----------------------
 Mistaken Assumptions
~ A Moment of Haven ~
----------------------
	"Thanks ever so much for your help, Vinnie," Ms. Suzuhara said 
as they made their way down the stairs of the Suzuhara home and towards 
the front door.

	"Sure thing, Muchi," he responded.  "Glad to do it."

	"Normally I'd get Heero or Duo to help out with the computer, 
but since they're out of town right now...."

	"Oh yeah, they're on vacation to the colonies, aren't they?"

	"Vacation?  No, I think it was a business trip."

	"Business trip?  Ew, how boring.  But at least they got to go 
together, right?"

	"Well, yes, there's always that.  You know, I almost don't want 
either of them to find a girlfriend, because then they wouldn't be 
around as much!  I'd miss them terribly."

	Vinnie looked at her blankly.  "Why would they find 
girlfriends?"

	Ms. Suzuhara raised an eyebrow at him.  "Why?  Why not?  They're 
young men.  That's what they do.  Find nice girls, settle down, and 
maybe raise a family.  It's perfectly natural.  I've been trying to find 
someone who meets all their requirements, but I tell you, it's been 
absolutely impossible."

	"You're trying to break them up?" he asked incredulously.  "Why?  
You don't approve of their relationship?"

	"What do you mean, approve?  Of course, it's great that they're 
such special friends and all, but there can't be anything wrong with 
them finding that person that... you know.  That person to spend the 
rest of their lives with."

	He paused and stared at her.  "But they're already spending the 
rest of their lives!  How can you even think of trying to separate 
them?"

	"Pardon me?"

	"There's no reason for you to try to come between them like 
that.  I can't believe you're even considering it.  They're so happy 
together!"

	"Vinnie dear," Suzuhara-san started patiently.  "A girl is just 
a girl.  I think that Heero and Duo's relationship is strong enough that 
they wouldn't let a girlfriend or wife or whatever destroy it."

	"You're crazy.  Unless you're talking about some ménage à trois 
situation here, or building a harem, or polygamy, or something, I really 
don't see how they could possibly tolerate--"

	"Now wait just a second here," Ms. Suzuhara interrupted him, a 
confused look adorning her face.  "I get this sudden feeling that we're 
not communicating on the same wavelength.  Just what are we talking 
about here?"

	"Heero and Duo's relationship," Vinnie said plainly.  "They're 
already boyfriends, and settled down and spending the rest of their 
lives with each other, so I mean, not only are they *gay*, although I 
suppose they could be bi, they seem to be perfectly happy with their 
relationship, so why on earth would you go and try to fix them up with 
other people?"

	Suzuhara-san blinked a few times in surprise.  "...They're not 
boyfriends."

	"Okay, fine," Vinnie said impatiently.  "Lovers, then, or life 
partners.  Significant others.  Whatever.  However you want to 
characterize their relationship.  The point is, they're together, and--"

	"They're not lovers."

	Vinnie sighed exasperatedly.  "We can stand here and argue 
semantics all day if you want, but--"

	Suzuhara-san shook her head vigorously.  "I'm not arguing 
semantics here.  I mean, they're not *together* like that."

	Vinnie stared dumbly at her for a moment.  "Yes, they are."

	"No, they're not," she replied evenly.

	"Are too."

	"Are not!  Look, trust me, they're not boyfriends, or lovers, or 
anything like that.  They're just friends, and they're just living 
together."

	Vinnie emitted a brief chortle in triumph.  "Ha!  That can't be.  
Just the other week I was talking to Heero and at one point I asked 
point blank, 'You're more than just friends, right?', and he said yes, 
they are."

	It took Suzuhara-san a short moment to find a rational 
explanation for that.  "Well, that may be so, but you used the phrase 
'just friends', right?  That could mean anything.  And knowing Heero, he 
probably took it more literally than you meant it, and said yes because 
they're not 'just' friends, they're best friends or something.  So you 
see, you're wrong."

	"I can't be wrong!"  Of course, the more he stared at the 
certainty in the woman's face, the more uncertain he got.  "Can I?"

	"You are, I'm sorry to say.  If they were like that, I'm sure 
I'd know.  Now, why on earth would you think that in the first place?"

	"But...."  He trailed off, still trying to make himself believe 
it.  "But when we were first introduced, Duo said they were partners."

	"And you thought life partners?"

	"Yeah," he said defensively.  "I thought they were being 
politically correct or something."

	She shook her head.  "They work together."

	"Well, yeah, I know that, but--"  He stopped to do a mental 
double-take.  "I didn't know that at the time, though.  I didn't realize 
that's what he could have meant.  I mean, I just went with it.  It 
seemed so right.  God, their clothing was even coordinated.  All this 
time I've known them, I've thought that they were together, like, 
together together.  And I've never seen anything that would lead me to 
believe otherwise.  I guess I've never seen them kissing or anything, 
but still...."

	"You've thought that they were together for, what, about eight 
months now?" she asked in amazement.

	"Hey, cut me some slack.  You would too.  I mean, they're always 
together.  Always.  They come as a pair.  You can't just invite one of 
them to go do something, for instance, you've got to invite them both.  
You can talk to one of them, and he'll somehow bring the other guy into 
the conversation."

	"Well, there's nothing wrong with them doing things together, 
now is there?  They're best friends, after all, and it's not like they 
have girlfriends or families or something that they should be otherwise 
spending their time with."

	"My point exactly!" Vinnie argued.  "Why would they need 
girlfriends when they've already got each other?  If they're not already 
boyfriends, as you insist, then they certainly ought to be.  They have 
no business going around fooling all of us like this."

	"Girlfriends are very different from friends--"

	"They're already settled down and living with each other," he 
pointed out.

	"As friends!" Suzuhara-san cried.  "Not girlfriends.  Or 
boyfriends.  Or whatever.  Oh, this is confusing.  They're just 
friends."

	Vinnie snorted.  "I don't know, maybe it's different with women, 
but guys don't hang out together like these guys do, even if they are 
just friends.  Not unless they're together.  Guys don't talk intimately 
with each other by themselves like these guys do.  Guys talk loudly and 
jokingly and stuff.  They watch football and complain about their jobs.  
They rib each other about women.  They--"

	"Oh, for God's sake, Vinnie, stop stereotyping like that.  
Besides, they talk quietly, not intimately.  Not all men are as loud as 
you are, you know.  Maybe they just don't feel the need to assert their 
masculinity like the rest of you."

	"Of course not!  They're gay!"

	"Just because they haven't expressed any interest in finding a 
woman to settle down with--"

	"They're gay!  I'm telling you, no two straight guys will stand 
that close to each other."

	She sighed tiredly as she unlocked the front door.  "What are 
you talking about?"

	"I'm talking about how they're always in each other's personal 
space when they're next to each other.  You've never noticed?"

	Suzuhara-san's mouth opened, but little sound came out.  Now 
that she thought about it....

	Vinnie pressed his attack, determined to prove himself correct, 
now that he had warmed to his topic.  "Guys don't normally do that if 
they're just friends.  With these guys, the one guy always knows where 
the other guy is, what he's doing, what he'd do in a hypothetical 
situation.  Or one time, I remember Heero was talking to someone or 
another, and he puts his hand on Heero's arm in a casual gesture, you 
know?  And Heero just looks at it like a bird just crapped on him or 
something.  Little while later, Duo bounces up, he gives Heero a 
friendly punch on the shoulder, he's playing with his hand, whatever, 
and Heero don't even bat an eyelash."

	"There are other reasons for that, you know," she inserted 
quickly.

	Vinnie continued regardless.  "And they've never shown any 
interest in any of the girls around here, regardless of how much 
interest they all show in them.  I did think that maybe that was sort of 
strange, because I figured everyone knew that they were together.  I 
mean, how could you not notice?  But, you know, they're girls, so I 
thought, maybe they like swooning over impossible dreams, or were 
ignoring whatever they wanted to, or something.  I don't pretend to know 
how girls think.  So about the only thing that I thought was wrong about 
the situation was the fact that I've never seen them argue!"

	"Alright already!" Suzuhara-san said in surrender, opening the 
front door in a clear invitation to leave.  "I'll plead no contest right 
now, but I'm not saying you're right, you hear?  You go on ahead 
thinking whatever you want to think."

	He took the hint and started to leave, but he nevertheless shot 
a parting remark over his shoulder.  "You know I'm right."

	"Thank you very much for you help, Vinnie," she replied firmly.  
"Good-bye."  And she shut the door behind him with a relieved sigh.

	She shut the conversation out of her mind for the rest of the 
day, but when night fell, and Ami was put to bed, her thoughts got to 
wandering.  Their awareness of each other, and the whole touching issue, 
could be explained.  The two of them were aware of practically 
everything in their environment, so of course they'd know where the 
other was, what he was doing.  And they worked together, and had been 
friends for a while, so naturally one would be able to make a reasonable 
guess as to how the other would think.  And the touching thing?  Heero 
didn't like to be touched by anyone, but again, Duo was his good friend.  
He'd earned the privilege.  So had she, and so had the kids.

	Did they really stand all that close together?  No, they 
couldn't.  Surely she would have noticed.  Although, when Vinnie had 
brought it up earlier, she did get a certain feeling of togetherness 
there, but that could easily be explained by their best-friendship, 
their long-term partnership, any number of things.  They could be close, 
but not close physically.  They didn't stand that close together.  They 
were two separate people, after all, even if they did often work 
together as a cohesive unit.  But they weren't attached at the hip.  
They did things separately, even if they always ended up coming back 
together.  As if there were a string tying the two together.  A red 
string?

	No, don't be ridiculous, she reprimanded herself.  It was all 
Vinnie's fault for planting such a silly idea in her head like that.  
Now he had her thinking like he did.  But just because he believed it 
didn't make it true.  Honestly.  She hoped he wasn't going around 
suggesting the crazy notion to anyone else.

	Them going on vacation all the time was just them going on 
business trips, much like they were on now.  They certainly weren't on 
weekend getaways to some love nest somewhere.  She herself had caught a 
glimpse of them looking so very professional in their dark suits and 
sunglasses, inconspicuously lurking in the background of a news 
conference featuring that Vice Foreign Minister they were accompanying 
at the moment.  It was ever such a pity that Duo had explained that 
neither of them were romantically interested in her.  She was a pretty 
little thing.

	Duo had given concrete reasons -- she was a politician, she was 
like a little sister, she was too focused.  He never said anything about 
being gay, never gave any indication that they weren't interested in 
girls in general, just her.  Of course, that didn't mean that one or 
both of them couldn't be gay.  And she had no problem with that, of 
course, if that was what they were.  She had just never considered it 
before, and had assumed they were members of the majority.  On the other 
hand, it was a possibility that they had never considered it before 
either.

	But say they were.  That didn't mean that they should hook up 
with each other, just because they were both available.  Girlfriends -- 
or boyfriends, or significant others, or whatever -- were different from 
'just' friends, and she was 99.9999% sure that they were 'just friends', 
and not lovers, as Vinnie had been proposing.  Otherwise they were 
brilliant actors.  Or perhaps poor actors, if Vinnie had 'caught on' to 
their act.

	But even with their friendship, there was still room for someone 
else.  There were just some things that a girl/boyfriend/wife/husband would 
do that a friend wouldn't.  Like take care of him.  Remind him to put on 
a jacket when it was cold out.  Wait up for him to come home after a 
long day at work.  Give him a hug when he was down....

	Her mind flashed to a conversation she had had with Duo, once 
upon a time.  Duo had promised to help take care of Heero, since he 
wasn't going to take care of himself.  He had been doing a rather good 
job of it, too.  And Heero, even though he hadn't promised, looked out 
for Duo in return.

	But they were partners, after all.  They were supposed to watch 
each other's back, right?  But they were more than just partners at 
work.  Work partners wouldn't be like they were....

	Oh, fiddlesticks.

------
a mistaken assumption...?  or not?

_________________________________________
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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 : 1/28/2002 01:45:58 PST