't.  I'm just trying to keep you on the 
straight and narrow.  One of us has got to keep things grounded here."

	"I don't think you're a prime candidate for that."

	"I agree.  But if you drop the ball, I can pick it up and carry 
it for a bit.  You don't gotta be on the ball all the time, babe."  He 
waited patiently for the retort that never came.  Their rhythm dropped a 
beat, but when he looked over to Heero curiously, his partner had 
already taken his coat in hand and was circling around behind him to 
hold it out expectantly.  Duo obediently put his arms in the proper 
holes, and the coat was settled and smoothed.  And then Heero put his 
arms in the proper place around Duo's waist and rested his chin 
contentedly upon Duo's shoulder for a few cleansing seconds before he 
detached himself to pull his own jacket on.

	Since he stopped to grab a pocket knife from a kitchen drawer -- 
the same one the lighter went in, strangely enough -- Duo beat him to 
the back door, but stopped with his hand on the knob and laughed.  "Hey, 
you know what?"

	"Hm?"  He wasn't certain he liked that sly smile on Duo's face.

	"Love?"

	"Mm-hm."

	"...is friendship set on fire!"

	"...I don't think they meant that literally, Duo."



_________________________________________
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 at myrealbox.com.  This 
has been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 2/18/2006 21:17:02 PST