Christmas Fic by Agent Midnight
Standard disclaimers apply
Christmas time is always a major disaster for me.
I mean, you would expect that after three years of almost religiously
carrying out the Christmas tradition something good would come out
of it. Sure, holidays always end up being good after they're over,
but it's setting up that's the problem. Everything will fall apart
brilliantly towards the beginning of the Christmas season and then
it will slowly settle into place towards the end.
Two years after the wars ended, Heero and I decided that we would
celebrate Christmas to a certain degree. All we really wanted was
to be normal people; plus I thought it'd be a real blast and I wanted
to do it after I saw our neighbors hauling a tree through their front
door.
I brought the subject up to Heero while he was calmly distracted
by cooking dinner. It was probably the most immature thing I cold
possibly do, but I just asked him in the doorway and he looked at
me. And said nothing.
Heero has a wonderful way of letting your hopes drop to the floor
with a glance. However, when I got home the next day, there was a
beautiful Douglas Fir in our living room, and Yuy was sitting on the
couch looking quite pleased, might I add.
"You like?" He asked me; simple and directly to the point.
Leave it to Heero to push aside all forms of communication just to
talk in bad English to figure out what he wants.
The tree broke my heart. I hugged Heero so hard, I think he passed
out for about three minutes before finally coming to and returning
the embrace.
The tree broke my heart...
... and our glass coffee table.
Heero had left the house to go to the grocery store, claiming he
would have to find something suitable for our simple Christmas dinner.
He was gone two hours; far too damn long to go grocery shopping, especially
for him.
While he was out on his expedition to the store, I was trying to
fluff the tree up to make it more attractive, not that it could be
any more beautiful. It had a simple beauty to it that really shocked
me. I didn't know a tree without any decorations on it could be so
nice. Oh, the smell of it, too! It was so fresh, and it brought a
wild smell to the living room. Spectacular!
Anyway. Fluffing.
I was fluffing the tree and I noticed a piece of fuzz close to the
top. Now, granted it was about a 6'2" tree, but I'm not the tallest
bastard in the world, you know? I was standing on my tiptoes and I
could just snag the fuzz with a finger. I stepped away from the tree
and I went to the wastebasket to chunk the fuzz. I mean, how could
it possibly have the nerve of de-beautifying mine and Heero's first
Christmas tree?
I swear I was away from it for two seconds, and believe me, it wasn't
at all unstable. I turned back around just to see the tree tipping.
One: this shocked me. Two: At the time, I didn't know how it happened.
Three: I thought it was my fault.
It fell really hard on our coffee table before I could even attempt
to catch it, and then I felt really guilty cause I thought I had knocked
it out of proportion. All my fears flew away as I saw Tech strolling
away.
Tech is our cat.
At least he didn't get hurt.
Heero came home about three minutes later... I think he timed it...
and just stood in the doorway of the living room, holding numerous
bags, and just staring at the fallen tree with an odd look on his
face. He then turned his gaze to where I was crouched in a fighting
stance on the couch.
What can I say? I was scared when the tree fell.
And he smirked.
And then smiled.
And then started laughing.
Christmas # 1-- successful.
The next year we encountered some problems, too. We had done the
first step, so we were going to go a little more outrageous and try
to decorate a little more. Heero took it upon himself to go buy some
red stockings for the both of us and hung them carefully on the fireplace
mantel. I went out and bought some Christmas decorations for the rest
of the house...
... even going so far as to hang mistletoe over the doors.
Heero laughed and enlightened me with a small kiss on the cheek under
the one in the living room, claiming that I could have more when Christmas
got a little closer. Such a tease.
We flipped a coin to see who had to figure out the Christmas dinner,
and I lost.
Shoot.
Well, seeing as I can't cook if my life depended on it, I decided
I would buy all pre-made crap and heat it up. I can use the microwave
just fine, thanks.
Heero rolled his eyes when he saw my selection of lasagna, cream
corn, green beans, and bread.
"Clever."
Hey. Who wouldn't want a toasted lasagna sandwich for Christmas with
cream corn and green beans on the side? It's easy, and good.
I was a little surprised when Heero showed up with a whole bunch
of candy canes, claiming Christmas couldn't be Christmas without candy
canes. He hung a few on our beautiful tree, even prettier than the
year before, and then got a little vase and stuck the rest in there
and put it on our new coffee table.
I bought some cookie dough and set out to make some cookies in Christmas
shapes. I probably sounded like such a dork in the grocery store with
Heero when I saw a four pack of cookie cutters. I got so excited over
them, Heero bought them for me when I toddled off to go get some cookie
dough. After all, what's Christmas without freshly baked cookies,
even if they aren't in Christmas shapes?
When we got home, I wanted to make some cookies, and Heero brought
out the cutters and said that I should make him a tree shaped one
and put extra sprinkles on it.
The cookies came out great, in my opinion, and Heero got his sprinkled
tree.
Christmas day was rolling very closely around, and we had our presents
under the tree, the ornaments up, the cookies baked, the decorations
all around, the dinner heated up.
On Christmas Eve we went out to go wish our friends a Merry Christmas
personally and we talked for a while with them. By the time we got
to their house it was pouring rain and we had to lay low with Quat
and Tro for a while until it let up a little. Quatre wouldn't let
us leave and get all wet.
"Don't want to risk a drive home in this kind of weather, do
you, Heero?"
Heero agreed with Quatre, and they smiled at each other like they
had a secret.
They always agree with each other.
Trowa and I exchanged a mock-insulted look and rolled our eyes at
our respective boyfriends.
Quatre laughed and we all just enjoyed the gathering.
When Heero and I got home, it was still soaking wet. I went into
the living room and just stopped. I had accidentally left a window
open and the rain had blown all across the tree and presents. I walked
towards the tree and bent down to touch a present.
The box caved under my touch.
This killed me. Because this was my fault.
Heero found me near-hysterical and close to tears sitting in front
of the tree, rain pouring on me now from the window, trying to save
the presents from the onslaught of water. Of course, I could have
shut the window and moved the present and let them dry, but I wasn't
thinking too well.
Heero closed the window, though and moved back to grab my hands and
stop me. I sat with him on the floor for a while, trying to fight
back dry sobs. I apologized to him, so many times.
"Shut up, Duo. It's not your fault it rained."
I told him I left the window open, and I had ruined the presents.
"How did you ruin them? They're a little wet. They'll be fine."
He held me while I calmed down, which took a little longer than it
probably should have.
"Look." He said, and grabbed one of the presents that had
a smushy name tag stuck to wet paper. I saw part of my name on the
tag. I saw a D and then it kind of smeared...
Heero pulled the wet packaging off easily, the parts dropping. He
handed me a gorgeous black sweater that was dripping liquid. I cringed
and took the wet present from him.
"Come on."
He took my hand and pulled me to my feet. He snatched the wet sweater
from me and we walked slowly down the hall. Heero led us right into
the laundry room. I watched him as he opened the dryer, shoved the
sweater in, and pressed a few knobs on the machine. As it kicked into
life, Heero turned and jumped up to sit on the washing machine.
He held his hand out to me, and I moved over to sit with him.
We sat in silence together, him holding my hand, and waited for what
could have been hours.
The dryer buzzed and Heero hopped off of the washer, pulling me down
with him.
He pulled out the sweater, which looked very nice once dry, and moved
over to me.
"Arms up."
I slid my arms towards the ceiling and he pulled the sweater on over
my head. It was warm and it smelled lovely. Heero ran his hands up
and down my sides a couple of times, seemingly trying to warm me up.
My braid was pulled free from the sweater by his gentle hands and
he brought me into a caring embrace.
"See...? No problem. We can fix anything."
Christmas # 2-- successful.
The third Christmas was a bloody-righteous nightmare for both me
and Heero. Nothing went right, and I am saying that very loosely.
After the Christmas tree caught fire from a candle that Tech knocked
over and some of the presents burned beyond repair, we didn't think
anything could possibly get worse than that. I mean, come on! How
bad can things get?
You would think we would catch on after a while that Christmas is
like an omen for us or something. Screw the black crows and dogs,
Christmas is our death omen. Everything is destined to go wrong during
the Christmas season.
At the point where the cookies had roasted and the dinner nearly
blew up, I was about ready to throw in the towel for Christmas. Last
year was wretched. If Heero hadn't been able to laugh at everything
bad, and get me to laugh too, I would have chucked the tree out and
sat down to watch Christmas specials all damn season.
When the tree caught fire, Heero was the first to be there. Hell,
he was there. He was sitting in the living room as Tech knocked the
candle over. I heard a startled shout from him, which is very rare,
and I walked into the room and saw the flames eating away at our precious
tree, with Heero trying to put the mess out.
Tech was calmly watching all this from his seating on a armchair.
Damn beast.
When we got the fire out, I know I must have been wide-eyed as all
fuck. Heero shyly looked at me and his husky laughter filled the room
a second later.
"Holy hell! Will we never get a break, Duo?"
He said this with a huge grin that was completely out of character
even for this new Heero.
"This Christmas is kicking our asses."
Holding a blanket that I had used to fan at the fire, I could only
stare at him. But, even I laughed at that because it was true. We
assessed the present damage, and estimated that we both lost about
two gifts each, which caused us both to smile.
"Looks like we're going to have to go buy what we lost when
Christmas is over and make them late presents."
I nodded at him and he took a block of charred mess out of the living
room. Poor presents.
I scolded Tech a little but he's too damn cute to be mad at for long.
Heero came and plopped down on the floor next to where I stood and
tugged on my pant leg. I sat with him and we looked at the portion
of burnt nothing. Smiling, I leaned against Heero.
"It's beautiful still."
And I agreed.
Christmas # 3-- successful.
Now that the fourth Christmas is very near, I don't really know if
I should be worried, scared, or whatnot. I mean, everything's always
worked out for us in the past. Nothing harmful to our health has happened...
Well, except for the dinner I cooked two days ago which gave both
Heero and myself tummy aches. I've already said that I suck royally
at cooking, that should be no surprise. Heero ate it though, and that
made me happy. And then of course, I got sad 'cause we were both sick
and we relaxed on the couch all night and watched the Christmas Story,
which we've both seen ninety-million times.
You know you've seen a movie too many times when Heero starts quoting
along with it and you know all the words, too.
"You'll shoot your eye out."
We've watched Charlie Brown and Olive before. We've seen the clay
cartoons with Rudolf and Santa. We've heard Frosty sing his song.
Heero and I know everything there is to know about Christmas entertainment
by now. But, for some reason, it just doesn't get old.
Even though we watched this crap on television last year, and the
year before last, it just keeps us entertained when it comes around,
and you have to love it anyway.
I was shocked when I heard laughing and I walked into the living
room to see Quatre, Trowa, and Heero sitting on the couch watching
some kind of Christmas special. Evidently everyone is amused by them.
I heard about my other friends.
"Wufei called."
Oh, that's wierd. Yeah. Bah!
"And Sally." He added, hinting that Wufei and Sally had
called to together.
He winked to prove his point.
"Relena called. She wanted me to wish you a Merry Christmas."
I smiled. Nice girl.
Heero rattled on for about two minutes to tell me who else called,
all the Merry Christmases we received, and other stuff our friends
had to say. When he was done, he looked at me and smiled.
"Merry Christmas, Duo."
Of course.
I fell into his arms.
"Merry Christmas, Heero."
He snickered and blew some hair away from my face.
"Let's go over our checklist, shall we?" He said, smile
growing slightly.
I nodded at him.
"Fire extinguisher."
Check. I nodded.
"Lots of presents; spares included in closet."
Check. I nodded.
"Tree."
Check.
"Cookies."
Check.
"... with sprinkles."
"Lots."
He smiled.
"Mistletoe."
Ooh. Check. I grin.
"Dancing Santa."
I raise an eyebrow.
"Ah. Well, we have to get one of those before Christmas, then."
The corners of his eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled again.
"You."
Check. I'm here.
"Me."
Check.
"We're all set, then."
Heero snickers.
"Tree repair--$34.00."
I blink.
"Present replacement--$175."
A smile starts to form on my face.
"Scrubbing charred remains off the carpet--$57.00."
"And knowing your friends are just a phone call away?"
I ask, quietly.
"Priceless."
Despite how socially depressing us quoting commercials should have
been, we both found it highly amusing.
Looks like this is the start of another wonderful Christmas.
*******
The End
*******
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