--------------------- X'mas AC198 Part XX ~ A Moment of Haven ~ --------------------- "So, who won?" Duo eyed Heero and Relena suspiciously as they came down the stairs. Deciding that there was no immediate threat to his sanity lurking on the horizon, he shrugged, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder toward his recent opponent and their partial judge. "Quatre wouldn't decide. There were a couple of fuzzy partial-credits, and Quatre decided he didn't feel like putting in that extra ten percent to sort it all out." "I don't remember anyone paying me to do a good job," Quatre defended himself mildly. Duo glared lightly at him, then decided there was another target that would serve just as well. "I'll blame this on you." He turned to pin Heero with a withering look. "I missed a good, clean shot because of you." "Me?" "Yes, you and your... your... ooh!" He snagged Heero by the collar and began dragging him out of the room, away from the others. "A word, if you please, Mr. Yuy?" As soon as they were safely tucked away in their own island of privacy, Heero swung them around and wrapped Duo in a close embrace. "What did I do?" "You know very well what you did, young man!" It was difficult to be stern with his nose so close to Heero's. He took a step back to gain a firmer stance, but Heero stepped with him. "You can't just... just go around making declarations of love like that! It's just not right." "Really." "Really." He didn't have to drop his eyes to Heero's lips to know there was a faint tilt of amusement to them. Wearing an over-obvious frown, he tried to take another step back. Once again, Heero moved with him. "Did Relena put you up to it?" "In a way, but I'll take responsibility for it." One more step, one more matching step, and his back hit the wall. He blew his breath out into his bangs to show his mild frustration. "Well, what the hell, Yuy?" Heero shrugged, as expressive as ever, despite his arms being still wrapped around Duo. "It's not like it's the first time I've ever said it." "It's the first time you've ever shouted it at the top of your lungs." The grin in Heero's eyes shifted abruptly to a wary nervousness. "I didn't... make you uncomfortable, did I?" Duo suppressed a roll of his eyes. "I think I'm too busy being weirded out by it, 'Schnookums'." "Sorry." His head dipped, gaze sliding off to the side in contrition. "I didn't think you'd mind. The only people in earshot are our friends, so..." "I didn't say I *minded*..." Duo applied a finger to the cheek to retrieve Heero's focus. Once he got Heero facing forward again, he moved his hand to twiddle with the ends of Heero's hair. "I just want to know what the hell is going through that funny little head of yours." He tapped his knuckles lightly against said head to make the point unnecessarily clear. "I... I don't know." Heero shrugged again, this time being more answerless. "I just... felt like it. Relena and I were just talking about... related things, and... I just... really 'felt' it." He concluded with a shy, almost apologetic smile. It was like puppies and sunshine. Duo resisted the urge to join in on the warm fuzziness and successfully held on to his investigative curiosity. "And... then you wanted to share it." "Yes." The answer was decisive this time. "Because it just seemed like such a grand thing, all of a sudden. I wanted to share it. In some simple sort of way." "You couldn't just... kiss the breath out of me or something?" "You were busy." He pouted in one last show of exasperation. "Well, I'm not busy now," he conceded with apparent reluctance. Heero took the hint. ************ Relena refrained from glancing at the clock on the wall. Her alternative was to glance toward the door through which the others had taken their leave. "How many words did Duo mean when he said 'a word'?" Pulling open the third drawer in the sideboard, Quatre finally located the resting place of the napkin rings used recently in a certain test of skills. He set to replacing them neatly where they belonged. "If they haven't come back for this long, they may well not be using any words at all." "Ah." She should have guessed. "What, not going to go ambush them?" She bestowed her companion with an indignant look. "Of course not. There's a big difference between accidentally walking in on them and actively ambushing them." "No, it's all pretty much in whether or not you apologize afterwards," Quatre advised her cheerfully, shutting the drawer once his task was complete. It was an answer a diplomat could be proud of. Such a thing was in her repertoire, but she tried to keep the word games out of her personal affairs. Perhaps one day, she would no longer have that luxury. "Did you apologize for walking in on them, that first time?" "Well, no. But there was nothing to apologize for that time. We didn't know that there was anything to apologize for. They were the ones that had to apologize to us, anyway, going about their business in a public place like that." Would it have been different, she wondered, had they been other than who and what they were? Had they been just two normal, hormonal teenagers caught in flagrante delicto, would the matter have been laughed off and accepted without a second thought? "Just how compromised was their position?" "Horizontal. On the back of a sofa." A sofa he still hadn't taken a seat on yet, though that was more for lack of reason than an active avoidance. "They were still fully clothed, I trust?" "Oh, yes, of course. I doubt they'd be that indiscreet. In their defense, the door was actually closed, though. We did knock once, briefly, before opening it, but I guess they were too distracted to notice." "I'll bet." She glanced once more in the direction of their disappearance. They were no doubt distracted again, but it was no good to take advantage of such things. Quatre pinned her with an assessing gaze. "You're alright with it?" "Of course." The answer was automatic. "Haven't I demonstrated that this entire week? Why wouldn't I be?" "Heero is... very special to you." "I'm happy for him." He raised an eyebrow elegantly, far too classy to question her outright. She flushed faintly, looking away. "Alright, admittedly... there was a time. A time when... I thought maybe... but I'm past that." "You're 'over' him?" "I was never..." It seemed the opposite of 'over' should be 'under', but that didn't sound right at all. Not at all. Her blush renewed itself for a moment. "Heero isn't the sort of boy you imagine paying court to you. He's 'there', and he makes you feel wonderful because he's there, but... once you pull your head out of the clouds and try to fill in some of the blanks demanded by reality, you come to see... or rather, not see... how it could ever come to be. And you think that means you want him 'there' for you, but you don't really want him bringing you flowers and taking you out to the movies. Besides," she added, trying to lighten the weight of her words. "I think Duo is a much better match for him." "Really?" "Well, could you just imagine? Heero would smother me half to death if he were my boyfriend, don't you think?" "Then you two would be well-matched in that respect, at least." "Pardon? I would not smother him, if that's what you mean. Is it even possible to smother a person like him?" Quatre smiled mysteriously and shrugged. "You're searching for another boyfriend, then?" "I'm... open to the possibilities." She knew that Quatre could see right through her wary, haughty tone, but she maintained the fiction, anyway. His voice dropped to a loud, conspiratorial volume. "Duo thinks you need to get laid." "Duo thinks a lot of things," she responded primly. She was aware of some of them. She didn't want to know the rest of them. Quatre shrugged. "He thinks I need to get laid, too." "Really? Why you?" And more importantly, why was everyone sharing this sort of information? He side-stepped the question. "It seems to me that we could solve each other's problem." She blinked at him for a few startled seconds before recovering herself. "I beg your pardon? You and I? That's..." "What, absurd?" His mouth tilted into a wry smile. "No more absurd than Heero and Duo together, don't you think?" "Quatre..." One of her hands came to rest upon the sideboard, as if its solidity could give her comfort. "What are you saying?" He waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry. I'm not asking you out or anything. I was just... mentioning it." She laughed uneasily. "Well, what on Earth for?" "I'm 'open' to the possibilities, too." "Quatre..." A charmer's smile was wielded with a slick grace. "We both have our professional obligations, which, at times, can be an obstacle to our social obligations. Our social needs. It would seem an ideal solution if we could come to an arrangement that would fit within all those limitations." "Quatre..." The 'proposition', such as it was, was delivered with far too much composure and winning charisma to have been serious. And yet... "Are you *sure* you're 'just mentioning' it?" He winked. "It was just a thought. A statement of the obvious. An adding of one Duo-sentence together with another Duo-sentence, and drawing a logical conclusion. Nothing more." She stayed silent for a few seconds more before recovering her aplomb and deciding she could play along. With caution. She wasn't quite sure what the rules were, yet. "We've enough commitments in our lives already. That's what's gotten us into this mess. I don't think another one would help." "Who said anything about commitments?" Her eyes widened fractionally, but yes, there had only been talk of 'getting laid'. That was certainly something she hadn't considered before. But, if her sense of propriety were to allow, just for a moment, a thought or two in that direction... "Heero would kill you." "He'd try." And something about the way he said it made her believe that Heero wouldn't get very far. Beneath the mischief was an assertion of strength and authority. Heaven help her, she was starting to find this a promisingly amusing idea. Was it Quatre's effortless force of personality, or was she beginning to see maybe what drew Heero and Duo together? This notion of, well, *if* I were going to do such a wild and crazy and unimaginable thing, why, here's a perfectly safe person with which to do it. "I wonder if that's how they got started," she murmured. "From what I hear, you're the one that got them started," Quatre answered, unperturbed by the seeming non sequitur. Perhaps his thoughts had followed her own. She laughed a little, back on familiar ground for the moment. "They got started all by themselves. They just didn't have a clue where they were going. So I turned the light on for them." Quatre doffed an imaginary hat at her. "Fair enough. And have they left the light on for us as well?" he added slyly. Alright, now she was almost sure they were just joking. A harmless flirtation. Happened all the time between normal people. She could loosen up and be normal, right? "Well, I... I don't see anything worth killing over here. We're just talking about... watching each other's backs, yes?" "Exactly." Quatre seemed more smug than pleased about that. "Nothing Heero would disagree with." Duo made his appearance at that point, looking far more cheerful than the situation called for. The Heero trailing in behind him probably had a little something to do with that. "What was that? Talking about something interesting?" Quatre took point and answered for the both of them. "We were discussing how inspirational you two are." "Argh, not this again." He slumped dramatically before turning to Heero. "See what you've done?" Heero stared blandly at the finger that was being pointed at his chest. "No." Relena muffled a giggle, but not very well. "You two are so adorable." That immediately drew Duo's attention away from Heero. "We are not adorable!" Despite his scowl, Relena responded with the complete placidity of one who knew she had the right of it. "Yes, you are." The scowl deepened, and Duo began stomping away in a huff, pulling Heero along with him. After a few steps, he came up with his rebuttal. "Well, you're a girl, so your opinion doesn't count!" It was a sadly valid line of argument for a teenage boy. She followed after them to continue her battle by enlisting an ally to help her get around their defenses. "Don't you think they're adorable, Quatre?" First things first. He had his own perimeter to establish. "I'm a guy. I don't use words like 'adorable'." "Aha!" Duo stuck his tongue out over his shoulder in triumph. Heero disapprovingly nudged him in the side with his elbow. "Unless I'm being utterly facetious," Quatre continued. "In which case, yes, they're very adorable." "Hey!" "I bet Heero finds you adorable," Relena chirped. There was silence for a couple of seconds, until Heero realized that he was expected to answer. "I find him quite..." And then there was silence for a few long seconds more as he attempted to complete that sentence in a satisfactory manner. "...Duosome." After that singular word was dropped, each person within earshot required time to digest it. Some things, Duo decided, it was just best to go along with. "Well, you're rather Heerosome yourself." "Thank you." The tail end of their conversation overlapped their entrance to one of the central rooms. Trowa and Wufei had gotten a head start on everyone else. A large thermos of tea sat on the tabletop to warm everyone from their activities outdoors. "Heerosome?" Trowa repeated doubtfully. "Is that a new word?" "What does it mean?" Wufei asked, no less skeptically. "Over-protective?" Relena piped up immediately. Quatre smirked. "Prone to sudden, unprovoked PDA's?" Heero leaned toward Duo and made his inquiry in a quiet tone. "PDA's?" "Public displays of affection," Quatre answered for him. "Ah." Undisturbed by the speculations going on around him, he went to the table to fetch himself some tea. Duo made a disgusted sound. "Ugh, thank god, no, he isn't." "Oh? Then what do you call today?" "A fit of madness? A passing lapse of all reason?" Relena smiled in Heero's direction, her smug humor underlaid with a special fondness for knowing what had prompted his earlier action. "I'd call it a declaration of love." "Which," Quatre declared solemnly, "makes it a display of affection. Done where others were there to observe, that makes it public. Ergo, public display of affection, and I win." Wufei shook his head, handing Heero a cup. "I didn't take you for the type, Yuy. I thought you'd steer entirely clear of these 'PDA's'." He accepted the cup with a nod of thanks. "That would be somewhat difficult." The glance he threw at Duo was casual to all but Duo, who saw the 'obvious' affection reflected therein. The response, of course, was for Duo to bridge the short distance between them and whap him on the shoulder. Heero pushed a cup of tea in his direction and began filling another, glancing over at Duo with even more affection. Duo's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Stop that." Heero set the thermos down and answered with the affectionate look's twin brother. Duo slapped him more firmly on the arm this time. "You did not just say that." The tea cup was lifted into a subtle toast in Duo's direction. "No, I didn't." Now that was just insult to injury. "I can't believe you sometimes." Quatre could no longer refrain from a snickering commentary. "You do realize that you just had a relatively sophisticated conversation with each other with far too few words, right?" Relena squeed, adding her 'taunts' from her sector of the sideline. "That was just too adorable!" "We are not!" Duo retorted automatically. Too late he realized that the denial didn't quite match the original accusation. This made him grumpy, but unwilling to revise his words, he was left to swallow it and hope no one had noticed. Heero noticed everything. He patted Duo on the shoulder, and got a mild glare in return. Shrugging unapologetically, he returned his attention to his tea. Quatre did his gentlemanly duty and served tea to the lady in their midst. That he performed this duty with unnecessary flourish was insignificant to everyone but Relena, who took it in stride with a healthy dose of amusement. "I'm not quite sure why you insist it's strange they got together, Quatre," she said. "They're such a good match." "They're an odd couple," he defended himself. "Have you ever tried just asking them why they got together?" "Well, there is no 'why', Quatre. These things happen, usually beyond our control." "Yes, but does either of them ever say that? No." "Then what do they say?" She turned expectantly toward Duo. He reflexively started scanning for escape routes. He was successful in his search. "Hey, don't look at me. Heero's the thinker-philosopher. Go bug him." Heero would have used a similar deflection defense, had not Duo gotten to it first. Denied that path, he went with the answer-that-is-not-an-answer defense. "Because it was good." Duo might have made a derisive sound, but he hardly wanted to draw attention back to himself, so he refrained. Relena might have made a derisive sound, but she was far too lady-like to do such a thing. She resorted to a pointed look. "I'm beginning to see what Quatre means, perhaps." Quatre sighed in satisfaction. "Ah, at last, someone else on my side." "I'll agree that they're uncooperative. I'll not agree that there's anything strange about it, though." She stood very firmly on that position. Duo wasn't quite certain what else they were expecting to hear. A breakdown, personality trait by personality trait? "Actually... it's just Heero being Heero." "Being 'Heerosome'?" Trowa asked with a quiet humor. "Exactly. Responsible boy that he is." He laid a hand protectively over his belly. "Heero just wanted to do right by me and our baby." Heero practically spit his tea back into his cup. He didn't quite, though, and managed to choke it down with a spluttering cough at the end. Duo rolled his eyes and pounded him half-heartedly on the back. "Geez, Yuy, of all the times to lose your straight face." He'd so been looking forward to enjoying a stunned silence from the others or something. The moment was totally ruined now. All he was left with was an awkward pause before they'd all caught on, and the joke was on him. Once that unpleasant feeling finally cleared itself out of his throat, Heero turned a glare on Duo. "I don't ever want to hear you saying something like that again." "Whoa, okay then." He backed off with one hand in the pose of surrender. "No babies. Promise." Relena squeed. "Your baby would be so adorable!" _________________________________________ This piece of fiction is the intellectual property of the little turnip that could. 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 : 1/21/2007 04:08:39 PST