Two Components

 

By DRL

 

 

 

        “Okay, okay, I’m coming”

 

I belted my satin robe about my waist as I padded noiselessly across the entrance foyer on unshod feet.

 

        “Mr Winner?”

 

The sleepy voice came from the landing whence I had just descended.

 

        “It’s okay Johannes, I’ll get it.”  I called out without turning around.  “Could you please make up the Blue Guest Room, then you can go back to bed.  I’ll deal with this.”

 

        “Well, if you’re sure Sir…”

 

        Another insistent peal rang through the house, drowning out anything further our butler may have said.

 

        “Okay, okay.” 

 

I quickened my pace, not to hasten the admittance of the tardy caller, but because I was mindful lest the constant ringing of the doorbell disturb my Trowa, who was asleep upstairs.  I was bitterly regretting my decision against donning slippers as my feet fairly froze to the cold marble of the floor, despite the relatively warm temperature of the hall.  Upon reaching the double doors I quickly unfastened them without fear, since I well knew who stood without.   Even without the state-of-the-art video surveillance security system we have installed throughout the house and grounds, no-one but Duo Maxwell Yuy would have the temerity to come calling at such an ungodly hour.  No-one, that is, except Heero Maxwell Yuy.

 

Almost before the door was unlocked it was pushed open and Duo breezed past me, ranting as he went.

 

        “That’s it, that’s fucking well it!” He raved, striding up and down the hall.  “I’ve had enough!”

 

I re-fastened the doors, turned to Duo… and gasped.

 

        “Duo, my God, what happened to you?”  I ran to his side, and my voice dropped as my eyes widened in slowly dawning horror, “Did Heero do this?” 

 

Duo was dressed in the tattered remnants of a tuxedo.  The once smart trousers were creased and muddy, the shirt was torn, the tie hung limply from Duo’s neck, untied.   He wore no cummerbund but a rather jazzy brocade waistcoat which, despite having had all of its buttons torn off, seemed to have escaped the ravages of the rest of his outfit. God only knows what had become of the jacket.  Duo himself looked as though he had just come from a war zone, a disquieting image which evoked some unwelcome memories.  His face was grimy and there was the distinctly bluish tinge of a bruise on his left cheek.   Wisps of hair that had worked loose from his braid hung despondently around his face.   He carried a large and rather smart leather travelling bag, which he now dropped to the floor at his feet.

 

        “Hey Q, can you and Tro put me up for a few days, I’ve left Heero?” 

 

He looked at me with such a look of dejection that I enfolded him in my arms and crushed him to me.  As I did so, the emotions that I guessed he had long held in check burst forth, and he dissolved into floods of tears.  I gently led him to a small but comfortable sitting room just off the hallway, and settled him down in a large leather sofa.  I curled up beside him and held him, rocking him gently and stroking his hair.  Eventually the storm abated and his sobs became mere sniffles.  I had no handkerchief to offer him, but I wiped away his tears with a corner of my robe and then held it to his nose.

 

        “Here, blow.”  I bade him.   He did so, and just at that point Trowa entered the room, looking pristine but distinctly worried.

 

        “Darling, are you okay?  I just woke up and …” At this point he caught sight of Duo.  “Duo, my God,” He ejaculated, echoing my own reaction.  We are such kindred spirits my love and I.  He crossed the room with a few elegantly swift strides and knelt in front of Duo, his obvious concern for our friend in every feature.  “What happened?”  Duo merely looked dolefully at him and sniffed, so I took up the tale.

 

        “He’s left Heero.  They’ve had a fight.”

 

        “I can see that.”  My love replied, looking Duo up and down.  “Tell us what happened?”  He took one of Duo’s hands and squeezed it gently, encouragingly.

 

        Duo sniffed once more, reached for the corner of my robe again and blew his nose long and hard.  Averting my eyes from the resulting moist, dark stain, I removed the soiled fabric from his tense fingers and offered a clean section.  He sniffed again, blew again, sat up, cleared his throat, and in a hoarse, rasping voice he began.

 

        “You know how I was up for the Shipman Prize for ‘Hay Day’?”  Trowa and I both bobbed our heads affirmatively.  We were well aware that Duo had been nominated for the prestigious art prize.  “Well today was the Award Ceremony.  Me and Heero were all set to go, but he got a call on his cellphone just as we were leaving, and that was it.  He said that something had come up at the office and he had to go, at 6.30 on a fucking Saturday evening!   I begged and pleaded with him to wait until after the ceremony, but he insisted that he had to go.  He said he wouldn’t be long though.  Well I waited and waited, and he never showed.  The most important night of my life and he wasn’t there.” 

 

        At this point Duo turned, buried his face in my shoulder and wept.  Trowa looked up at me, a finely bowed eyebrow raised in enquiry.  I nodded and he silently left the room.  He returned some moments later carrying a tray on which stood three steaming mugs of hot chocolate.  By this time Duo had collected himself sufficiently to continue.  He gratefully accepted the warming drink from Trowa, took a sip, and pausing only to lick the foam from his lips, he went on with his story.

 

        “Well needless to say the whole evening was awful.   I spent most of the ceremony either looking at my watch or glancing over to the door to see if he was coming.  To make matters worse, I made what will surely go down in history as the worst acceptance speech ever...”

 

        “Hey, wait a minute,” I interrupted, “You mean you won?”

 

        “Of course I won.”  Duo replied, shooting me a withering look, “Against those no-hopers, are you kidding?” 

 

        “Oh Duo, congratulations!”  I quickly put my cup down on a side-table and threw my arms around him.

 

        “Steady on Q,” Duo said as Trowa deftly relieved him of his cup, narrowly averting disaster.

 

        “Darling, how about we let Duo carry on, hmmm?”  Trowa suggested in a honeyed voice.

 

        “Of course my love,” I beamed at him and held out my hand.  He took it, squeezed it gently and pressed my knuckles to his lips before turning back to Duo.

 

        “When did Heero eventually turn up?”  He asked, handing Duo his cocoa with his free hand.

 

        “Fucking never!”  He spat.  “I sat through that whole ceremony wishing to god I could get up and leave, but the Shipman Prize winner couldn’t be seen to sneak out before the end could he?  So I had to sit there, and then I got dragged to the party afterwards.    I wish I had a buck for everyone who came up to me and said, ‘Congratulations Duo, where’s your husband?’  When I eventually managed to escape I called Heero on his cellphone, but it was switched off.  Then I did the only thing I could – I went home.  Heero came home about half an hour later, and needless to say, I wiped the floor with him.  And you know what, he even had the balls to try and defend himself!  He said that it was something that needed his input, and it couldn’t have waited.  Then he said in that pompous, patronising way he has, ‘Duo, I fail to see why you are over-reacting like this.  This was very important to me, why can’t you understand that?’  Well that did it.  I looked at him with clear, steady eyes and I said, ‘Oh of course, and I’m not?’  I then gathered up the shards of my dignity, went upstairs, packed a bag and left.” 

 

        “Did he try to stop you?”  I asked, nervously eyeing the rapidly developing bruise on Duo’s cheek.

 

        “Well he apologised and said that it wouldn’t happen again.  ‘You’re damn right it won’t’, I told him.   I told him that I was tired of playing second fiddle to his business and his interests.  He never thinks about me.  He just goes on along his merry way, and I bob along in his wake.  He has never taken my art seriously. He sees it as just something I do to pass the time or to keep from getting bored.  He, he…”  Duo sniffed again and dabbed at his eyes with my robe.

 

        “So at what point did…?” Trowa fingered Duo’s torn shirt.

 

        “Oh that,” Duo took a deep breath and replied, “After I left the apartmentI stopped by my studio for a while.  I have a composition there that I am working on.  I put in an hour or so, then I left and came here.

 

        “You were working on a piece of art and you end up looking like this?”  Trowa said incredulously, “It must have been some composition.”

 

        “Well it’s kinda rough work, you know,” Duo replied, looking a little abashed, “Mixed media and all.”

 

        “Mixed media?”  Said Trowa, “What were you using, dynamite?”

 

        “How did you get so muddy?”  I asked.

 

        “Oh yeah, on my way over here I stopped by the river.”

 

        “By the river or in the river?”  Said Trowa dryly, eyeing the mud from Duo’s shoes trousers that was now nicely congealing on the leather of the sofa.

 

        “I stopped the car on the bridge, climbed down the bank and sat for a while, you know, just thinking.”

 

        “Did you come to any conclusions?”  I asked him gently.

 

        “Yeah,” He replied, “I decided when I’ll go back to him.”

 

        “When will that be?”  Said Trowa

 

        “When he brings my wedding ring back to me.”  Duo said.   He stared off into the middle distance, and both Trowa and I knew that he was no longer with us, he was somewhere else, perhaps somewhere where Heero and he were experiencing happier times.  Just then I noticed for the first time that Duo’s wedding ring was indeed  missing, a pale, worn strip of skin heralding where it had once lain.  I looked sharply at Trowa and saw that he had noticed it too.

 

        “Where is your wedding ring Duo?”  I asked him haltingly, afraid of the answer.

 

        “I threw it in the river.”  He replied.

 

 

 

        I took Duo up to his room shortly after, and settled him in.  I stayed with him until he fell asleep, then I went back to our bedroom.  I removed my robe and climbed into bed beside Trowa, entwined my arms and legs with his and buried my face in his chest.

 

        “Oh Trowa, this is terrible.”  I mumbled, “Heero will never find that ring.  What are we going to do?”

 

        “Shhh darling,” He said, rubbing soothing circles on my back and pressing kisses into the hair at the top of my head, “Try and get some sleep.  Don’t think about it.”

 

        “But Trowa, how can I sleep when Duo is hurting so much?  He is absolutely devastated.  He cried himself to sleep just now, that’s why I took so long.  He thinks that Heero doesn’t love him any more, that maybe he never really did.  Heero… what about Heero?”  I tried to scramble up again but Trowa held me down, firmly but gently.

 

        “It’s alright my love, I called him while you were putting Duo to bed.”

 

        “How is he?  What did he say?  Is he alright?”  I raised my head and looked up into Trowa’s face, dimly lit from the pale glow of the fast approaching dawn.

 

        “Well, he asked if Duo was safely with us, and when I said yes he said ‘I don’t want to talk about it Trowa’ and he hung up.”

 

        “Oh.”  I said.  I lay back down and idly traced a pattern over Trowa’s chest with my index finger.  After a short pause I said, “Trowa love?”

 

        “Yes angel?”

 

        “Will you go round and see Heero tomorrow, just to make sure he’s alright?”

 

        “Of course I will my darling, anything to make you happy.”  He lowered his head and kissed my lips gently but with passion.  “Now get some sleep baby.”

 

        “Okay Trowa.”  I sighed happily, snuggled deeper into my Trowa’s firm, lean body and promptly fell asleep.

 

 

 

        Duo didn’t come down for breakfast the next morning.   My poor Quatre was so worried about him that he couldn’t eat either.   He’s such a sensitive soul that something like this would really affect him.  He feels the pain of others so deeply.  I’m not sorry that Duo came to us in his hour of need, but he and Heero have to get this sorted out soon or my angel will begin to sicken and that I will not permit, not under any circumstances.  This is not the first time Duo has come to us after an argument with Heero, but this time it’s different.  Even I could sense Duo’s utter despair last night.  Somehow I doubt that they are just going to kiss and make up as soon as their respective tempers have cooled. 

 

        I left Kitty with him and I came away.  Kitty is my little pet name for Quatre.  ‘Why Kitty?’ I hear you ask, well Quatre =Quat=Cat=Kitty - simple.  No-one knows about it though, it’s just between the two of us, and now you, of course.   He’s just like a kitten too, all cute and cuddly and soft and playful.  Just like a kitten.  Duo refused to come downstairs; he just wanted to sit upstairs in his room, so Kitty sat up there with him.  I left him brushing Duo’s hair for him.  Between the two of them they managed to clean off most of yesterday’s dirt and grime, and he looked almost human again, if a little battered.  That must have been some sculpture he was working on!  His spark had gone thought, and that is something that I found surprisingly disconcerting.  When I came into his room that morning, his violet orbs looked up at me with an expression that was as flat and lifeless as Heero’s used to be when he was in ‘perfect soldier’ mode.  I quickly shot a look at Kitty and he gave a discreet shake of his golden head so I forbore to comment.  Duo smiled weakly at me, but the smile failed to reach his eyes. 

 

I came away, got one of the cars out and went to pay Heero a visit, as I promised Kitty I would.  As I stand outside the door to his and Duo’s ultra-modern loft-style city apartment, I am surprised to hear his footsteps approaching the door.  I didn’t really expect him to answer my knock.  He opened the door, then turned and walked back into the room, without even stopping to see who it was.

 

        “Hello Trowa.”  He said over his shoulder.  He threw himself down onto a smart red leather sofa with edges at such sharp 90 degree angles that I was surprised when he didn’t wince in pain as he sat.  I followed him into the room, pausing to admire the panoramic view of the city that one was afforded from the ‘wall’ of glass that comprised the whole of the south side of their penthouse apartment.  I sat facing Heero, on the corner of a large, low coffee table, which Duo had once told me was made from lacquered goatskin!  I still had my doubts.

 

I looked across at Heero.  He was wearing a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, so at least he had gone to bed last night, although by the look of him I doubted whether he actually achieved much in the way of sleep.  He rested his elbows on is knees and held his head in his hands, his fingers enmeshed within the unruly thatch at his crown.  I bode my time and said nothing, and eventually he lifted his head and looked me dead in the eye. 

 

“How is he?”  He asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

 

“He’s not great.” I replied curtly.  I knew that I was being a trifle harsh, but I was none too pleased with Heero at the moment.  As far as I could see this whole thing was his fault.  I instantly regretted my bluntness, however, when I saw the look of pain that crossed his features at my words.

 

“Will he see me?”  He asked, a pitiful look of hope in his eyes.   I shook my head slowly.

 

“I doubt it Heero.”  I replied.  With a groan he rested his head in his hands again.  After a brief moment he raised it again, and I was shocked to see them glisten with what I suspected were tears.

 

“I messed up didn’t I?”  He asked.

 

“Big time.”  I agreed.  I know, I’ll never make a counsellor.  Quatre’s the diplomat, not me.

 

Heero glanced across at me but said nothing.  After another  short pause he said, “I’ll talk to him, see if I can get him to come back.  I’m sure he’ll come if I can just explain.”

 

“Well, I don’t know Heero,”  I said hesitantly,  “He said something last night.”

 

Heero’s head jerked up and his cobalt eyes stared into mine, hard and flintly  “What did he say?”  An edge had crept into his voice.  I was not afraid of Heero Yuy however, and I continued undeterred.

 

“He thinks that you don’t love him any more, that perhaps you never really did.”  Heero’s eyes narrowed.

 

“Why would he think that?”  He asked sharply.

 

“I think you would know more about that than I would Heero.”  I replied, still too blunt, even to my own ears.     “He said that he would go back to you the day you brought his wedding ring back to him.”  He looked at me uncomprehendingly and I continued.  “He threw it into the river last night, on his way to us.”

 

“He threw his wedding ring into the river?”  Heero repeated.  I nodded slowly.  He sunk his head in his hands again and groaned.  When he looked up at me all the fight had gone out of him and his eyes looked desperate and pleading.  “I’ve got to get that ring back”, He said, his voice choked with emotion, “Please help me Trowa… I can’t lose him.”  Tears coursed down his cheeks as his thin veneer finally cracked, and he wept openly.

 

I am not at my best in this sort of situation, but I have seen Kitty deal with it often enough, so I did what he would have done.  I took Heero in my arms and held him.  I felt him stiffen at first, no doubt as surprised at my display of warmth as I was at his display of naked emotion.  Then he relaxed, leant against me and literally cried on my shoulder.  The storm abated as suddenly as it had begun, however, and a few short moments later Heero sat himself up, squared his shoulders and looked me in the eye, with no sign of embarrassment nor any apology for his momentary weakness. 

 

The apartment is a duplex, with the bedrooms located on an upper, galleried level, accessed by two open-treaded stairwells, one at either end of the spacious lower level.   He rose and walked purposefully toward the closest of these stairwells.  On reaching it he paused with a foot on the first of the frosted glass treads, turned to me and said,

 

“You can let yourself out.  Tell Duo that I will bring his ring back to him… soon.”  He turned, climbed a few more steps, stopped again and turned back to me.  “Oh and Trowa, for what it’s worth, tell him I love him.”  He continued up the stairs, walked along the gallery to his and Duo’s bedroom and entered, shutting the door behind him.

 

I looked after him for a few seconds, then I rose and made for the front door, and as I did so a smile played about my lips.  I recognised a particular glint in Heero’s eyes as he spoke his parting words to me.  I had seen it before many, many times, many years ago.  The ‘Perfect Soldier’ was on a mission, and I had not the slightest doubt that he would either bring the ring back to Duo or perish in the attempt.

 

 

 

Three weeks later Duo was beginning to recover a little I think.  Well at least he is eating.  For the past three weeks he had no more than picked at his food and by now he was looking decidedly thinner.  I hoped that Heero didn´t think that we had been starving him.  Duo had just returned from France and he was looking quite well, considering.  He stayed with Trowa and I for a while in the beginning, but since we both had to work he was left on his own for most of the day.  Under the circumstances neither Trowa nor I thought that this was a good idea so we called on Wufei and Treize.  Trooper that he is, Wufei did not even need to be asked.  As soon as he heard what had happened he said, ‘Tell Duo to get ready, I will be there to pick him up by this afternoon at the latest’.  I then heard him giving instructions for their private jet to be prepared.  When he had turned his attention back to me he said, ‘He can stay with us at the Chateau for a while, it will be a nice change of scenery for him and at least this way he will have company round the clock.  I don’t think he should be alone right now’.  My thoughts exactly!

 

As good as his word, Wufei arrived later that same afternoon, with Treize in tow, and they whisked Duo away to their beautiful estate in South West France.  Wufei reported regularly, and Duo’s spirits seemed to improve with time, although he still got a little tearful and upset occasionally.  Trowa and I kept an eye on Heero.  He constantly asked us about Duo, and when we explained to him where Duo had gone and why, he gave us both a big hug and, with the most sincere expression I have ever seen he said, ‘Thank-you, thank-you very much.  I truly have the best friends anyone could ever wish for.’  Needless to say, I ended up in tears, but really, it was just too poignant a moment. 

 

Trowa helped Heero with his attempts to retrieve the ring, but unfortunately they all failed.  He had the river dragged, he hired divers to look for it with metal detectors, and he even appealed to the city authorities to have it dammed up so that he could search more effectively.  I helped him with that one, but not even the Winner name had that much clout and they turned us down like a bedspread.  Heero joined us for dinner frequently during this time, and one evening, as we sat around the table enjoying our coffee, I suggested that Heero have a replica of the ring made and pass it off as the original.  No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I regretted having spoken.  Heero shot me a look of pure scorn, and did not deign to comment further.  Trowa was a little easier on me.  He smiled reassuringly at me and said gently, ‘Darling, if Heero thought that there was a chance of that working I’m sure he would have tried it by now.  After all, he has spent an awful lot of time, effort and money so far, and I think that Heero is smart enough to have tried the easiest options first.  Duo is not stupid.  He would know his own wedding ring from a facsimile.  The ring he has worn for the past ten years, the ring given to him by the man he loves, the ring that is the very token of that love.  Wouldn’t you?’  He was absolutely right of course, and I felt a complete fool.  I nodded contritely, sipped my coffee, and not another word was spoken on the matter.

 

On one fateful morning we were all sitting out on the terrace having breakfast.  Trowa and I were taking a few days’ well-earned break from work, and Treize and Wufei were staying with us for a while, after having brought Duo back to us.  Heero was very conspicuous by his absence, but Duo seemed in fine spirits regardless, and he and Wufei were verbally sparing just as always.  Just then I noticed Johannes, our butler, step out onto the terrace carrying a small silver salver.  He barely suppressed a broad smile as he walked around the table to where Duo was seated and presented the salver to him.

 

“Mr Yuy asked me to give this to you.”  He said.  To avoid confusion the staff adopt the same form of address for our friends as they do for Trowa and I, hence ‘Mr Yuy’ for Heero rather than ‘Mr Maxwell Yuy’.  Duo tentatively reached for the small, muddy object, dwarfed by the proportions of the salver.

 

“My ring?”  Duo said with a look of complete incredulity, hardly daring to believe it.  He grabbed his snow-white linen napkin and vigorously polished the object between his now muddy fingers.  “It is my ring!”  He exclaimed as he held it up for all to see.  To quote Duo himself, a ‘shit eating’ grin split each face around the table as we all shared in Duo’s obvious joy.  “My Heero brought my ring back to me,” Duo said reverently, “He does love me.”  H e made a fist of his left hand as he clasped the ring, as if afraid that it might escape, and held the fist firmly against his heart with his free hand.  A single tear rolled down his cheek.  Just then Johannes cleared his throat and all eyes turned to him.

 

“Mr Yuy is waiting in the drawing room, if there is any message that I might convey…”  He got no further.  Duo pushed back his chair and proceeded back into the house through the French windows.  The rest of us followed at a discreet distance of about two feet.

 

Heero was indeed in the drawing room.  He was dressed in what I think was jeans and a t-shirt, but so caked with mud was he from head to foot, it was difficult to be sure.  Duo went into the room and the rest of us hovered outside the double doors, which stood wide open so we had the peach of a view. 

 

Duo walked calmly up to Heero and held his left hand outstretched, palm upward.  We could clearly see the yellow gold of the ring contrasted against the creamy white of Duo’s skin from where we stood.  Heero looked deep into those violet eyes as he gently took the ring from Duo’s palm.  He took the outstretched hand in his, turned it palm downward and slid the ring back into its rightful place, on the third finger of his husband’s left hand.  Heero then took Duo into his arms and kissed him soundly.  Duo offered no resistance, and they kissed passionately for long moments, while the rest of us looked on, exchanging happy smiles with each other.  I turned to Trowa, and before I even asked he handed me a handkerchief, which I promptly used to dab at the tears that were welling in my eyes.

 

When Heero and Duo finally broke the kiss, Heero said, “Duo will you please come home?”

 

“Why,” Duo replied with a teasing grin, “The house too big and empty without me?”

 

        “No,” Heero replied with complete seriousness, “My life is too big and empty without you.  I love you Duo, I always have and I always will.”

 

        “Oh Heero!”  Duo pulled Heero to him and kissed him again.

 

 

 

        “So Heero, how on earth did you manage to find the ring?”  Trowa was the first to articulate the $64,000,000 question that was in all our minds.

        We were all sitting in the Drawing room, Heero and Duo snuggled up together in one arm chair, Trowa and I intertwined in the other, and Treize and Wufei on the sofa, Treize seated upright and Wufei lying outstretched, his head cradled in Treize’s lap, while Treize combed his fingers lovingly through Wufei’s exquisite raven locks.  Duo had not even mentioned the point.  As far as he was concerned, his Heero had found it and that was all that mattered.  He had not commented on Heero’s condition so the rest of us thought it indiscreet to mention it.  Heero had excused himself for a few minutes to freshen up and I had lent him a change of clothes.  Wufei was more his build but I was more his height, so we erred on the side of caution.  He was now looking his usual dapper self, and he and Duo draped over each other on the armchair was a welcome sight to all of us.

 

        “I prayed.”  Heero replied, with a completely deadpan expression.  In answer to the uncomprehending stares and confused silence that greeted his remark, he continued.  “I prayed to Duo’s God to help me, and he did.”

 

        Duo questioned this not at all.  He merely withdrew his ever-present cross from within his shirt, held it to his lips and pressed a fervent kiss to the gleaming metal. 

 

        “You came through for me.  Thank-you.”  He whispered, but I think we all heard him.

 

        “I woke early this morning with my mind in turmoil trying to think of a way to get the ring back.”  Heero explained.   “To clear my head I went for a walk.  I wasn’t going anywhere in particular, but I found myself walking on the embankment, alongside the river.  When I reached the bridge I stood on the brow and looked down into the water, only there was hardly any water.  As I knew this stretch of the river to be tidal, I assumed that the recent warm weather, lack of rain and ebbing tide had depleted the waters to the mere stream that I now saw.  

 

 I was absolutely at my wits end about the ring, so as a last resort I closed my eyes and appealed to Duo’s God.  I told him that Duo believed wholeheartedly in him, but that I was dubious.  I asked him to prove his existence to me by helping me to find the ring, not for my sake but for Duo’s.  I knew that Duo was hurt and unhappy, but without the ring I was powerless to do anything about it.  As I opened my eyes, I was dazzled by a sudden and particularly strong ray of sunlight.  As my eyes accommodated I caught a glint as the sunlight reflected something shiny in the mud of the dried up river.  As I peered down I caught the glint again, this time stronger.  I scrambled up and over the parapet of the bridge, and jumped down into the mud of the river.  I think that some people crossing the bridge at the time thought that I was trying to commit suicide because they tried to hold me back.  I fought them off and jumped.  I landed on my feet and promptly sunk up to my knees in the mud.  I waded through to where I had seen the glint, falling over a few times, hence my rather grubby appearance.  There was no mistake, because it was glinting still.  I bent to pick it up and I was not in the least surprised to see that it was the ring.  I lifted my eyes to the sky and said ‘Thank-you.”.   Strangely enough, just at that point the sun went behind a cloud.

 

I thrust the ring deep into my pocket and scrambled up the bank of the river.  By this time a crowd had formed and some bystanders helped to pull me back up.  After escaping their well-meant but most unwelcome attentions, I ran back to the apartment, got my car-keys and drove over here, not even stopping to clean up first.”  He paused and looked around at his audience.

 

We sat around, completely enraptured by his narrative.  When he stopped talking we all just sat there staring at him.  There was absolutely nothing we could say, so we said nothing.  We could not disbelieve him because he had the ring to prove it, and besides, he had absolutely nothing to gain by fabricating the story, not that Heero would have done any such thing anyway.

 

Heero took Duo home later that day.  A week has passed and we have not heard anything from them.  None of us are unduly worried about this however, since it is extremely likely that they have not even left their bedroom for this entire time.  We know what they are like when they get back together after spend a couple of days apart.  This time they were apart for over a month so God only knows when we will hear from them next.  Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and this episode has ended particularly well.  Trowa and I are hosting a small soirée tonight in honour of Treize and Wufei before they return home to France.  Heero and Duo had been invited, but I seriously doubt whether they will show.  It’s a rather formal affair so I had better get on and don the obligatory ‘penguin suit’ before the guests begin to arrive.  Trowa’s already dressed (looking incredibly beautiful) and is downstairs directing the proceedings, but I really ought to be there too.  If you’re interested, perhaps I will tell you more about me, my life and my friends another time.