Orphan Stage Epilogue - Heero Cleans
the Stage by Terrasa
Standard disclaimers apply
He’s talking again… I don’t think he realizes that
he never shuts up. Or the fact that he doesn’t ever stop moving
like some wined up toy. Either his foot is tapping, his hand is moving,
or he’s just plain jumping up and down like some excited kid.
There are times where he does actually settle down… times when
he’s just too exhausted to be energetic. I like watching him…
I can not stop. After work, he comes home, shoulders slouched in tiredness.
He tells me these crazy stories where he had to go up under the so
called “giant robot” and the “doctors” locked
him in the cockpit or some other strange tale of his day. And he always
has one. I enjoy listening to his voice as he tells me all about them.
Enjoy watching the tired yet amused expressions that come over his
face. That is one of the few times he is so exhausted that his little
motor just stops. I can think of one other time… let me clear
my throat. Yes, but we don’t need to go into that.
That police man stopped by today as we were packing up Duo‘s
stuff. I had finally convinced him to move into the “haunted
house“ as Duo likes to call it. Kemp, I couldn’t help
but glare at him a couple times. He was just so friendly with Duo…
running his knuckle over the braided boys skull. Jokingly elbowing
him. It’s weird… this jealous feeling I get… but
I think its only normal to be a bit… overprotected? Possessive?
All of the above?
His girlfriend… that was pretty shocking. She came with him
to see Duo and I admit I was a little surprised. She has even longer
hair than Duo! These people… how the hell do they manage to
keep their hair that long. I have enough trouble with the so called
‘hair’ sitting on top of my head right now…. but
it could be because I don’t use any type of conditioner. Walking
down the grocery store isle, I ‘almost’ buy the conditioners
every time… but… I find them a little… girly. Yes,
that is very stupid… but I think it was because of Jay, and
his influence… he didn’t think to kindly of woman and
their “Disgusting habits and pampering” as he put it.
I never really took him serious until I met Relena. That was a pretty
scary first meeting.
For some reason, she had decided that I should fall in love with
her. She did everything she could to *cough* lure me into her bedroom.
One time, when I was coming home late, I had decided to take a short
cut through some neighbors yards. Well, if I would have known it was
Relena’s yard I was cutting through at the time, I’m sure
I never would have tried it. Anyways, as I was minding my own business,
walking through the finely trimmed grass, I heard a voice. I should
have ignored it, really, I should have. I don’t even remember
why I chose to “Investigate into the situation” as Duo
would like to put it.
Turns out, Relena was standing on her balcony, in her nightgown…
talking to herself. I would have laughed… but I don’t
really do the whole ‘laughing bit’.
“Oh how I wish my hero would come!” She had said, in
a very dramatic voice. My eyes widened and I stood frozen, only a
couple of feet from her view. I think it would have been wise to leave
just then. But, like Duo had once said, I was a little too curious
for my own good sometimes. I proved that when I hacked into Duo’s
files… my nice little reward being a punch in the face.
“Moon, moon! Show me my prince!” She demanded…
and I was starting to feel sorry for the moon… having to listen
to this crap all night long.
Well, just then, the wind blew… and I sneezed. Stupid, yes.
My hidden position was given away and Relena saw me. Well… I
think she saw me… I had run away pretty quick after that.
The next day was when Relena had started her little… ‘stalking
game.’ I called it a game because nothing with Relena was serious.
She lives in her mind, thrives off of her fantasies. I wonder if she
is seeing a shrink?
Back to the present.
Duo was just walking Kemp and his girlfriend to the door. I hadn’t
really talked much… well, at all… but it didn’t
seem to bother anyone, or offend them. I think it was expected.
Duo came bounding over to me. He seemed to be really thrilled that
the police guy had come to visit him. I guess they were close, after
all, he did know Duo longer than I did… if only a day.
Things went pretty smooth from then on. Days kind of flew by quickly
after Duo moved in with me. The house changed… dramatically,
because of his influence. I think all of the servants in the house
fell in love with him within the first week. And the funny thing is…
he doesn’t really seem to notice what he does to people. Duo
seems to barely notice that he make their days better with just a
smile and a joke. He has amazed me once again.
I think that is one of the many reason that I am so… infatuated
with him. My head likes to rear off to thought of Duo all the time.
Not that I mind though, but its really… strange. It took me
a long time to figure out that I was in love with the cheerful boy.
And when I came to that frightening conclusion, I laughed… I
still have no clue why. It could be that I thought I was going insane
for liking a… male. That brings me back to Jay and his standards…
god how I hate remembering those stupid lessons.
Jay was old fashion… as those woman haters are called. He didn’t
so much ‘hate’ woman, but what they had become. He felt
that a woman should stay home, get fat, clean, bear children and be
happy with just that. God how I felt sorry for his wife. But she was
dead, so she was probably happier now.
Anyway, back to the present once again.
A couple days ago I had come across something amusing when entering
the kitchen for a snack. There seemed to be at least eight of the
female servants sitting around someone, laughing as he spoke. I didn’t
see Duo, but his voice was rather loud and obvious. I couldn’t
help but smile as he continued telling them some story about a funny
short orphan kid he had known.
One of the servants looked over to me in surprise, eyes widening.
I couldn’t figure out what was wrong until I realized that I
was smiling. I guess they hadn’t seen it before… must
have been pretty shocking. Duo didn’t even stop talking as he
stood up, eye meeting mine. He walked over and took hold of my hand,
dragging me into the small circle he had been in.
I could feel myself getting nervous as I sat inside the giant circle
of woman… yes, I was a little…*cough* I don’t want
to admit it! I wasn’t used to being around so many laughing
woman… but as I looked all of them over, I realized that they
seemed to be really nice, cheerful people. It amazed me that they
could act so… dull, when my Aunt was in ruling.
When Duo was done with his little chatting session with the maids,
he pulled me out the door, whispering, “You should really start
to get to know your servants more, they are really cool people.”
Well, I tried to use Duo’s advice. But I only ended up watching
the servants more closely now. They all had changed, they were all
a lot happier now… no one complained at all. I remember watching
the scared servant setting the table… afraid of my Aunts cold
words… she now laughed and made jokes while talking to Duo,
setting his food in front of him. It seems he still couldn’t
get use to people making the food and setting it down for him, he
always grumbled and complained, making everyone laugh and a few would
pat him on the back saying, “Well you better not start serving
yourself or we’ll have nothing to do!”
I didn’t want to sell the house anymore. I didn’t want
to have to fire the servants. So what was I suppose to do now?
Things got pretty complicated for awhile. Duo was always working…
I rarely saw him for the first month, after that his schedule calmed
down to shorter hours. No matter what I said, he wouldn’t quit
his job. He didn’t need the money anymore… didn’t
have to work so hard. But, he kept insisting that he earn his own
money. It was bad enough that I paid for the house and food, but he
didn’t want me paying for anything else. Which was fine, I understood
what he wanted. Some sort of independence. To not be dependant on
me all the time. Not have to ask for money… even though I would
give him anything in a heart beat.
It was hard for me too… not only was Duo gone for most of the
day… but I still didn’t know what I was going to do about
the house and servants.
Finally, after sitting and thinking for what seemed like weeks, I
came to a decision. The ‘new’ problem was how to keep
it a secret from Duo.
It was the middle of summer when my plan finally got started. Duo
was out at work and I decided that now was a good time to have a meeting
with the house staff. It was pretty humorous, seeing them all stuffed
in one room, looking around at each other, curious as to why they
were all there. Some even looked rather frightened, like they knew
that I was going to sell the house. Which is what I told them and
I could see some of their faces visibly pale.
This only caused me to smirk, I still hadn’t gotten around
to explaining the ‘other’ half of my decision. When I
finally did, they all seemed thrilled, reassured, one actually was
laughing with relief.
Yes, I was going to build a new house… for Duo. One that would
have windows everywhere… well, except for my room. He seemed
to get used to it after awhile… and started to actually like
the dark feel it gave off.
After the servants left, and promised that they would keep the secret
from “Master Duo” as they called him, I was left to try
and figure out where I was actually going to build it. It couldn’t
be far, half of the staff lived outside the house, with their families.
I sighed, leaning back in my chair, eyes closing as I felt a headache
coming on. This was going to be hard. Especially trying to hide my
plans from the ever observant violet eyed boy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was around Christmas that my plan was just getting finished. The
house was done two weeks before the snow started to fall, and was
just getting furnished. I had to admit, I was really proud of myself
on this one. Not only was I able to keep it a complete secret, but
the house looked amazing. It was a two story, with basement. The plans
were drawn up by an architect I hired, but… I had him add a
few things just for Duo. Like the secret passage leading outside from
our bedroom in the basement. Or the passage leading from his new office
to the kitchen. Yes, that one seemed really amusing. I didn’t
plan on telling him about the one behind my bookshelf, leading to
another empty room. That one would be for me, a sort of escape if
I ever needed it.
There were two master size bedrooms on the top floor, with six other
smaller bedrooms which will mostly be used for the servants. The middle
floor is where the kitchen, offices, more bedrooms, and two living
rooms, both of which have giant windows showing off the forest surrounding
the house, were located. There was also the dinning room, which I
had purposely enlarged enough to where all of the servants would be
able to join us. I’m sure Duo would like that much better. The
cooks, however, would now have to be cooking fancy meals for about
twenty or so people, versus the usual small meal that the servants
’use’ to eat. I’d probably have to raise their salary.
Not that I minded.
The basement was my pride and joy. I had worked really hard on it,
spent a lot of time talking with the builders. There were no windows,
It was really dark, the way I liked it. But the lights were bright
enough to make it seem cheerful, yet could be turned down to set a
nice mood.
As you walked down the stairs, big enough that Duo most likely wouldn’t
get scared not even once, you came into a sort of second living room.
It was just as big as Duo’s old apartment… ok maybe a
tad bit bigger. When Duo had moved from his apartment into my place,
he had to sell all of his furniture… he didn’t want me
to know, but I felt that he was a little sad to see all of his stuff
go. That’s why I ended up keeping the couches and television
in storage. Along with his kitchen table and other various items.
The basement was now arranged to look almost exactly like Duo’s
apartment. With a couple added things, there was only a wet bar where
the kitchen was, except no alcohol, just tons of soda‘s. Also
The walls were all black instead of the whitish color they used to
be. The carpet was also the same, and so was the location of Duo’s
bedroom. Since there were no windows down in the basement, I was having
a professional photographer go to Duo’s old apartment to take
pictures of the view he saw everyday. He would then blow up the images
and it would be framed in a long rectangle… it would look exactly
like a window.
I was even amazed at how well it turned out. You could barely tell
the difference from Duo’s old apartment… minus the fact
that the supposed ‘people’ out in the shopping centers
he could see from his window were not moving.
The bedroom however, I decided to make look like my old room in the
basement. With its five computers, bed (not small anymore, but queen
sized) and door off to the side. The door however, didn’t lead
to the balcony like at the ‘creepy’ house. This one led
to the bathroom, like Duo had assumed it did the first time he came
to my house. There was also a closet, which was where the secret passage
was, leading to the woods outside.
If everything went according to schedule, I would be able to present
it to him on Christmas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before I knew it, Christmas Eve was tomorrow.
The servants were all busy and frantically trying to pack up all
of their stuff for the move without being obvious to Duo. He seemed
to be getting a little suspicious as to why the servants would talk
in hushed voices and get wide eyes every time he walked by. He’d
of course complain to me, saying something was up with them! I could
barely hold back the smirk that wanted to come over my lips.
The next day, everyone was starting to move into their new rooms
at our new… estate. My stomach was starting to flutter with
nervousness as I worried whether or not Duo would like it. By the
time evening came, I was a jumbled mess inside and Duo had a big frown
on his face.
“Where is everyone?” He had asked, walking through the
kitchen to find it empty, void of all the cooks.
“It’s Christmas Eve, you don’t expect me to keep
them here do you?” He just bit his bottom lip and looked off
to the side. Yeah, he was definitely suspicious of something. I just
hoped he would hold off his curiosity until tomorrow.
Well, I managed to keep him busy for the rest of the night. Wasn’t
all the hard when you put some food in front of him and then drag
him to bed, mouth too occupied to ask any questions. Morning was what
I was now worried about. Christmas was only a couple hours away and
I found myself having a hard time sleeping. I cant remember a time
where I was this excited for a holiday, I’ve never really gotten
any presents before… not that I can remember anyway. But, this
year I even got presents from all of the servants. They were all sitting
under the tree at the new house. The tree used to be here, but I had
it moved yesterday afternoon to the new estate along with all the
servants. I wish I could have been there to see what they thought
of the house. It was definitely different.
Morning came to me opening my eyes to a frowning Duo.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling him back into
bed. He went stiff and glared at me when I chuckled.
I guess he finally figured out that the tree was missing.
“Are you going to tell me what is going on?” His arms
crossed as he sat straddling my waist. With a ‘your not getting
away until I get some answers’ expression plastered on his cute
little face.
“What do you mean?” I smirked, causing him to growl in
annoyance.
“Heero! The Christmas tree is gone! Our presents are gone!
The servants are ‘not’ here and their rooms are empty!”
He said, a little too quickly for my fuzzy ‘early morning’
brain to catch all of it.
“Hmm? Really?” I asked in mock surprise.
I think I got to him because he giggled slightly, bring his hand
to slap my shoulder playfully. His grin turned wicked as he leaned
in closer to me, capturing my mouth with his. “You…”
His tongue darted out to trace my bottom lip. “going…
to…” I could feel a moan escape my throat as his knee
pressed against my groan. “tell me… what’s going
on?” He pulled away then, causing me to growl at his teasing.
My hand reached out to pull him to me, but he just slapped it away.
“No, no… not until I get some answers.”
I rolled my eyes as I sat up, scooping him in my arms and walking
to our closet. Gently, I set him back on the ground and he looked
at me in confusion. “Get dressed.” Was all I said before
disappearing into the bathroom to take a quick ‘cold’
shower.
Twenty minutes later we were getting into one of the servants cars
I had asked to borrow. I hadn’t really bothered buying my own
yet, didn’t really see the use until now. Since the new estate
was a little more on the outskirts of town, it would probably be a
good idea to get one soon.
The drive was silent… I was too excited to speak, even if my
outward appearance looked calm, I was just the opposite. Duo hadn’t
taken his eyes off of me the whole time, looking at me suspiciously.
It was hell, that ten minute car ride. I was relieved when I saw the
dirt path that led the new house come into view. And was happy to
note that Duo wasn’t staring at me anymore, but eyes now widening
as the almost Victorian style light brown house came into view. It
had dark red bricks outlining the doorway, with four square pillars
making a small sort of walkway to the entrance.
I parked the car and Duo quickly jumped out before I even had the
engine off. His violet eyes looked to me in confusion. “Heero?”
I couldn’t hide the smile anymore and I could see his eyes
widen as I did so. Grabbing his hand, I pulled him to the entrance,
only pausing once to kiss him on the cheek before opening the door.
“Master Duo!” One of the maids was ready and waiting
at the door. Duo’s mouth dropped and I couldn’t resist
reaching up to push his chin back in place, shutting his mouth. “Can
I take your coat?” She asked, chuckling slightly at his confused,
shocked expression.
He just looked to me again, eyebrows raised. “Heero?”
“Ah! Master Duo!” Another maid came out from the dinning
room door before I could even start to explain to the braided boy
what was going on. “Breakfast is on the table.”
“Breakfast?” He asked, looking at me again. This time
with a nervous glare.
“Well aren’t you hungry?” I asked. “I sure
am.”
His arms were thrown up into the air and he let out a huge frustrated
sigh. He was about to say something but I cut him off. “We’ll
take breakfast in a little bit, I want to show Duo to our quarters
first.” I said, grabbing his hand, once again dragging him,
we went down past the living room to where the basement door was.
“Heero… did you… is this…” I pushed
a finger gently to his mouth as we stopped in front of the big oak
door. He stopped trying to speak, looking shocked to see the smirk
on my face.
My heart was pounding fast as we made our way down to the basement.
It was pitch black down there and I could feel Duo move closer to
me as I felt for the switch. I was a little hesitant to turn on the
lights, still a little afraid of his reaction. I mean, I wasn’t
all that sure he would like living here. My hand finally flicked the
lights on, they spilled across the room, showing the copy of Duo’s
apartment.
I could feel him stiffen beside me and my eyes turned to get a look
at him. He was standing there, wide eyed, mouth opening and closing
a couple times as if trying to say something. “This is…”
“Welcome home.” I said, interrupting him and pulling
him into a loose hug. He was shaking now and I pulled quickly away
to get a better look at him. “Are you alright?” I asked,
worried as I saw the tears starting to crawl down his pale cheeks.
“Heero? You did this?” His hand came up to wipe desperately
at his eyes as he asked this.
“A… Aa.”
“H-how… it’s my… I cant believe you did this…
it’s exactly…” Tears were now running freely down
his cheeks, him no longer trying to hold them in as he clung to me.
“Thank you… oh gods…”
“Shh.. calm down.” My hands came up to softly rub his
back, holding him tightly within my arms.
He pulled away just then, his bright smile filling my heart with
happiness. My hand was grabbed and he pulled me over to the couch.
I could see his eyes scanning the room and his smile only widened
as he said, “You made it black! Oh! How did you get the same
couches? Even have the stain where I dropped my jelly sandwich!”
I just chuckled and pulled him in for a kiss. “Merry Christmas.”
I think that was the first time I had ever said that to someone. It
made me feel warm inside as Duo eyes brightened and he looked like
he was going to cry again. “Now, don’t you want to see
the rest of our house?” I asked, pulling him up and leading
him to the bedroom.
“Damn! When did you do this? I cant believe I didn’t
even realize something was weird until a month ago!” That stopped
me and my eyebrow raised in question. “Oh, Maya and Fran were
really obvious. Kept talking in hushed voices. It was driving me nuts!”
He laughed as I growled slightly, annoyed that they could barely keep
the secret. “But I had no idea it was… holy crap!”
Duo’s mouth once again fell open as he stared at our bedroom,
the complete replica of what we were sleeping in early this morning…
except the bed was bigger.
I think breakfast was a little cold by the time we finally got around
to coming out of our little hole. Duo was running around examining
every little detail, the smile never left his face. I don’t
think I have ever been happier. I couldn’t wait to show him
all the secret passages. He was still a little adventurous kid inside,
and I knew he would love them. They were even lit and big so his claustrophobia
wouldn’t kick in. Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t tell him
about them… I’m sure he’d find them all sooner or
later. Yes, I am very evil sometimes.
Breakfast was another shocker for the poor Duo. Though it was a really
good one, he almost started crying again when he realized that everyone
would be eating together. I finally realized why he was so happy living
with all of the maids, and cooks… and always so friendly with
them. They had become apart of his family. Duo doesn’t have
many blood relatives, only Quatre really, but that never bothered
him. Since these people were just as good… and I couldn’t
be happier for him. He even started to call most of the maids Aunty…
one of the chef’s almost threw a bowl at him for calling him
gramps. It was really amusing, Duo kept insisting that he be called
gramps because he reminded him of a grandfather. The cook just grumbled,
complaining about youngsters and their lack of respect, but no one
could ever resist Duo’s charm for long and he ended up as the
official ‘Gramps’.
After breakfast consisted of me chasing the excited Duo through the
house. I was a little disappointed that he found the secret passages
‘already’. But as I saw his face, the wide smile and gleam
in his eyes, I forgot all about my disappointment. He even got ‘me’
feeling a little adventurous, and almost convinced me to play hide
and seek. I had sighed in relief when someone came and got us for
lunch. For some reason hiding in a closet didn’t appeal to me
much.
It wasn’t until way past dinner and the excitement had died
down again that we opened all the Christmas presents. There was a
lot, some of the staff stayed to share it with us since they didn’t
have family to go to. Duo had, of course, gotten a present for everyone.
I was a little worried about that, seeing as how he used his own money.
Must have used up a big chunk of what he earned. Not that he seemed
to care really, I don’t think he liked money all the much.
After a couple hours of eggnog and Duo literally passed out on the
couch, everyone finally hit the sack. I carried the exhausted boy
down to our room, grinning the whole time.
This was definitely the best Christmas I‘ve ever had.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I awoke the next morning to Duo, smiling down on me evilly. Somehow
he had managed to strip me naked without waking me. My eyes widened
as I realized I was tied down, arms and legs spread and attached to
the four bed posts. I struggled a little bit, which only made Duo
grin wider as I came to the conclusion that I would not be able to
get out of the constraints wrapped tightly around my wrists and ankles.
Damn. He had found the rope.
“You’ve been really naughty, Heero.” He said, tongue
flicking out to lick the side of my neck. “Keeping secrets from
me.” I shivered as his breath tickled my ear. “I don’t
like being left in the dark.” He purred against my ear. “Now…
what should I do to punish you?”
Turns out, we never made it to breakfast… or lunch. But we
did finally leave the bedroom after remembering that I had invited
the gang over.
They all came bearing presents and candy. A very excited Duo on a
sugar rush was amusing. Of course, he had to show them all of the
secret passages, *sigh*, so much for them being a secret. You know,
I never really considered Hilde, Wufei, Trowa and even Quatre as my
friends until Duo showed up. Sure, we did all of the ‘friend’
type things like hanging out… but we weren’t as close
as we were now, we didn’t share things then like we do now.
Even years later we all find time to go out and get together. Quatre
would usually be the one to call us all up and demand we go try out
a new restaurant. It nice, and I wish we could have done these things
more often, but everyone has become really busy people.
After graduating from college, Quatre finally took over the Winner
Corporation. That was a pretty hard time for Trowa and him. I think
they broke up for about a month, before getting back together. During
that time of separation, Trowa went off to decide where he wanted
to go in life. Duo had told me the main problem with their relationship
was that Trowa didn’t want to be dependant on Quatre for money.
He didn’t want to live with Quatre until he made something of
himself. After a month of “sulking” as Trowa had put it,
some of the paintings he was working on were sold. It was a small
start, but just enough to give him the confidence to go back to Quatre.
They still don’t live with each other… ok, so they do
in a way. But Trowa has his own studio apartment where he goes every
once in awhile to work without Quatre. They have a pretty complicated
relationship. I just hope that everything turns out alright, because
truthfully, they need each other.
When Duo had told me the whole story of why Trowa had left, I got
scared. It was because of the money that he left for a month…
and I don’t think I could deal with Duo leaving me for that
long. When I voiced my concern to him he just laughed at me and reassured
me it would take a hundred tow trucks to drag him away.
Duo was now working full time at his first job. It seems one of the
“Doctors” died and he was to take over the position. I
did eventually get around to figuring out where he worked, wasn’t
all that confidential as Duo had said. Most of the Military weapons
are voiced over the news nowadays anyway. Compliment of the Prime
Minister who supposedly worked hard to get the law passed. the Prime
Minister turned out to be none other than Relena Peacecraft, much
to me and Duo’s horror. We still saw her as the ditzy daydreamer
she was in high school. But, amazingly enough, she was actually extremely
intelligent. I just wonder who the psychiatrist was who saved her
poor soul.
Wufei and Hilde went to separate colleges, but somehow ended up getting
hitched halfway through. They had only invited us to their “After
Wedding” party. Truthfully, I think they went to Las Vegas,
got drunk and married with little knowledge of it until they sobered.
They seemed to be fighting non stop about something, wish I could
have known what. They got their act together soon enough though. Hilde
once had a pregnancy scare which almost put Wufei in the hospital
from shock. I don’t think he was ready for that step yet. Hilde
found it amusing and would mock complain non stop about how she wanted
kids and how they were “SO adorably scrumptious”…
or something along the lines of that.
I’ve probably changed the most out of everyone from High School.
Duo had said that when we go back to our reunion I was sure to get
the “Who the hell are you and what did you do with the nerd?”
award. Though I didn’t find it as amusing as he did… I
think he was trying to hint that I was a computer geek. Which happens
to be my job. I took over a small programming business, and also do
some part time graphic designing. Sure, I could have gotten better,
higher paying jobs, but they would have taken up too much of my time.
My time with Duo was very important to me.
The thing that changed the most about me is my personality. I somehow
managed to come out of my enclosed shell and contribute to conversations.
You should have seen the face Wufei made when I laughed at him as
he tripped one time. I don’t think he had ever heard me laugh
and was a little shocked. He even forgot all about the fact that Duo
was the one that had tripped him. I smile a lot more too… and
I realized it wasn’t as hard as it had seemed to be before.
I don’t know what I would have become if not for Duo.
Duo… he physically changed a lot. Had a growth spurt after
high school. Hair is still long, though I managed to convince him
to get it trimmed slightly and take out the split ends… which
he kept insisting weren’t there. He’s about a centimeter
taller than me now… which he loves to tease me about. His light
personality never seemed to change, he still loves to explore and
I catch him jumping on our bed every once in a while.
Quatre… I don’t think he changed much either. Oh, except
for he finally grew out of his clumsy stage. But everyone still remembers
how he used to be… and remind him every chance they get. Especially
Hilde, I’ve finally realized that she loves to see people suffer.
Her practical jokes can be sometimes wicked. I just hope that she
calms down soon or she will give Wufei a heart attack. I don’t
know how many times he called us up complaining about how she used
his “precious katana” to chop wood. Why she was chopping
wood in the first place was beyond me.
Trowa became pretty famous a couple years ago when he sold a painting
to a war memorial museum. I think he had called it “Heavy Arms”.
He earned quite a lot of money for that one. Don’t think he’d
ever have to leave Quatre again.
Wufei had matured a lot. He doesn’t blow up during a conversation
anymore. Doesn’t rant about the injustices of politics like
he used to. I think it’s because he became a police officer
and has to escort the Mayor around every once in awhile. Wufei and
Duo ‘still’ talk big around each other though. The funny
thing is that they never got around to having an actual fight like
planned so long ago. Don’t think they ever will, its become
some sort of joke between them now.
As I sat in my office, reminiscing about the past, my hand instinctively
went to pull out the gold chain from under my shirt. I played with
the shiny metal before clasping it tightly in my hand, a smile setting
on my lips as I remembered where I got it. A gold cross… Duo’s
gold cross. Something he always kept hidden from everyone, always
under his shirt. My first real Christmas… he had given it to
me. I think that still stands as one of the happiest days of my life…
because it was where I got my first ‘actual’ present from
Duo. The thing I will treasure until I die.
*******
The End
*******
Back to Part 17