The Best Christmas Ever

by KatiKat

Heero just finished pouring the hot chicken soup into the porcelain bowl when he heard the rough, moist coughing coming from the living room. He could almost feel the walls vibrate from the painful sound and he winced in sympathy hearing the wheezing sound that followed the coughing fit.

Heero had to think about how the things changed in the last couple of years. Being 15 and a soldier in the war he hadn´t been able to imagine himself cooking chicken soup for his lover. Or for anybody. Or even to have a lover. But meeting Duo changed everything. The braided boy managed to turn his neat and planned out life upside down and inside out and make him totally addicted to the happy laugh and huge violet eyes. They went through two wars together. Wars they never expected to survive. They became lovers and lived for the moment. But they managed to survive after all. After the the second war ended he and Duo joined the Preventers.  The only decent job offer they got. Nobody was too eager to employ a Gundam pilot. Duo found this small apartment not too far away from the Preventers headquarters and they rented it together. Their life wasn´t uncomplicated, but after sharing it with each other for the last 8 years they found ways how to solve most of their problems without getting into a big fight. And they were happy. They worked together and lived together and made sure that everybody was aware of the commitment they had to each other, the love they shared, because it was a very rare thing to happen to soldiers. 

Hearing the wheezing sound turn into another body wracking cough he quickly put the bowl on the tray together with a glass of orange juice and the prescribed meds and hurried into the living room. The room wasn´t too big, but comfortable - just like the rest of their apartment.. There was a multi-colored couch Duo found on one of his "expeditions" to the market in the down town sitting in the middle of the room,  two arm chairs, that were actually new - one of the few things they bought at tthe mall; Duo always said that the new things lacked  character (whatever that meant), a low coffee table and a small table next to the couch with a lamp shaped like a little dragon - Duo always said that it reminded him of Wufei. Small carpets in rainbow colours that almost managed to blind you before you got used to them covered the wooden floor, scattered around in no particular pattern. And a *big* TV. Duo insisted on a really big TV. He liked to watch movies and explained to Heero that it would be cheaper to buy a big TV than to go to the cinema. Next to the TV set sat a top of the art stereo set - this one was Heero´s baby, the only thing *he* insisted on. And plants. They were everywhere. All sizes and colours - Duo even found one that had neon yellow leaves (Heero better not ask where he found it). Abstract and fantastic pictures in the most unbelievable colours were hanging on the white walls. The room was... unconventional for sure - just like the rest of their house (what adult would decorate his bathroom with tiles with pictures of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck?), but everybody who visited them got this incredible feeling of home and warmth.

And then there was the Christmas tree. With a lot of presents under it. It was a real tree decorated with silver balls and chains and a little angel on top of it. For an unconventional guy Duo surely decorated the tree in a pretty conventional way. When Heero asked him about it he just answered that this was the way he remembered the tree in the Maxwell orphanage had been decorated. Seeing the pain in Duo´s eyes Heero didn´t ask any further questions.

Entering the room, Heero moved over to the couch where his lover had been curled up on his side half sitting, half lying in a vain attempt to ease his breathing. He was dressed in white cotton pajamas and covered with a warm woolen blanket but he was still shivering with cold. Heero felt sad for his lover. Duo had been so looking forward to Christmas, just like a little child. He even made Heero buy the tree and decorate it with him two weeks before the Holidays. But then during a mission just two days ago Duo fell into the icy water of the bay while chasing a suspect. He caught him, but he managed to catch an incredibly nasty cold too. Sally gave them both a leave of absence - for Duo to get better and for Heero to take care of his lover. And so here they were. It was Christmas Eve and Duo was totally out of it. Heero sighed. He will be so sad when he realizes that he missed  Christmas Eve, he thought.

He put the tray down on the coffee table next to the plastic bowl with cold water and a soaked handkerchief and a box of paper tissues. He sat down next to Duo´s bent legs and rearranged the thick woolen blanket around Duo´s shoulders before he reached over and smoothed the sweat soaked bangs from his forehead rousing his mate from his restless slumber. The huge violet eyes blinked open sluggishly and tried to focus on him in the dim light of the happily shining lights on the Christmas tree.

"Hey," Heero greeted his braided lover, caressing his burning cheek.

"Hey," Duo croaked back, his voice hoarse and broken. He didn´t uncurl from his fetal position enjoying the lack of pain he was feeling right then. For once the pain in his joints subsided a little and his cramping stomach muscles - strained from the coughing - relaxed.

"I brought you some soup. You need to eat something, koi."

Duo looked at him for a moment before his muddled brain worked through the simple information he recieved. "I´m not..."

Heero shook his head. "Uh-uh. I´m not taking the ´I´m not hungry´ speech. Sally said you need to drink a lot of fluids and get some nourishment too." Duo eyed him with disinterest. Heero sighed, still caressing Duo´s face. "I know you are weak, but I will help you. You need to take your meds too."

When the words finally registered with Duo he make a disgusted noise. "Don´t want to," he croaked out. "Makes me sleepy."

Heero smiled. "They should make you sleepy, koi. You need to rest a lot to get better soon."

Seeing that even these two simple sentences were obviously too complicated for Duo´s tired mind, Heero decided to do something instead of discuss it. He pulled Duo up into a sitting position then slid behind him. He leaned against the armrest and moved Duo between his spread legs resting his back against his own chest. During all this Duo didn´t react. Heero pulled the covers back up to Duo´s neck and kissed the top of his sweat soaked hair.

"Still awake?" he asked gently.

"Hmm," Duo answered a couple of seconds later lolling his head to the side, and burying it in Heero´s shirt clad shoulder as another coughing fit burst out of his burning throat. Heero reached over and pulled one tissue out of the box and held it in front of Duo´s mouth. "That´s it, koi," he encouraged him wiping away the mucus coming out of his clogged lungs. Then he dropped the used tissue into the waiting waste bin standing next to the table. A couple of minutes and three tissues later the coughing finally stopped, leaving Duo badly winded and wheezing. And totally exhausted.

For a moment Heero debated with himself what to do first - to feed Duo or give him his medication. Looking down he noticed his lover´s drooping eye lids and decided for the meds first. He reached over to the coffee table and took the three small green, orange and white tablets in his right hand and passed them to his left. Then he reached for the glass of orange juice.

"Koi? I have to give you your meds," he whispered in Duo´s ear.

"Hmm... meds... taste funny," answered Duo in a hoarse voice.

Heero smiled a little. "I know, baby. But could you swallow them for me?"

The chestnut head straightened after a moment so that it lay directly under Heero´s chin. Heero then proceeded to place the small tablets in Duo´s mouth, and held the glass to his lips. Duo sipped a little and Heero moved the glass away from his mouth. Suddenly Duo pulled his hands out from under the blanket and caught the glass and Heero´s hand with it tightly bringing it back to his mouth and swallowing greedily the cold liquid.

"Ah-ah," Heero stopped him pulling the glass away.

Duo made a distressed sound. "Thirsty..." He made another move to grab the glass.

Heero pinned his arms down with his left arm. "No. I will let you drink it. But slowly. Small sips, okay? You don´t want to get sick, do you?"

"´Kay," the sick man answered in a small voice.

Heero then brought the glass back to his lips allowing Duo to sip the cool liquid that soothed the burning in his throat. When the glass was empty Duo made a content sound and snuggling closer to Heero´s chest, he hid his arms back under the thick blanket.

Heero laid the glass back on the table and looked at the bowl of soup sitting at the tray. It cooled down a bit  and Duo really needed to eat something but... Heero looked down at his slumbering koi. Duo was asleep again. But this time no wheezing sound was coming out of his lungs with each breath. He was sleeping peacefully for once and he loathed to disturb him. He really needed to rest.

With a sigh Heero abandoned the idea of feeding Duo and hoped to do it the next time Duo came around. He reached over into the big plastic bowl and wrung the handkerchief swimming in the cool water with one hand before returning to his reclining position on the couch. Wiping Duo´s sweat covered brows with the wet piece of cloth, he heard his lover moan silently with contentment and felt him cuddle even closer to him. Heero smiled with gentleness and resigned himself to spend the better part of the Christmas Eve on the couch playing a teddy bear for his lover. Not that he minded.

Putting the wet handkerchief into his left hand, he raised his right arm over his shoulder and reached behind himself to the small table standing next to the couch.  He picked up the remote control and directing it on the stereo set he pushed the ON button and laid it back on the table again. After a couple of seconds the soft melody of Christmas carols filled the room. Duo´s favourite ones. Heero looked down at his braided lover and found him smiling gently in his sleep.

Trailing the wet piece of cloth down his lover´s burning cheeks, Heero felt sad about Duo´s spoiled Christmas Eve once again.  Christmas held no actual meaning for him beside the fact that he could spend it with the most important person in his life. But for Duo it was the most important day of the year and now this mess had to have happened...

He will have to make it up to his koi somehow, Heero decided.

And he did. As soon as Duo felt well enough they shared a delicious candle light dinner with carols, Christmas cookies and other holiday stuff. Then they spent the rest of the evening cuddled together on the couch in the living room, watching the snow falling behind the window, sipping egg nog  and making love in front of the tree just like Duo planned.

It was the best Christmas Duo ever had. And it didn´t matter at all that it was the 3rd of January for the rest of the people on Earth...

The End