---------------------
  Good Neighbor Day
~ A Moment of Haven ~
---------------------
	If pressed, Duo would have to say that he liked their morning 
jog better in the fall than in the spring.  The weather was warmer 
during the latter season, but since they jogged early enough in the 
morning that it was still cool, the weather wasn't really an issue.  The 
problem was that they jogged earlier in the morning during the spring 
than they did in the fall.  They jogged after the sun came up, and since 
it came up earlier after the vernal equinox, they jogged earlier.

	Duo didn't require all that much sleep, nor was he a 
particularly heavy sleeper, but on general principle, he would say that 
he liked autumnal jogging better.  He didn't necessarily use that extra 
time to sleep, but he liked it anyway.  Besides, he thought of himself 
as a night owl.  The logical conclusion from that little opinion was 
that he had to find mornings abhorrent, even if he really didn't have 
much trouble getting up and staying alert in the morning.

	Morning jogs were a good way to start the day.  In his moments 
of outstanding forward thinking, Duo even viewed them as something that 
would always guarantee that he and Heero did at least one thing together 
every day, so one could even say that morning jogs were a good way to 
start a relationship.

	But this wasn't a moment of outstanding forward thinking.  
Today, something out of the ordinary was the focus of Duo's attention.  
At the end of their run, they stopped two houses early and made sure 
that a particular young lady of their acquaintance had gotten up as 
agreed.  She was awake, though not especially up, and she shooed them 
along with a yawn.

	Satisfied that things were going according to plan, the two 
young joggers finished their route, got themselves cleaned up, and 
headed back to the house two doors down.  By this time, the young lady 
was both awake and up, and she let them in with an exaggerated 
conspiracy dogging her every movement.

	Duo shook his head at her sadly.  What was the world's youth 
coming to when they couldn't even sneak around properly?  He would have 
to have some words with the young Ami.  Preferably when her mother was 
out of earshot.

	Heero wasted no time on such laments.  He was a man on a 
mission, and he wanted a plan.  "Any requests?" he said shortly, already 
making his way to the kitchen.  He decided to be creative and snagged 
the back of Duo's collar rather than his braid on the way there.

	"Not really," Ami said with a shrug, trailing along behind them.  
Duo made a strangled-looking face at her from where he was being tugged 
along backwards, and Ami stifled a giggle.  "She likes french toast."

	"Then french toast it is!" Duo declared softly, mindful of 
waking the woman still sleeping upstairs.  That didn't stop him from 
making a comically triumphant gesture with his arms, putting another 
smile on Ami's face.

	Behind him, Heero just shook his head slightly and gave him one 
last tug before letting him go to rummage through the refrigerator.  Duo 
left him to that and dug out the bread while Ami took a seat and 
directed things.  He pulled a couple of slices out, tied up the bag and 
set it aside, and then went to the shelves to extract a pan and a bowl.  
Heero pulled his head out of the refrigerator, hands laden with eggs and 
milk, just in time to deposit the eggs in the bowl that Duo held out for 
him.  Heero took the bowl, Duo ducked under his arm and closed the 
fridge on his way to the stovetop, and the dance continued.

	When the eggs were beaten and Heero was looking through the 
spice cabinet for some cinnamon, Duo was hunting down things to eat 
with.  "One fork, one knife," he said to himself, pulling said items out 
of a drawer and handing them to Ami to put on the tray.  "Let's see... 
one plate... teacup?"

	"Yes?"

	Duo blinked, then turned to look at Heero with an amused grin on 
his face.  "Actually, I was wondering whether or not I needed to take 
out a teacup, but that works, too."

	"Oh.  Sorry."  He turned back to the pan on the stovetop.

	Duo shook his head, amazed and tickled pink that Heero had 
actually responded to the name.  "Should I be brewing up some coffee to 
go with breakfast?  Or do you think orange juice and/or milk will 
suffice?"  He looked at Ami for an answer.  Ami shrugged.

	"Forget the coffee," Heero proposed.  "Ami has to carry this in, 
and it'd be too much trouble to bring cream and sugar up, too, unless 
you know how she likes her coffee."

	Ami shrugged again.  "Mom doesn't drink coffee very often 
anyway."

	"Okay," Duo acknowledged, pulling out a glass from the cupboard.  
"Won't need a teacup, then."  Then he reconsidered, put the glass back, 
and took out a mug instead.  It would probably be more stable on a 
breakfast tray carried by a nine-year-old.  He brought it over to Ami to 
add to the tray.

	She glared at the tray, trying to figure out what it was 
missing.  "We don't have a flower or anything."

	Duo scratched the back of his head.  "Hmmm, nope, sure don't.  
Can't really go out and buy one now.  I guess we could run across the 
street and clip one from the Kellers' front yard."

	The sound of Heero's snort could be heard clearly over the hiss 
of the soaked bread being set into the pan.  "As if Keller doesn't 
dislike us enough already."

	"Why doesn't he like you?" Ami asked curiously.

	Duo shrugged.  "You know, some people just don't like kids."

	"You aren't kids."  To a nine-year-old, eighteen-year-olds were 
plenty old enough.

	"We are to him."

	"But he's got a kid.  Hope's just as old as you guys are."

	She was shy by a year, but close enough.  "Yeah, that's part of 
the problem," Duo said.  To a grown man with a teenage daughter, 
eighteen-year-old males weren't just old enough -- they were a scourge, 
a threat, a nuisance.  Roger Keller always thought the worst of them, 
even though they had never really run afoul of each other.  It wasn't 
just that Hope liked them.  There was also the fact that they didn't go 
to school and didn't seem to have steady jobs, leaving him convinced 
that they must be involved in something illegal.  They hadn't yet run 
into a reason to enlighten him.

	"That makes no sense," Ami proclaimed.

	"Yeah, well, sometimes big people just don't make any sense," 
Duo answered cheerfully, ruffling her bangs.

	"We still don't have a flower."

	"Make one," Heero suggested calmly from his side of the kitchen.

	"And while we're there, shall we pull a rabbit out of a hat?" 
Duo said quite pleasantly.

	"We can make a rabbit, too, if you want.  Just get some paper."

	"Paper?  Oh yes, you... origami people, you."  Duo had never 
quite taken to origami.  If he was going to create something, he would 
rather do it by welding some metal together or the like.

	"Take over."  Heero gestured at his merrily sizzling french 
toast with the chopsticks he was using to cook with.  When Duo had 
dutifully taken up the task, Heero snatched some paper off the notepad 
by the phone and started folding, instructing Ami to make a stem while 
he was worked.  After he had read an article in a journal about the 
mathematics behind the art of origami, he had acquired a passing 
interest in it.

	Duo was taking the pan off the heat and bringing it over to the 
others to unload when he realized something.  "Hey, those flowers are 
white.  That's kinda boring, don't you think?"

	Heero tossed him a halfway annoyed, somewhat dry sort of look, 
and just handed him the plate.

	Duo shrugged.  "Well, they are."  He took the proffered plate 
and got out of their way before transferring the french toast to it.

	One look at the frown on Ami's face, and Heero sighed minutely.  
Glancing around the kitchen for supplies, he spotted the marker attached 
to the little whiteboard on the wall, and in a display of unusual 
carelessness, he used it to loosely scribble in some blue coloring on 
his flower's petals.  It came off as looking much like his hair -- 
messy, but somehow leaving the viewer with the impression that it was 
exactly as it was meant to be.

	"Now that's better."  Duo reached between the two of them and 
set the plate down on the tray, a pat of butter having been added to the 
top of the french toast.  The plate went next to the little dish of 
powdered sugar Ami had pulled out.  The frying pan was deposited in the 
sink.  They would be back to clean up a little bit later.

	Heero poked a hole in the bottom of his flower with a pen and 
threaded Ami's stem through the opening.  "Not the best, but it'll do," 
he pronounced, studying it critically.

	"It looks very nice," Ami told him, taking the paper construct 
and laying it down across the top of the tray.

	Duo came back with a mug of milk and added it to complete the 
picture.  "Simple, but it gets the job done."

	"We don't usually eat much for breakfast anyway," Ami said, 
pardoning them.  Besides, the simple meal created the impression that 
Ami could conceivably have done it herself, even if her mother would 
quite correctly figure out whose help she got.  They all figured 
Suzuhara-san probably wouldn't want her messing around in the kitchen by 
herself anyway, so it was the thought that mattered more than anything 
else in this case.

	"Want us to take it to the top of the stairs for you?"

	The girl shrugged, and Duo took that as a 'yes'.  Sometimes kids 
could be even more non-responsive than Heero.  It was a somewhat 
intimidating thought.

	They saw her to the top of the stairs, and then right outside 
her mother's room.  Duo held the tray for her while she opened the door 
carefully and took a peek inside.  The look was furtive without being 
conspicuous, Duo noted with an approving eye.  Perhaps there was hope 
for the child yet.

	"Good?" he whispered to her.

	She nodded and took the tray from him.  Her mother hadn't 
noticed the intrusion.

	"We'll be outside if you need us."  He ruffled her bangs again 
and retreated to a safe distance from the mother-daughter moment.  It 
wasn't their place to intrude on this, even if he did cast a slightly 
longing look at the door.

	Heero caught the glance, of course, and pulled him against his 
side with an understanding little quirk of his lips that made Duo feel 
better.  With a tilt of his head, he indicated his intent shortly before 
guiding their steps down the stairs once more.  "So, think we'll be 
celebrating Father's Day, too?"

	Duo shrugged negligently.  "Told ya, we're doing Good Neighbor 
Day today."  Then he mustered a faintly mischievous glint in his eye.  
"Hey, Father Mac's a father, right?"

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

	As her daughter was nine years old, Ms. Suzuhara hadn't expected 
much for Mother's Day.  Other things had certainly weighed more heavily 
on the mind during the war, and before that, anything special that they 
had done to celebrate the day had been done as a joint venture.

	It seemed that this year, Ami had found someone -- or more 
likely, two particular someones -- to assist her, and after the surprise 
had been duly appreciated and breakfast begun, Ms. Suzuhara inquired 
after the two neighbors that she had taken a shine to.  "Did you do this 
all by yourself, Ami?"

	"Nah, Heero and Duo-niichans came by this morning to help out."

	"You know 'niichan' doesn't become plural when you add an 's' to 
the end, dear," she chided mildly.  The sit-down Japanese lessons that 
Ami had once shared with Duo had come to an end, but the teaching never 
stopped.

	Ami made a little face.  "It's easier to say."

	Suzuhara-san let it slide.  Allowances could be made when mixing 
two languages together.  "I'll have to remember to thank them as well."

	"They're not done yet."

	"What do you mean?"

	"This was my present," Ami answered, gesturing at the breakfast 
tray.  "So they said they had to do their own thing, too.  That's why 
they're outside right now.  They said they were going to wash your car."

	"Wash my car?"  Well, that was different, but not entirely out 
of character.  They were both the type that would value something like 
that more highly than flowers or baubles, and they already did various 
handyman-type chores around the house for them.

	"I think they said they were going to detail your car, too, but 
I don't know what that means.  I asked why, and Duo-niichan said it was 
a 'guy thing' to do."  She rolled her eyes.  "Guys are weird, 
sometimes."

	"Why, so they are, Ami.  So they are."

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

	"Did you say when HQ is expecting you tomorrow?"  Duo spoke just 
loudly enough for his voice to carry around the car to where Heero was 
stationed in front of a tire on the opposite side.  They were outside, 
and he didn't particularly want to share the details of their 
conversation with everyone within earshot, although visual inspection 
revealed no one to actually be within earshot.

	"Us."

	"Oh."  Heero raised up partially from his crouch and threw an 
inquisitive eyebrow at him over the hood of the car, a singular action 
that clearly requested a response.  "Well, it's your expertise that 
they're after, not mine."

	"You're my partner, Duo.  I don't make it a habit of working 
alone anymore."

	"Oh."  Since Heero had returned to his invisible position on the 
other side of the car, Duo felt free to let loose a hint of a pleased 
expression.  Still, he covered it a bit more by going back to his bucket 
of soapy water to refresh his sponge.

	"Your insight will likely prove useful," Heero continued.  
"You're more knowledgeable than I about people in general."

	"Oh."  He willfully, but somewhat unsuccessfully, suppressed the 
further spreading of his lips and applied himself to scrubbing at the 
grill of the car.

	Eventually, Heero got around to answering the original question.  
"They shouldn't be expecting us first thing, but reasonably early in the 
day."  A little while later, he set down the toothbrush he had been 
using to scrub at the wheel and declared his task at an end.  After a 
short moment, Duo joined him, and Heero took up the hose and started 
rinsing.

	"Hey, how come you get to do the honors?" Duo pouted from the 
sidelines, sticking his hands in the spray briefly to wash them off.

	"Could I trust you to not have a little too much fun with the 
hose?"

	"...Maybe," Duo hedged.  He flapped his hands a bit to shake the 
water off of them, and made sure he flapped in Heero's general 
direction.  "You trust me to help you out with your work, but you don't 
trust me not to get you wet?  I think I should be offended."

	"Didn't you just prove my point?"  He'd barely felt the water 
flicked in his direction, but he'd noted it all the same.

	"Hmpf, that was nothing.  Don't really make me prove your 
point."

	Heero's only answer was the slight lifting of one corner of his 
lips in an approximation of amusement as he retained control of the 
hose, forcing Duo to wait patiently.  It wasn't long before all the suds 
had been rinsed away.  Heero shut off the hose, Duo tossed him a couple 
of towels, and they got down to the business of drying.

	Time passed in pleasantly companionable silence until Duo spoke 
up again.  "So... this is gonna be okay with you, right?"  Duo carefully 
avoided eye contact as he asked the question, opening the front 
passenger door to dry inside the frame.

	"This what?"

	"The mission."

	"Why wouldn't it be?"  Heero re-established personal contact 
with him by opening up the driver's door.  Curiosity was evident in his 
voice.

	"I dunno," Duo shrugged, stopping his drying for a moment to 
slump in the front seat and inspect the dash and window.  "Just thought 
I'd make sure, just in case, ya know?  I mean, they wanted you to, what 
was it?  Analyze assassin MO's and stuff?  I just wanted to make sure 
that didn't bother you or anything."

	"You mean, you wonder if it might be traumatic for me to revisit 
the joys of my misspent youth?"

	Now it just sounded silly when he said it that way.  "Ahem, 
yeah, something like that."  He beat a minor retreat from the front to 
open up the back door.

	Heero joined him shortly at the door on his own side.  "I know 
my time with Odin was far from standard, but it doesn't bother me.  He 
was an okay guy."

	"He was a hitman for hire."

	"And J was a mad scientist."  Heero shrugged.  "He was pretty 
okay, too."

	"Just how loosely are we using the term 'okay' here?"

	"And the rest of the techs at the lab were pretty okay, too, all 
things considered.  They all had their flaws, certainly, but so do we 
all."

	"No unforgivable flaws in there?"

	"It would take something rather heinous to be unforgivable."

	Duo shook his head and shut the door.  "We're done drying, 
right?"  At Heero's nod, he exchanged his wet towels for some fresh 
cloths and took up the bottle of wax they had fetched from their own 
garage.  "Now I know you've said that you've got nothing against these 
guys, but really, Heero.  I mean, Odin taught you how to take apart a 
gun and put it back together again in the dark when you were still four 
or something, didn't he?"

	"And he also taught me how to read.  He taught me expert 
marksmanship, but he also taught me how to make music on an instrument 
or two.  He taught me how to mix household chemicals together into 
something lethal, but he also taught me to be true to myself.  He was an 
okay man, once you got past the whole hitman thing."

	"Gee, is that all?  It's kind of a big thing to get past, don't 
you think, Heero?"

	"Not really."  He shut his door, exchanged his towels, and 
joined Duo in buffing the trunk of the car.  "Odin was good.  He didn't 
have to take all of the jobs that were offered to him.  We spent a lot 
of downtime together.  He wasn't a hitman all the time."

	"So what was he the rest of the time?"

	"He was just a man."  He exhaled with a puff, combined with a 
twist of his lips, and in Heero-speak it translated to a chuckle, with a 
bit nostalgia sprinkled in.  "A man with very little idea of what to do 
with a child, perhaps, but still a man."

	Duo gave him a mild elbow to the side.  "You're such a softie, 
Heero."

	He smiled sidelong at him, his bangs falling forward as he 
leaned over the trunk of the car to hide the expression from public 
view.  "Don't tell anyone."

	"Your secrets are safe with me."  This secret and a thousand 
more, if Heero chose to share them.  He didn't speak much of Odin.  His 
silence on the matter implied a certain discomfort, but judging from his 
words today, perhaps the time had simply never been right.  It seemed he 
had never shared the information not because it was painful, but rather 
it was simply irrelevant, and Duo supposed it was in a way.  It was all 
in the past now, and Heero believed in leaving the past in the past.  
But with this upcoming job it was becoming relevant, so perhaps Duo 
would have the opportunity to flesh out some more of the picture that 
made up his partner.  If he had asked, Heero probably would have told 
him all about it, but Heero didn't like storytelling.  That involved too 
many words and too much planning.  This mission, however, might serve 
just fine in its place.

_________________________________________
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Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
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been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 5/31/2003 23:55:47 PST