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Coming Out of the Kitchen
  ~ A Moment of Haven ~
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	It so happened that one of their Fridays off coincided with a 
Friday appointment that Ms. Suzuhara had in the city, so they 
volunteered to watch her daughter for the afternoon.  As Ami was fairly 
low maintenance, it was no burden at all for the two of them.

	She joined them at their home and kept to herself reading a book 
in the corner of their living room while the two of them did a little 
light work on their case in the other corner.  An hour or two had passed 
in pleasant nondescriptiveness when Heero asked the others if they would 
like some iced tea.  They agreed, and he excused himself to fetch the 
refreshments.

	Heero looked up as the door to the kitchen swung open and Duo 
walked in.  He had just gotten the pitcher of tea from the refrigerator 
and he set it down beside the three waiting glasses.  "I thought getting 
iced tea was a one-man activity."

	"Ah, but you're getting three iced teas," Duo countered with his 
usual logic.  "That has to add up somewhere.  Besides, it's no fair that 
you get to get up and stretch and I don't."

	"Then you should have volunteered first."  He picked the pitcher 
up again and started pouring the tea into the glasses.  He had filled 
two of them before Duo pressed his arm into setting the pitcher down on 
the countertop again.

	"I'd like to fill my own teacup, if I may," Duo declared with a 
mischievous grin before leaning down to drink of Heero's mouth.

	They parted with a few gentle laps at each other's lips, and it 
was as if an echo of Duo's smile had impressed itself upon Heero's 
expression.  "So, does this make you my teapot?"

	Duo stared at him for a long second, his lips twitching 
suspiciously before he finally broke down, stumbled back, and doubled 
over in a loud laugh that wracked his frame only a few steps short of 
painfully.  Heero watched him for a moment with amused tolerance before 
he finished what he had started.  After the last glass had been filled, 
he went back to the refrigerator, put the pitcher back, and pulled out a 
fresh lemon.  It took that long for Duo to get himself under control.  
The guffaws had been downgraded to mere chuckles that still got away 
from him every now and then.

	"So why is being a teapot that much more funny than being a 
teacup?" Heero asked him.

	He shook his head helplessly for a couple of seconds before 
shrugging.  "I have no clue.  It just is."

	Then it was Heero's turn to shake his head, and he added a roll 
of his eyes for good measure.  If even Duo couldn't figure himself out 
half the time, how could Heero expect to be able to?  He went towards 
the drying rack by the sink to fetch a knife.

	Duo intercepted him, enough mirth left over to leave him in a 
magnanimous mood.  He held out his hand expectantly.  "Here, let me 
help."

	Heero halted, glanced at the hand, then looked back up at its 
owner.

	He tsked impatiently.  "Give me the lemon, and you can get the 
sugar."

	Heero looked pointedly at the lemon that was already in his 
hand, and the knife that was already near his other hand.  "Why don't I 
take the lemon, and you get the sugar?"

	Duo pouted.  "But I don't like all the pulpy bits from the lemon 
in my tea when you squeeze the lemon."

	"It's not like I throw the whole lemon in there, Duo.  Besides, 
it's just a little pulp."

	"But it could be less," Duo argued.  "My iced tea shouldn't have 
any texture to it.  And I can taste it.  It's like little pockets of 
sour in the middle of my sweet."

	"You've never complained before."  The whole reason they brewed 
a pitcher of plain tea and then added the lemon and sugar afterwards was 
because they liked their iced tea slightly different.  Heero liked a 
stronger lemon flavor, and Duo liked his a little sweeter.  They were 
both well aware of this and, when fixing glasses for the other, adjusted 
their additions appropriately, but Heero had always squeezed less lemon 
without any thought for the pulp.

	"That's because it's too late to complain -- ahem, no, sorry, 
bring up the issue -- after the fact.  Now hand over the lemon."  He 
reached out to snatch it from Heero's hand.

	Heero tightened his grip on the fruit and avoided the main 
thrust of Duo's attack, which naturally did nothing to deter Duo's 
assault.  He tried again, and then once more, and after a short while of 
twisting and dodging and grabbing, he decided perhaps a diversion was in 
order.  A brief tickle offensive was launched, but it was defeated by 
the simple fact that Heero either was not ticklish, or refused to show 
it.  This called for another tactic.

	The man on defense was just asking himself why they were playing 
this game when Duo dove in not with his hands but his mouth.  Heero 
managed to keep his concentration on keeping the lemon in his 
possession, so Duo was forced to try a little harder, and indeed, the 
diversion worked so well that for a moment even Duo forgot what the goal 
of it had been.

	"Heero!"

	Heero froze at the sound of the little girl's voice, leaving Duo 
to automatically take advantage of his distraction to grab the lemon.  
Duo's mind caught up a fraction of a second later and froze as well at 
the implications of that voice, its last coherent thought being 
something along the lines of, 'Oh, crap.'

	Heero disengaged his lips from Duo's and slowly looked over 
Duo's shoulder at the wide-eyed neighbor who had somehow managed to slip 
into the kitchen without their notice.  "Uh..."

	"Heero-niichan, you promised!"  Her voice wasn't loud, but it 
held quite a note of accusation.

	He blinked, then said intelligently, "Huh?"

	"You promised," she repeated, this time with a dash of hurt and 
betrayal.  "You said you weren't interested in kissing and stuff."

	"Oh."  Now that she mentioned it, he did remember a conversation 
with that theme.  He reviewed it quickly in his mind as he slipped past 
Duo so he could talk to Ami without a body in the way.  Duo was only too 
glad to switch places and be the one hiding behind another in this 
instance.  "Hmm.  Well, as I recall, I said you wouldn't have to worry 
about there being anyone new in my life as a result of 'kissing and 
stuff', and... there isn't."

	Did he really think logic and technicality were going to get him 
out of this little situation?  She looked rather skeptical, so he tried 
again.  "Duo and I... haven't changed, especially in our relationship to 
you, so there's nothing to worry about.  We've only... added something.  
Nothing has been taken away from anyone."

	She frowned at him in thought, and it seemed she was going to 
hesitantly accept the explanation for a short moment before her eyes 
widened again.  "Hey, why are you kissing Duo anyway?" she demanded.

	Duo winced minutely.  "Darn.  I was hoping she hadn't noticed."  
He received two withering glares for that soft statement, which he 
responded to with an innocent shrug.  When Heero took a step to the 
side, clearly indicating that he was no longer willing to protect his 
partner in crime, Duo figured maybe that was his cue to bear some of the 
brunt of the interrogation.  "Well, um... haven't you had this talk with 
your mother yet?"

	She made an exasperated sound.  He was obviously another one of 
those people that got distinctly uncomfortable discussing such things 
with children, unlike his friend.  "No, I've had this talk with Heero."

	Duo cast his friend a strange sidelong glance before 'ah'ing in 
remembrance.  "Oh yeah.  When 'Lena was here, right?"

	Heero shrugged in a way that somehow meant yes before he took 
over the awkward explanations again.  He knew what he had told Ami, 
after all, not that that was very useful knowledge at the moment.  "So 
when you ask why, are you questioning the 'kissing' part, or the 'Duo' 
part?"

	The fact that she knew Heero would treat her with respect when 
answering her questions made her settle down and give her side of the 
conversation equal consideration.  She didn't want to waste the 
opportunity with childish, ill-thought-out questions.  "The 'Duo' part.  
I mean, if you were kissing some girl, I'd get that.  Well, actually I 
wouldn't get that either, but I'd at least let it go.  We had -that- 
talk.  But why Duo?  That's just weird."

	"Gee, don't I feel special," the Duo in question muttered under 
his breath, retreating back to safety behind Heero.

	Heero ignored him.  "I like Duo."

	"I like Duo, too," Ami frowned.  "I'm not going to kiss him.  
That was what -that- talk was about, wasn't it?"

	He nodded.  They'd briefly gone over the different definitions 
of 'like', with Heero straying for a moment into the Greek philosophy of 
the three kinds of love before Ami made him do it again, only without 
using any long or foreign words.

	"I thought you didn't get what was so great about kissing, 
either."

	Duo withheld his amusement, leaving Heero to respond in peace.  
"Well, I didn't.  And then I tried it, and, well, I still don't get why 
it's such a nice thing, but it is nice."

	She chewed on that for a bit before moving back to the latter 
part of the original question.  "I thought you liked Duo as a friend.  
Not... in a kissing way."

	At least they'd graduated from saying 'that way'.  A 'kissing 
way' was just slightly less juvenile.  "I do like Duo as a friend.  If 
he weren't a friend, I probably wouldn't like him in a kissing way at 
all.  But we just... agreed that we could probably be more than just 
friends if we wanted to, so we decided to give it a shot."

	"And it's working?" she said rather increduously.

	"I like to think so," Heero answered with a faint smile.

	Duo decided that perhaps now was a good time to chime in.  He 
knew the answer to that question.  "Me, too."

	"So you mean you could be more than just friends with any 
friend?"

	Heero continued to field her questions with a placid expression.  
"You could try, but it might not work out very well.  It's working for 
us, though."

	"Why?  I mean, obviously this isn't a 'you want to get married 
and have babies together' thing."

	Ah, yes.  That had been part of the explanation he had pulled 
out of nowhere for romantic love.  Duo turned pink from trying to 
stifle... something.  Horror or amusement or something, something that 
caused him to press his lips firmly together and hide his face against 
the back of Heero's shoulder until he could look up again without his 
eyeballs falling out of their sockets.

	Heero absently reached back a few inches and brushed one of 
Duo's hands in comfort while he tried to come up with a good answer.  
"Well, lots of people get married and don't have babies together," he 
stalled.

	Ami took after Heero in some ways, and right now she was wearing 
an expression that said, 'your point?'

	"Honestly, I don't know why," he finally decided to answer, 
shrugging the shoulder that wasn't occupied with Duo's face.  They were 
friends that had decided to get physical, and for one reason or another, 
the one didn't interfere with the other, only seemed to enhance it, and 
life was good.  "Maybe if you ask me again a few years from now, I might 
have a better answer than that."

	"God, don't encourage her!" Duo protested fervently under his 
breath.  The almost inaudible exclamation passed unremarked upon.

	She looked intently at him, trying to figure out if that had 
been the typical 'ask me again when you're older' brush-off that adults 
gave kids, or if Heero had really meant it because he just didn't have 
the answers himself.  Eventually, she chose to give him the benefit of 
the doubt.  He had always been honest and forthright with her before.

	Duo suddenly looked up, pleased that his face seemed to have 
settled down.  "Oh, I know.  Didn't someone once say that love is 
friendship set on fire?  And, uh, well, I like fire," he offered lamely 
in conclusion, abruptly realizing he had mentioned the dreaded 'L' word.  
He had totally meant it in a general romantic 'kissing way' sense, and 
it seemed everyone was taking it that way, but it still unnerved him.

	Heero spent a moment of his life trying to figure out if that 
statement had been helpful or not.  He didn't come to a conclusion, but 
he did decide to support his partner.  "Fire's good."

	"If I'm confused about this whole thing later in my life, I 
expect you to answer my questions," Ami declared after a brief silence, 
and that was the end of that.  She turned around and walked out of the 
kitchen as if nothing odd had happened.

	The two left behind looked at each other for a moment before 
Heero finally let out a soft breath and gave a hint that he was not as 
complacent as he had seemed.  "I would prefer to not have to do that 
again."  He reclaimed the lemon from Duo's loose grip and went about 
what he had set out to do, only this time paying more attention to the 
pulp that went into Duo's glass.

	"I think it went rather well, all things considered."  Duo 
dutifully upheld his side of things and got the sugar, as well as a few 
ice cubes now that their drinks had been sitting on the counter for a 
while.  "But I get this horrible feeling that she -will- be confused 
about this whole thing later, and that she will have questions."

	"Why don't you try answering some of them next time?"

	"Because you answer them better?  Seriously.  Are you sure you 
two aren't related somehow, because that girl... is not a normal ten 
year old.  Thank goodness."

	"Hn."

	They finished up and left the kitchen with three iced teas in 
hand.  As Ami accepted hers, she asked, "So, does Mom know?"

	"Yup," Duo answered cheerfully, settling back in his seat.  They 
were back on safer ground now.  "This is all her fault.  Let's blame 
her.  Well, and Lena."

	Heero poked his finger into Duo's side as he sat down next to 
him.  "Yes, she was the one that first suggested to us that we... try 
something different."

	"I don't know if she would want you to know, though," Duo added 
thoughtfully.  "I mean, since it's supposedly one of those mysterious 
adult things, right?  Heck, I don't think I want her to know."

	"She already knows," Heero pointed out.

	"I mean, for Ami's mom to know she caught us kissing in the 
kitchen?  I think she'd be upset, if not because we got caught by her 
daughter, then because she wasn't the one to catch us.  Oh, I know what 
would be really fun!  Ami, why don't you not tell your mom that you 
know?"

	"What do you mean, because she wasn't the one to catch you?"

	"Oh, well, she knows we're together, right?  But she's never 
actually -seen- us together.  And we never tell her just how together we 
are.  But she always wants to know.  She might be a little miffed if she 
knew that you now know more than she does.  But, if you don't tell her, 
not only will she not be miffed, but you can totally mess with her 
mind."

	"Duo."  As usual, Heero took on the task of chiding his partner.

	"Okay, maybe not 'totally' mess with her, but just a little?  
You know.  Like, hint that you know with the most innocent little 
statements, but don't let on that you actually know?  It'd be fun."

	"Stop corrupting her."

	"Come on, whaddya say?"  Ami was starting to look interested.  
He was sure he could convince her...

	"Duo."  Sometimes it was exhausting being the responsible one.

	"It'll be like our little secret."

	"That sounds very sinister."

	"Spoilsport.  Look, Ami, for whatever weird motherly reason, 
your mother is always trying to 'find out' about us, either catch us 
doing something, or get us to tell her something.  Now, we've been very 
good about keeping this to ourselves -- up until about ten minutes ago.  
So congratulations, by the way.  You've managed to do what two grown 
women have been trying to do for months now."

	"Two?" she asked.

	"Yeah, Lena was in on it, too, remember?  So she knows, and-- 
You know, we'll answer your questions if we've confused you, but in 
return, I gotta ask, if you ever understand what's going on in their 
heads, you have got to let me in on it, because I haven't a clue.  
Anyway, we'd really like to keep on keeping it to ourselves, and I think 
it'd be very nice of you if you'd help us keep it to ourselves in the 
future."

	"...So, it would be like our little secret."  The whole 
adultness of it all was truly appealing.

	"Ha!"  He nudged Heero's side with his elbow.  "Told ya so."

	Ami grinned.  "Sounds like fun."



---
hey, look, i wrote a lemon into haven! =D

_________________________________________
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last modified : 2/18/2004 23:44:15 PST